Whats going on here? - Live and earth reverse from Tester

[DrCliffie]

Hi Guys
This is my first post so please go easy on me .
I have basic knowledge of domestic electrical installations and I'm not just a diy nutter, so I was quite prepared to swap a socket in my own house.
Here's what happened.
I was in Plumbfix when I saw a promotion for double sockets with USB outlets built in,............
I checked the current socket with a simple plug in tester...3 lights all good.. I know I should turn off the power first, but i unscrewed the plate to see where the cables were routed. The neutral wires were not tightly fixed but this lead to me pulling them clear as I didn't want to trip the rcd before i isolated the curcuit, When I separated the two neutral wires I noticed a small spark. This seemed odd, so I checked them for voltage, there appears to be 240v between the two neutrals that were in the same terminal of the socket, but virtually no ampage. Unsure of what this meant or what to do, I isolated and capped the cable with the voltage refitted the "Good" neutral, checked with the socket tester again and left it so I could quiz my normal sparks.Who is on holiday for 3 weeks ( clearly paid too much):smiley2: This is not the end of my woes, now the other sockets on one side of the affected one don't work and the tester shows "live and earth reverse" .
Anyone have any idea as to what's going on? I'm genuinely confused!

 

[Risteard]

You are not competent to carry out this work. Call an Electrician who isn't on holiday without delay.

 

[Darkwood]

Welcome to the forum

Firstly what you are doing is dangerous, both because of the shock risks and the fact you lack the knowledge here hence you don't understand the voltage reading on the N and why they sparked....

The voltage you measured is because you broke the circuit which had a load attached, in splitting the N you have seen the potential rise on the N connected to a load and this is just as likely to kill you as touching any other Live wire, I apologise for seeming blunt here but your basic knowledge here is making you over-confident and putting you at risk, as electricians we have to isolate and test safe before doing what you are doing because we are well aware of the hazards. How did you know as you pulled that socket forward that a live may have pulled free and if not touched you it could have shorted out thus you could have had vapourised metal blown into your face.

You are messing with things you clearly from our perspective, have little understanding of, call in a competent person to carry out any electrical work in future before you do yourself or family some harm.

EDIT - It is for your safety and from our point of view that you are putting yourself in danger due to your lack of understanding and the fact you are playing with live wires that I am closing the thread.

Please do not mess with things you have little knowledge of, its not just a case of knowing what colour goes where.

 

[telectrix]

as above. you've ballsed it up so get a competent electrician in to sort it.

 

[derek]

And give your self a slap any time you think about doing some electrical work, it won't kill you like an electric shock could!