Tell us about your faults!

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Tell us about your faults!

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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.:D
There you go now for yours !
 
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HI, first post so treat me gently please! At work we have a moveable electric hoist unit that travels round and gets plugged in via a fly lead on a spring loaded cable extension drum to one of various sockets. The sockets are fed as a radial and are 3P+N+E, all fed from the same 4-pole 30ma RCD. The oddity to me is that the hoist itself has a 500ma RCD i.e. after the 30mA RCD. We KNOW we have a fault somewhere on the hoist itself and are looking into that. What I can't figure though is why the RCD's are this way round, it goes against the principles of discrimination to my mind. Neither RCD is anything special that I know i.e. time delayed etc. Not suprisingly when it faults the 30mA trip at the dis. board is generally the one to go (I'm not personally there to investigate). The install is probably nearly 20 years old so I can only guess regs then were less stringent. To my mind there is a pretty high risk of the hoist electrical cables being crushed etc and posing a risk to the operator. I've looked at my regs and OSG and appreciate all the bits about it being commercial premises and under the supervision of skilled / instructed workers etc so possibly allowing for omission of RCD's. Rough plan is to check out that the 500mA RCD is working correctly (with an RCD tester), find the fault causing the 30mA to trip and then we're back to having it working but again with the 500mA RCD. As an aside the socket outlets would have been done by the builder and the hoist supplied by A N Other contractor. Hope this makes sense. Any thoughts please on why the RCD's could be this way round? Main issue is, is it considered "safe" with the 500mA jobbie in place. Thanks.
 
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You hit the nail on the head, the age of the equipment. The 500mA RCD doesn’t protect the cable at all, the 30mA is doing everything. So this may sound a bit drastic, chuck the 500mA away. What do you need it for? PS would like to see you test it, the 30mA will have operated long before the 500mA has even thought of doing anything! Unless you bridge the 30mA to do the tests.
 
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This was on a small private wharf, where I was asked to add a hookup point for a second boat.

DCP03244.JPG DCP03242.JPG

A "keen volunteer" did the original installation for them - on the outside of the shed. It was "waterproofed" by a piece of plastic sheet draped over the board. It brings a whole new meaning to special location.

No RCD, Boat supply from TNCS not TT, borrowed neutral on lights, back of cu open to fingers etc., everything wired either in 2.5 T&E or odd bits of flex, mysterious taped up cables... I could go on, but won't.

I explained that a few other bits and pieces needed to be done before I could add the second hookup point. They agreed.
 
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Can anyone help me with a problem I came across regarding a Radioteleswitched meter.

I got called to a house because the storage heaters weren't working. I check the circuit breakers and all were on, tho noticed that the internal breakers of the radioteleswitch meter were tripped, resetting it, the heaters worked again. I got called out 2 weeks later for the same problems. After resetting the meter, I discovered one of the storage heaters wasn't working, after having a closer look I found that the thermal cut out had melted, is there any reason this would cause the meter to trip rather than the circuit breaker?
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hi, I'm new tothis - I need to do 6 posts to get me started apparently. I’d like to asksomeone’s advice about my bathroom window extractor fan.
The glazierinstalled the window with the fan about 2 years ago, I done the electrics.
When I firstswitched it on it appeared faulty. It took about 5 minutes to work. It seemedto be ok after that (but a bit noisy) but recently it occasionally doesn’t startup until a few minutes after power up.
Anyone got anysuggestions?
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

Got called to a house the other day, fault on ring final.

Have you had any work done recently?

Yeah i had some shelves put up on friday

When did the eletric go?

Friday

SOme clever b@stard only put up shelves above a CU in the cupboard, went straight through two legs of the ring on two sets of shelves!! Still, keeps us in work ;-)
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

Got called to a house where the tennant was getting tingles from her sink. tt installation and the previous occupier had cut the main earth cable from the rod and strung it out to a tree to use as a washing line.

