Help! Fuse board gone nuts - lights flickering on and off.

[drjarmin]

My electrician that wired up my house is on his hols so, although I helped, I am not a qualified electrician (which will become more than apparent) but hope someone can advise as I can't get hold of him. I think this is a simple issue to an expert.

First noticed an issue as the lights in the house started to flicker intermittently.

Went to the fuse box and can hear a noise coming from it. It seems when any significant amount of power is drawn, there is sparking on the newtral return bar (see picture).

The screws are tight so there should be a good connection. This set up is about 2 years old from installation.

I have shut down ALL circuits except for the fridge. Any advice please? Thanks.

Could it be down to oxidisation stopping a good connection? Something as simple as that?

 

[Octopus]

Was this a recent rewire?

I'd get somebody in to take a look - where are you? I'm certain that there are many sparkies here who would be willing to pay you a visit!

 

[hasel5]

Is this in the uk or europe ?

would say its a bad connection on the neutral bar you really need to think about replacing the whole board and the incoming tails as looks from the pictures a bit of a bodge

 

[drjarmin]

New fuseboard and complete rewire installed about 2 years ago by a UK qualified electrician.

I'm in a remote part of Hong Kong - hence the panic and difficulty getting hold of someone. I'm not putting the a/c on for fear of putting any load on the circuit and its a bit hot and sticky here at the moment.

The sparking under that (corroded looking) screwhead must indicate a bad connection? But the screw is tight or am I missing something here.

Thanks!

 

[ebow72]

Is that mold on the white cable? Is it MICC? Is the CCU in a Cellar or Damp?

 

[drjarmin]

Hello Hasel5

In what way would you say it was a bodge? What is the issue with the tails? They look dirty but that is just mould which gets on everything after a couple of high humidity summers.

I suppose the bigger question - is this safe to last the night? As mentioned, I have shut down all the fuses except for the fridge as nowhere to put the frozen stuff. Seems to have stopped sparking.

Thanks.

 

[topquark]

My electrician that wired up my house is on his hols so, although I helped, I am not a qualified electrician (which will become more than apparent) but hope someone can advise as I can't get hold of him. I think this is a simple issue to an expert.
Best advice would be to get another electrician in asap!

First noticed an issue as the lights in the house started to flicker intermittently.

Went to the fuse box and can hear a noise coming from it. It seems when any significant amount of power is drawn, there is sparking on the newtral return bar (see picture).

The screws are tight so there should be a good connection. This set up is about 2 years old from installation.

I have shut down ALL circuits except for the fridge. Any advice please? Thanks.
That's a good start.

Could it be down to oxidisation stopping a good connection? Something as simple as that?

Unlikely to be oxidisation, could be a number of other things. Don't do it yourself, get someone in who can test it! You never know what else they may find

 

[RWJ]

That's not a neutral bar... Someone's used the earth bar as neutral. The bit "buzzing" is where you test Ze if it was still an earth bar..

Where are the earths teminated? or are they all SWA and banjos etc?

 

[hasel5]

You need the neutral bar replaced and the cable lugged and redone at the minuim

 

[telectrix]

turn off main isolator. undo the suspect neutral connection. cut away the dicoloured end. and strip insulation about 10mm. reconnect in N bar ( if the one it came out of is "burnt", connect into a spare terminal. refit cover and re-energise.