Tell us about your faults!

[kung]

Hi ALL
Just thought id put this one up for all those faults we find.
heres one to kick it off !
Domestic RCD tripped and wouldnt reset cause was a blown low energy light bulb.
There you go now for yours !

 

[Ohmyword]

Got called out one new years eve many years ago - the customer said that her kids were getting shocks when climbing into the bath.
Checked the cast iron bath to earth and their was no voltage present.

I noticed that the carpet was very wet so put my volt meter probes between the bath and the carpet and found that there was about 75 volts.

I moved my probe across the carpet and the voltage started to increase as I got closer to the toilet.
Put my probe directly on one of the screws that held down the toilet, and bingo I got 240V.

Turned off the power, removed the screw, powered back up and the voltage had disappeared.

Floorboards came up next and I found that the screw which was about 6" long had gone straight through the cooker cable which was running through a hole in the joist below. Bloody plumbers !

By the time I got back home new years eve was almost over and I was the only one who was sober !

Think of the money you saved AND NO HANGOVER ;-)

 

[Mr.Si]

Is there a prize for spotting all the faults?!

Go for it

Just to add insult, it's a 1 way lighting circuit and there are 2 reds and 1 black at the switch, which, is actually a 2 way intermediate switch too...



How irritating.

Is this an old fashioned way of doing things? (surely a 1 way switch is only ever 2 wires (live feed and s/w) or do we wonder if there was another switch hidden away somewhere?!
Well, it's a rewire job anyway...

 

[Wiredspark]

Last week I was changing a 110v DC Emergency light system over to a 230v AC. Here are some of the things I found.

1. The Battery cubicle was not connected via a phase monitor and therefor both Blue and Yellow could have gone down and there would be no Em Lts.

2. After disconnecting all the existing fittings (one circuit at a time) I IR'd the pyros and found them to be dead short. So I popped up every other ceiling tile in the place to trace the pyros to each besa box and eventually found that there were fittings that because a corridor had been built onto the place where the old exit was, the fitting had just been ----ed up above the ceiling tiles. So these were disconnected.

3. Ir'ing the circuits again found that they were still shorting so each leg had to be disconnected untill faulty pyros were found, disconnected, new leg run and and terminated and eventually Ir'd clear.

4. Once this was done I found fitting that had no key switch. Fittings that had a key switch but it had been disconnected by "the local guy" so he could fit a PIR in the room and several fittings which were fitted outdoors full of water with the pyro's entering through the top of the fitting. (I know this isnt against the regs but surely you'd bring them in the bottom to stop water lying on the fitting in and around the pyro gland lessen the chance of ingress)

5. When the additional buildings had been built they had forgot to fit Em Lts to the Em exits.



edit: was number 5

 

[kingficer]

I have to think more about this....

 

[timtomted]

low energy lamp keeps flickering after being turned off ?? this is happening on 2 lamps on 2 seperate circuits ?? The lamp on each circuit both happened to be 2 wayed.. i have replaced the strappers ...

 

[kingficer]

Its really helpful for me and the other beginners.....

thanks....

working at height training, Work At heights

 

[Ohmyword]

Go for it

Just to add insult, it's a 1 way lighting circuit and there are 2 reds and 1 black at the switch, which, is actually a 2 way intermediate switch too...

View attachment 10821

How irritating.

Is this an old fashioned way of doing things? (surely a 1 way switch is only ever 2 wires (live feed and s/w) or do we wonder if there was another switch hidden away somewhere?!
Well, it's a rewire job anyway...

Never assume anything, it could save your life!
You don't say where this switch is located. Sometimes you find bedrooms have been refurbished and a 2way cord pull switch has been left above the new ceiling.
I suppose it doesn't have to be a bedroom..... Perhaps the building has been ';worked on' and a switch has been 'bridged out' or plastered over? Or both???

 

[Ohmyword]

low energy lamp keeps flickering after being turned off ?? this is happening on 2 lamps on 2 seperate circuits ?? The lamp on each circuit both happened to be 2 wayed.. i have replaced the strappers ...

Sorry I don't have an answer for you - but to let you know that I too have experienced this annoying phenomenom. I just replaced the low-energy lamp with a GLS lamp

 

[plugsandsparks]

Got a call late from a lovely old lady, "Theres a loud whoosing noise coming from the bathroom lights"
Me - Have you turned the lights off?"
Lady - Yes an its still mking the noise.
Me - OK get a torch and turn the breaker off for the lights.
Lady - done that its still there.
Me - OK turn all breakers off
Lady - Done that its still there.
Me - OK turn everything back on, its not electrical.
Me - hold the phone close to the noise - I hear a very loud noise that sounds like running water.
Me - Does it sound like water to you?
Lady - yes it does a bit...
Me - OK turn the water off at the stopcock under the sink.
Lady - Done that its still making the noise.
Me - OK, i will have to come over, be there is 20mins
Gentleman - Its OK, we have found the noise, it was the electric toothbrush inside the bathroom cabinet.
Me - Oh.......

