live neutral

[Blaster]

i know i will be letting myself in for some flak from the sparkies.........but i have just found a fault on my upstairs ring main.whilst plastering a bedroom i found it eaisier to remove the sockets.....without turning off the power ,all went fine ,removed the live and insulated. removed the neutral but when they separated they arced and the upstairs ring went dead even though the mcb didnt trip reconnected both neutrals and the ring became live,took off all other socket on circuit to check if any wires wrongly connected but found no faults, only one of the nuetrals live and strangly only one of the lives live if there is anyone who could help i would appreciate it...........im also looking forward to the flak

 

[Spark123]

Ok, firstly you should not be working on the circuit with the power on, under any circumstance. Neutral is classed as a live conductor and must be treated with the same amount of care as a phase (what you call live) conductor. It is sounding like a broken neutral conductor on the ring to me, but for god sake use a multimeter and turn the power off before starting to trace the fault.

 

[Blaster]

i know it was stupid of me but we have been living in this property for 8 years and this fault would not have shown up otherwise,could you say if it is still safe to use,or would it be wise to isolate at cu

 

[Spark123]

At the risk of overloading the cables on the ring circuit I would say it is best to isolate and find the fault, one likely cause is the neutral not being in properly in another socket somewhere in the house, you can fault find it yourself or call in an electrician.

 

[Blaster]

thanks spark123

 

[Blaster]

its taken most of the day taking all the sockets off but whoever rewired the house ran the cables without much care so much so the upstairs ring includes 3 sockets downstairs i think your right i can do straight forward wiring but fault finding with a multi-meter is a bit advanced

 

[securespark]

If you lose power when breaking the "ring" at a socket outlet, it suggests you do not have a ring. Unless you have broken it in more than one place...

 

[Blaster]

no only one socket removed at a time .....separate the neutrals on any of ring and they all go dead........remove 1 live from mcb sockets still work replace and remove 2nd live sockets still work

 

[RF Lighting]

That definatly sounds like an open circuit on the neutral.

Do you have a multimeter?

 

[Blaster]

yes and its very useful for testing batteries...........it didnt come with instuctions searched internet for decent tutorials but no luck so far as george micheal once said..........here's a million quid, can i stick this up your b*m

 

[JohnD]

If you have a digital camera or a scanner and can post a pic of the front of the meter, it might be a common type. Show its label/knob/terminals and any buttons

 

[RF Lighting]

as george micheal once said..........here's a million quid, can i stick this up your b*m

A new signature for securespark perhaps?

 

[Steve]

reminds me of the time i was helping a guy fit a kitchen. we had all the sockets off cos some were in the cupboard, power was off to the ring main. then he realised he needed to charge his drill, so he was going around seperating all the cores and connected one socket back up. Then i said to him "why dont you use the cooker socket" my intelligence amazes me sometimes, honestly!

 

[Dippy]

Blaster, if the introduction of Part P needed any justification then you just provided it!

The use of the name "neutral" was really such a bad idea!

 

[Blaster]

horse's for courses dippy