ring main with half the ring with no neutral

[smthdeedog]

went to a friends house who said that some sockets in the kitchen and up stairs landing and bed rooms sockets not working. well started in the kitchen with the two not working to find they tested 6v and the same upstairs which brought me to think there is a neutral down some where. well after checking all the sockets that were down and made sure they were all tight and at the fuse board. still no luck of were the break in the neutral was. so instead of picking up floor boards and looking for the break maybe in a junction box i took a 2.5 neutral wire from the fuse box to the first down socket and presto the ring came back online and working. my question is were is that break in the neutraland how can i find it with picking up floor boards wrecking the place to find the break? oh forgot to tell you if you tested phase to earth you got 230 and the same neutral to earth 230. and thanks for listening

 

[securespark]

For a neutral to drop out in part of a ring final, there has to be two breaks in the circuit.

You need to find out exactly where continuity is lost.

Good old-fashioned fault-finding!!

 

[333rocky333]

If it was a radial rather than a ring and the neutral broke before the socket.

If some load was still plugged in further up the circuit, this load would be unable to return via the broken neutral to the board.

This would then create a reading of 230 v between the socket Neutral and Earth

 

[sparkyspike]

Have you tested the end-to-end continuity of the phase and earth as well? In other words, have you proved that it's a ring final and not two radials using the same breaker?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

went to a friends house who said that some sockets in the kitchen and up stairs landing and bed rooms sockets not working.