Do I win a pen?
 
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Re: Tell us about your faults !

swordfish said:
Got called to a house where the tennant was getting tingles from her sink. tt installation and the previous occupier had cut the main earth cable from the rod and strung it out to a tree to use as a washing line.

Do I win a pen?
Click to expand...

No, sorry, you don't win a pen.
No where near being silly enough for a prize :-D
 
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when I worked on Faith Zone on the Dome.
time to turn some circuit on (you know guy jobs pressing and all that, it'll be tested later)
the circuit is energised, and the lights don't work
we pull apart the Klik rose and still no supply
double check the cable makings, and all should be good
we decide that it must be a dodgy MCB and so decide to change it.
removing the Dist board cover I see for the first time the fault.
On the Merlin Gerin Isobar4 range there is a slider which Isolates the MCB.
This is a safety feature so that the exposed busbars (when a MCB isn't fitted) is not live, and so we can change an MCB on a live board.

I have worked on loads of these boards since then and like them alot

(btw I didn't put the board away that was someone else)
 
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i went to a house that had had a fire in a bedroom many years before .so a new plaster board ceiling had been put up when i went into the attic the rubber live and neutral which had been burnt then over the years had craced ,so there was a bare live and neutral latind across the ceiling millimetres apart
 
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The girlfriends dad rings me up the other day saying theyve got no upstairs lights in the house working! I asked him if the MCB had tripped maybe due to a lamp blowing? He said no the MCB is switched on! ok so I said id come and have a look for him, so the first thing i checked was if there was power on the circuit side of the MCB, my voltage indicator was showing 0V! Strange the MCB was on, I switched the MCB off then on and retested, now showing the correct voltage! I later found out that my girlfriend had switched her bedroom light on first thing in the morning and a lamp had popped in the fitting and tripped the lights, but she didnt decide to tell me that! Quite an easy fault the breaker had tripped but not operated the switch on the front, must be a faulty mechanism! I changed the MCB for a new one just to avoid any confusion if it was to happen again, never came across this myself!
 
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Specialist said:
Hi Clicon: Possibly your post #631 about the roof hoist ?

Did you get the fault sorted in the end ?
Click to expand...

Thought so, wasn't sure. Not working on it personally but the fault seems to be not on the 400V winch or it's 230V control gear but with a supply flat cable on a catenary. They have managed to get it working and NOT tripping with a 30mA RCD in place fed from known "good" cabling. Trying that same RCD on site with the now suspect feed cabling and it tripped continuosly.
 
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Situation: Light not working in 4th floor bin chute room
No power to light fitting
Nothing tripped at FB
Power at switch
all over floors bin chute rooms lights working??
What am i missing?
 
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clicon357 said:
Specialist said:
Faults in situations like that can be an absolute pig to find at times, did they remove the 500ma RCD in the end & just leave it with the 30ma ?[/QUOTE

It's not all back and running yet. Will update when I hear. Hopefully if they find where its going down and fix that they will be able to leave the 30mA in place.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, i'd be interested to find out how it turns out.
Click to expand...
 
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Thanks specialist - Each chute room has it's own switch, it's just dead at the fitting, no power, but there is power at the switch. 2 reds at the switch but at the fitting 3 reds and 1 yellow in one connector block then a black with red tape, neutral and earth going into fitting
 
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So are the 3 Reds & 1 yellow the switch return & L loops out to other fittings ? If you've got live In / Out at the switch but no live at the fitting, have you checked for any joints inside conduit boxes that might have come loose ?
 
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Well that's what i would assume, but if there are 2 reds at the switch where did the black switch line come from? As you say there might be some joint hidden somewhere but It's all plaster boarded up, must admit i was a bit rushed when i was there, ran out of money and the van was in a pay & display, but to tell the truth even if i wasnt rushed i'd still be there scratching my head now! Checked at the fittings on the floors above and below to see if anything had come loose but nothing!!
 
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