Hi everyone,
Not an electrician myself, but seeking knowledge, a second opinion and/or advice on the necessity to take action. Hope this is the right forum - please forgive me if not.
We had a big fright today. Post refurbishment work, we put a kettle on in the kitchen and didn't realise it had gotten some water into the base. Clearly that must have messed with it because the breaker tripped and every socket in the flat went without current. So far so good, fusebox working as intended, and kettle about to be replaced.
What's worrisome is what happened next. While we were trying to figure out what was up (didn't immediately get it was the kettle) my partner flicked a light switch on in an adjacent room, and got a big shock (not static, a proper painful, scary one).
The lights are on a different circuit breaker from the sockets, and it hadn't tripped, and didn't trip even when my partner was shocked.
The switch itself is metallic rather than plastic, and it's new (we've been in the flat for years but our previous switches were plastic.) We have several switches of that same make now.
Once the kettle was unplugged, everything went back to normal, and the switches now work properly.
That said, I'm very wary now. It was my understanding that a properly earthed switch, even a metallic one, shouldn't lead to that sort of incident.
Basically, my question is: shall we chalk it up to bad luck/defective kettle/bad practice having it too close to the sink, and try to forget about this?
Or is it more probable there is a wiring issue somewhere, and should I call a licensed electrician to have it checked?
Not an electrician myself, but seeking knowledge, a second opinion and/or advice on the necessity to take action. Hope this is the right forum - please forgive me if not.
We had a big fright today. Post refurbishment work, we put a kettle on in the kitchen and didn't realise it had gotten some water into the base. Clearly that must have messed with it because the breaker tripped and every socket in the flat went without current. So far so good, fusebox working as intended, and kettle about to be replaced.
What's worrisome is what happened next. While we were trying to figure out what was up (didn't immediately get it was the kettle) my partner flicked a light switch on in an adjacent room, and got a big shock (not static, a proper painful, scary one).
The lights are on a different circuit breaker from the sockets, and it hadn't tripped, and didn't trip even when my partner was shocked.
The switch itself is metallic rather than plastic, and it's new (we've been in the flat for years but our previous switches were plastic.) We have several switches of that same make now.
Once the kettle was unplugged, everything went back to normal, and the switches now work properly.
That said, I'm very wary now. It was my understanding that a properly earthed switch, even a metallic one, shouldn't lead to that sort of incident.
Basically, my question is: shall we chalk it up to bad luck/defective kettle/bad practice having it too close to the sink, and try to forget about this?
Or is it more probable there is a wiring issue somewhere, and should I call a licensed electrician to have it checked?