Not Good practice I know but

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lofty84

I changed my parents consumer unit to a new 17th eddition MK one a little while ago. Everything went well and when I turned it all back on there was no problems with any of the rcd tripping so it looked like everything was good and I knew what Iw as doing. Today though I was just being nosey and trying to work out this 2 way lighting mylarkey as its always confussed me so much so I always let someone else do it while I did something else. well anyway I turn of the mcb which I running the downstairs lights and on the right hand side rcd. the upstairs is on the left as you do. well having turned it off and watching the lights go out I set about undoing everything (taking a picture of it before of course) to see if I could work it all out (which I couldnt) and low and behold I got a bloddy shock. Im gonna sound a right cowboy but most of my tools are in my buddys van so I didnt have me voltage/continuity tester to double check and just plouged in as the lights had gone of but as I say I got a shock. Im thinking there must have been a borrowed neautral or something from the lights upstairs somewhere but Im not sure. I didnt want to turn the upstairs light breaker of and then touch it again to find out and obviously I didnt have my tester to see, so I just turnt everything of at the main switch terminated everything back together as per the photo and turned it back on where it all works as before.

Any ideas what is going on and am I right about it being down to a shared neautral somewhere. I will set about finding it if it is but I wont be that till i buy a mft

cheers
 
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lofty84 said:
Sorry Tony I missed this thanks for showing an interest. This is what happened mate

Basically I start a new job on Monday Im not sure how I got it but I did, so having had to go back into a office I thought I would try and work out this 2 way lighting mylarkey but half an hour later and after fraing what I saw in the switch at the bottom of the stairs and the top I decide I would move on.

As I say having got no where with that I thought Id have a look at the lighting in the dinning room.

In the dinning room there is two lights one on the left and one on the right really. when i flick the left switch the left light came on and when I flicked the right switch the right hand light turned on. right I thought I know what Ill do Ill rewire this so that when you flick the left switch the right hand light came on and when you flicked the rights hand switch the left light came on. I dont know why I wanted to do this maybee a bit of a confidence booster which sounds silly but I wanted to do it anyway.

so with both ligths switched on I went back the the board and flicked of the breaker which does the downstairs lighting and off they turnt. excellent. so i pull out my screwdriver and undo the 2 screws and set about undoing the termiations. out comes the cable in the left whcih had the red (live) going into the common and black (neautral aka switchline) I know that correct but confirmation would be good going into the 1 way hole, there is also a hole with 2 way above it but this has been left emty. I do the same for the right hand side and it is wired exactly the same as the left. anyway as i go to rewire it and touch the live cable (not sure which one) I got a shock

- - - Updated - - -


Start at the begining. What does this 2g switch in the dining room do? Which light does each side of the switch operate?
Click to expand...


Sorry Tony I missed this thanks for showing an interest. This is what happened mate

Basically I start a new job on Monday Im not sure how I got it but I did, so having had to go back into a office I thought I would try and work out this 2 way lighting mylarkey but half an hour later and after fraing what I saw in the switch at the bottom of the stairs and the top I decide I would move on.

As I say having got no where with that I thought Id have a look at the lighting in the dinning room.

In the dinning room there is two lights one on the left and one on the right really. when i flick the left switch the left light came on and when I flicked the right switch the right hand light turned on. right I thought I know what Ill do Ill rewire this so that when you flick the left switch the right hand light came on and when you flicked the rights hand switch the left light came on. I dont know why I wanted to do this maybee a bit of a confidence booster which sounds silly but I wanted to do it anyway.

so with both ligths switched on I went back the the board and flicked of the breaker which does the downstairs lighting and off they turnt. excellent. so i pull out my screwdriver and undo the 2 screws and set about undoing the termiations. out comes the cable in the left whcih had the red (live) going into the common and black (neautral aka switchline) I know that correct but confirmation would be good going into the 1 way hole, there is also a hole with 2 way above it but this has been left emty. I do the same for the right hand side and it is wired exactly the same as the left. anyway as i go to rewire it and touch the live cable (not sure which one) I got a shock[/QUOTE]

Bizarre! Hole??? do you mean 'terminal'?
 
