fault finding ring main.

[underpar12]

testing ring main on a house about 35 years old.one ring main for all the house plus extension plus garage. no continuity on phase conductor, dead short on nuteral to earth I,R test . concrete floors down laminate up.checked all skts for loose conections,no luck. split ring on to two 20amps diferrent sides of r,c,d. trips when a load is on, mutiple rings , back to one 20amp start disecting ring ,suspect lots of jbs,any advise or sugestions many thanks.already disconnected garage to check separetly.plus all spurs visable.

 

[Guest123]

If you have split the rings....did you also pick sockets at which to split neutrals and earths otherwise the RCD will see a "borrowed neutral" between the two radials and both RCD's will trip.

 

[Des 56]

Take a trailing lead from one of the ring legs at the consumer unit and using an adator or plug ,test the sockets for contiuity of that leg,keeping a note of their location(dont forget switching the sockets on )
Do the same with the other leg and compare the located results
This should indicate roughly where the lost live is located
Reinstate legs at consumer unit and concentrate your testing in the end of radial locations

You have my sympathy,ring continuity losses can make you go giddy, going around in circles with it all

By doing the above,if you do have to make 2 radials,you now know whereabouts the split has to be made on the neutral conductor as well

 

[underpar12]

did try spliting nuterals at a couple of different places on ring, no joy mutiple jbs,

 

[Andyfm]

Tell your customer they`re spoilt for choice - laminate up or ceiling down
Seriously , you have to locate where the faults are on the legs, then disconnect the damaged sections and see what that leaves working on 2 radials, if they`re not happy with losing x number of sockets then back to my first line

 

[underpar12]

only had the visit because an old 3036 fuse ,when blown sparked caught the coats on fire and then melted all the cu in the cupboard.all the best jobs?

 

[billy110]

Tell your customer they`re spoilt for choice - laminate up or ceiling down

I like the spoilt for choice option!