Guess The Fault Competition

securespark · 18 Nov 2008

Today I visited a property.

The customer was complaining of voltage drop when a hefty appliance was used on the ground floor ring final.

He said that fluorescent lights would dim & appliances with motors would slow down.

I plugged my trusty Alphatek into the cooker control unit & it read 237V. Fair enough.

Then I asked the customer to plug a kettle into the GF RF & switch on.

Sure enough, the voltage plummeted to 199V.

What fault did I find?

Spark123 · 18 Nov 2008

Loose tail?

Lectrician · 18 Nov 2008

Alphtek batteris flat

RF Lighting · 18 Nov 2008

4.0mm² T&E supplying the CU from the meter?

hairyben · 18 Nov 2008

Spark123 said:
Loose tail?

Or, given its GFR specific, dodgy busbar/feed connection/setup?

tSpark · 18 Nov 2008

aA 100kw Kettle with a 15,000litre capacity (big tea drinkers living downstairs)

securespark · 18 Nov 2008

What I actually found was two problems.

There's a bit of a clue....

Spark123 · 18 Nov 2008

Two loose tails?

OK - maybe the sockets were wired off the lighting circuit and had a solid metal link in instead of a fuse?

hairyben · 18 Nov 2008

securespark said:
What I actually found was two problems.

There's a bit of a clue....

The kettle didn't boil and you couldn't have a cuppa?

hairyben · 18 Nov 2008

I'm thinking some weird F'ed up polarity reversal plus neutral fault somewhere that we'd never guess in a billion years.

I had a feeling this would be a double, the best ones always are.

securespark · 18 Nov 2008

Don't drink tea or coffee, so that's not it!!

RF Lighting · 18 Nov 2008

N>E fault on kettle

L&N reversed at incommer

Zs 3.29 ohms at the socket

ricicle · 18 Nov 2008

Problem with tails connection into main switch or main switch on to busbar/outgoing N link?? (wrong side of clamp/s)

ricicle · 18 Nov 2008

Lost Neutral - return path through high resistance earth? (no RCD)

tSpark · 18 Nov 2008

faulty PEN, obscure return path??? dodgy alphatek

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Guess The Fault Competition

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