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voltz stop being a show off

im lvl3 but the guys i worked with use to make me get on with something else even if they were doing something that I didnt know how to do even if I asked if I could watch em
 
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lofty84 said:
Ive completed the whole course 2330 level 3. no unfortuantely we never did anypractical with the college I was with. I would appologise about my spelling if I was actually bothered so please forgive me russty x


right ok Ive just got back from B&Q plus screw fix and brought everything the snowball put on that list, I also got a 4ft long by 2 ft wide piece of chipboard to mount it all onto. everyones probably gone out for the evening now or is spending it with the family so I might have to wait untill tommorow before I start to construct this.


JUst need to know how to go about laying it all out on the board now... is anyone willing to assist x
Click to expand...

Surely to God, if you do this for a living you should be able to put some accessories together on a bit of plywood?

One guy I worked for when I started out had a favourite saying. 'Just have a little think about it'.

You must be able to apply the principles of logic to the scenarios you will encounter day to day. 'THINK' about it!

It's only switching. Follow the electricity around the circuit. You will never get to where you want to be by relying on other people all the time.

Perhaps you think I'm being mean, but I can't believe you haven't been roasted alive on this forum by now.

Just think how chuffed you will be when you get it all working, having worked it out by yourself. Then you will truly understand the concept behind it and this will help you correctly wire up circuits in the real world, and also fault find and rectify (starting with your own house).
 
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no offence mate but as mentioned earlier if you cant make up a practice rig for a simple two way lighting switch you should not be changing consumer units. and some times u have to think on your feet especially being an electrician your learning everyday and come across things you havent done before. give the practice rig a try though mate but try and figure some off it out your self.hopefully constructive criticism.
 
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Press the insert image button and upload the picture.

Looks like this: insertimage.png
 
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A bit bum licky, but one of the best posts I've seen on here!
VoltzElectrical said:
Surely to God, if you do this for a living you should be able to put some accessories together on a bit of plywood?

One guy I worked for when I started out had a favourite saying. 'Just have a little think about it'.

You must be able to apply the principles of logic to the scenarios you will encounter day to day. 'THINK' about it!

It's only switching. Follow the electricity around the circuit. You will never get to where you want to be by relying on other people all the time.

Perhaps you think I'm being mean, but I can't believe you haven't been roasted alive on this forum by now.

Just think how chuffed you will be when you get it all working, having worked it out by yourself. Then you will truly understand the concept behind it and this will help you correctly wire up circuits in the real world, and also fault find and rectify (starting with your own house).
Click to expand...
 
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Toby Kuhnert said:
How on earth did you pass 2330 Level 3 when not doing any practical?? Level 2 has an entire unit containing a 2 1/2 day practical exam. and you need L2 to gain entry to L3???? ...
Click to expand...

People won't like it, but this another perfect example of why the demise of the trade is not all about Electrical Trainee... This guy has done the 2330 but can't understand basic circuits and thinks nothing of changing a CU without testing. There are plenty of fast track guys on here who would never dream of working like that...
 
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Toby Kuhnert said:
How on earth did you pass 2330 Level 3 when not doing any practical?? Level 2 has an entire unit containing a 2 1/2 day practical exam. and you need L2 to gain entry to L3???? ...
Click to expand...

Doesn't make sense does it? It's a central requirement of the qualification. Full booth of lighting, and ring final, SWA, tube and singles, trunking, Consumer unit, all from scratch, photographed and tested.

I did it all first time around Level 2 Performing Electrical Operations, or something like that, then again level 3 2330. And again AM2. Then on site again NVQ level 3.

IMO you can't gain 2330 WITHOUT doing booth install. Dunno what OP has done, but he's missed something out somewhere.
 
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