Light fitting wired up wrong. Blown fuse? Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[mooch]

My in-laws tried to change a light fitting in their flat. When I got there none of the lights were working and when I looked a the wiring it was all wrong. Could this have blown a fuse in the fusebox as now that i've wired it correctly, the lights still don't work?

It was:

light fitting LIVE to home's loop LIVE,

home's EARTH to home's other loop LIVE,

light fitting NEUTRAL to home's NEUTRAL

and

home's switched LIVE on its own.

I changed it to

light fitting LIVE to home's switched LIVE,

light fitting NEUTRAL to home's NEUTRAL,

home's loop LIVE to home's other loop LIVE

and

home's EARTH on its own.

I believe that's correct.

The old fitting had an EARTH, but the new one didn't, should I take the earth from the old one and use it on the new one, attaching it to home's EARTH?

The fuses in the fusebox are little cannister like jobbies rather than wire, I don't have anything to test them. If it is the fuses, can I just go buy some replacements at the DIY store or should I test them first.

Thanks in advance.

[TOPSPARK]

It sounds like you have cartridge fuses in your mains board,As you have no means of testing the continuity of the fuses i would suggest you goto an electrical wholessalers with cartridge and they will supply you with the correct rated fuse.
regards
Topspark

[kbrownie]

mooch,
The fuse should have blown, you can buy them from most DIY stores and Electrical wholesalers.
It's BS1361 Cartridge fuse your after rated at probally 6 Amps. Check your fuse box, maybe some dis-colouring on the the fuse or fuse holder!
Regards
KB

[ericmark]

What you say all seems to make sense. So to fuses I would buy one of each size so you have one to change in the future if they blow. Most likely the 5/6 amp fuse has blown. There is another option if Wylex in you can get MBC's to replace fuses technically this would be Part P and should be done by a registered electrician or by registering with council first. Yet if you were replacing existing MCB's that were faulty then it would not require Part P and no difference in job one of those daft things but I would be wrong not to tell you.
On the other hand if your father-in-law is a fiddler and you want to keep him around it may be a good idea to get the whole consumer unit changed to one with RCD's this is not a DIY job and it would require a registered electrician but would offer more protection to people who fiddle.
All best Eric

[mooch]

Thanks for all the responses.

I spoke to an electrician this morning, who agreed it should be a simple case of replacing the cartridge fuse (providing my description of the wiring was correct) and if that didn't fix it, to give him another call.

My father-in-law didn't want to trouble us to go shopping for the fuse so he just got the electrician in to do it. Nice bloke by all accounts and he also managed to rewire some switches for the landing which were wrong apparently. All at no extra cost. So if nothing else, they found a good reliable electrician.

And I'm thankful for finding diydoctor. Thanks again all.