BTW - they are my parents

 

[nickblake]

LOL nice one i had one a customer ranting an raving over a mains powered smoke detector which was bleeping i took the head off and battery out and said it was still bleeping , they were EI mains battery ones , he said it was comming from the base so shooting over there sure enough there was a bleep , it was not the smoke detector after about half an hour of waiting and listening for the bleep it was located to an old battery smoke detector in a box under one of the kitchen units laugh oh yes

 

[plugsandsparks]

I live in a small village so do get referred.
Got a call from a guy who knew me and suggested i call an retired lady who was having some trouble with lights.
OK i call her and arrange a visit.
Me - whats the problem
Lady - Hall light will not work.
I have a look and find there are no lamps in the holders.
Me - There are no lamps do you have any?
Lady - yes i have some here.
I put them in and no joy.
I then discover the hall chandelier does not have any internal wiring in it, but the connection block was still in the rose as per normal
Me - err there's no wiring, has someone been to look at it before.
Lady - err well a chap had a look at it
Me - OK but it could never have worked so what was he trying to fix.
Lady - no comment
Lady - oh the dining room wall lights don't work either and come to think of it the porch and outside lights dont work either.
Me - uck a duck.... after lots of tests and head scratching suspected a neutral had disappeared. Tried in vain to find it and even lay a temporary neutral across the floor just to confirm it was just one fault that was causing all these lights to fail.
Anyway after numerous cups of tea and the old lady wishing she had never mentioned the problem with the lights i concluded no one had been upstairs and done anything from above so it must be a problem from below. Anyway i went back to the bizare chandelier and poked around behind the ceiling and i eventually felt the existance of an extra wire. About an hour later i had managed to fiddle around and get the wire back through the hole in the ceiling and connected up to the other neutrals and hey presto.
Felt really bad charging her for the time it took but left her with some advice to always call an electrician rather than.......

 

[Mr.Si]

Never assume anything, it could save your life!
You don't say where this switch is located. Sometimes you find bedrooms have been refurbished and a 2way cord pull switch has been left above the new ceiling.
I suppose it doesn't have to be a bedroom..... Perhaps the building has been ';worked on' and a switch has been 'bridged out' or plastered over? Or both???

Investigation in the loft showed that it was indeed pre-wired for 2 way lighting, but it wasn't terminated very well, it was just a cut wire with electrical tape over it.



Removed and made safe now. 1 way lighting installed with a lovely lightwaverf dimmer switch and a remote.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II via Tapatalk

 

[plugsandsparks]

Was doing a routine PIR on an industrial site that had its own 11KV substations.
Started at the MDB in the substation and just doing the Zdb and PSC and got a reading of 0.18 for Zdb. Thought oh dear, that does not look good for all the D type breakers out in the factory, therefore it must be my meter as the transformer is next door less than 20ft away. Anyway checked another MDB that was on another transformer and got 0.02 so thought well its not my meter after all.
Asked the resident electrician to find me a D40 type circuit out in the factory and sure enough ZS was well over spec. Went back to the transformer and took off the terminal cover and put the meter directly on the transformer terminals and still 0.18.
Checked impedance using neutral and got a decent reading (0.01).
Stopped the PIR as there was little point going forward and got the chief electrical engineer out and after a bit of head scratching we concluded that the earth inside the transformer was not good. We bonded the earth to neutral in the MDB and i carried on with the PIR, no idea how long it was like that but just goes to show - in this job always a surprise waiting around the corner

 

[spod]

Hi Just want to hello as I'm new to the forum & to say that this is good thread to read, cheers

 

[rich.250]

Found this last night, she's a beauty LOL

Found in a db

 

[plugsandsparks]

Ha brilliant, had one about 9 years ago in a house Cu, it was tripping the RCD, one paw was on live and the other was on the earth bar, not a rodent type myself had to get the client to remove it, yuck

 

[Kiers1970]

Replaced a shower a few years ago, the punters told me they were in the shower and it burst into flames, their solution to this, point the shower head at the shower, whilst still standing naked in the bath.......lucky!

 

[timtomted]

Hi Just want to hello as I'm new to the forum & to say that this is good thread to read, cheers

Hi Spod im a new member and aint got a clue how to find answers to my posts, did you reply to my prob if so i dont know where to find it. timtomted

 

[Silly Sausage]

Replaced a shower a few years ago, the punters told me they were in the shower and it burst into flames, their solution to this, point the shower head at the shower, whilst still standing naked in the bath.......lucky!

It's probably exactly what I would've done as well!

 

[QSGAZ]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Following a recent inspection i found this breaker supplying a single phase board.