electrics help!

rosiesposies

hello MSExperts
my upstairs electrics have just gone. BUT JUST the outlets! the lights work, we have tried changing all the fuses but to no avail. is there anything else we can try before we shell out for a sparky??

DevCoder

Find your consumer unit (the one with a main switch and lots of other smaller switches (or fuses if its old)).

Looks like this..




Or like this if its the old rewireable type



Hopefully its one of the new type, if so, are any of the switches in a different position to the others?

The reason your lights work is because they are on a different electrical ring to the sockets.

DevCoder

If it's the new type and a switch is down ("off") then push the switch normally upwards to turn "on".

If it latches and stays in place then it should be ok, just check anything plugged into the sockets upstairs.

If it doesnt latch then try pushing the switch down first then up (as some require this manual reset mechanism).

If it still doesnt latch then you have a fault and you should really get a spark in at this point (make sure he is approved with one of the schemes such as NICEIC, Eelecsa etc).

If its the old type, then Id get a spark in anyway as tolerances on the re-wireables are higher and thus point more towards a fault that will need fixing. The spark will probably suggest an EICR (basically an inspection report) which will highlight issues with your electrical installation in total not just the circuit in question.

T_T_2

As above, one of the switches in the consumer unit should be sticking out like a sore thumb in that it is pointing in the opposite direction to the rest of them. Just be advised that a house with modern circuitry doesn't trip without reason so once you have reset it you may need to identify the offending problem if it continues to happen.

rosiesposies

Thank you! its definitely the old style one.
I guess we need a sparky in then, whats the cost to get an inspection done?
ARgh! not good when its month 1 of DFW!

daveyjp

You don't need a sparky. You need to turn the electric off, pull the fuses out, see which was has blown, buy some fuse wire to match the requirement, it is stamped on them (a few pence), find a screwdriver and fit the fuse wire. Replace fuse, power back on away you go. 10 minute job.

If you aren't confident take fuse, wire and screwdriver to someone who is.

rosiesposies

hi dave

thanks for your response. we have tried trial and error with all the fuses and they all still power something in the house..would this still mean what u suggested could work?

macman

You are not following the replies given. You probably only have two ring main circuits, one upstairs, one down, possibly a third one for the kitchen (though I doubt that, since you have an old-fashioned fuse box). These will be marked as 30A circuits and probably with a red dot.
Indentify all the ring main circuits, turn off each in turn to identify which works the upstairs sockets. Then change the fuse or replace the fusewire (with the correct rating). If it blows again then you have a problem with the circuit itself, a socket, or an appliance connected to it.
Your ceiling lights are on separate lighting circuits (again, probably one for up and one for down) and so will not be affected.
While you are at the CU, identify the other circuits and label them, this will make life a lot easier in the future when another fuse blows.

Ben84

UK fuse boxes are colour coded by amps, from which we can probably infer which fuses you should be looking at. The photo of the fuse box above shows little circles for the colour coding, which is just like mine and others I've seen, but there might be some other conventions too.

Anyway, white is for 5 amp circuits. Typically, these will be lighting. Depending on the size of your house, you may have more than one lighting circuit.

Red is 30 amp, and this is likely in many examples to be a ring circuit used for sockets. I'm expecting from what you have said that you'll find at least two of these in your fuse box, one for upstairs sockets and another for downstairs sockets. So, these are the ones you should check.

Blue is 15 amp. There are other colours in use too, like green for 45 amps, which is likely to be used for an electric cooker or large heaters.

Anyway, what I hope will happen is that you'll find one of the red fuse holders has a blown fuse in it. Replace with some fresh 30 amp fuse wire and turn the electric back on with all the appliances unplugged from the circuit that blew (also any fused spurs taken off the circuit, for example immersion heaters should be turned off too). If it blows again without anything connected, you have an electrical fault that needs an electrician and shouldn't attempt to replace the fuse again. If it doesn't, you can start connecting your various electrical items to it again. If connecting something causes it to blow again and it isn't that you're just attempting to use too many amps at once, then you probably have a faulty appliance that needs to be repaired and should stop using that appliance until it has been serviced.

ed110220

Ben84 wrote: »

UK fuse boxes are colour coded by amps, from which we can probably infer which fuses you should be looking at. The photo of the fuse box above shows little circles for the colour coding, which is just like mine and others I've seen, but there might be some other conventions too.

Anyway, white is for 5 amp circuits. Typically, these will be lighting. Depending on the size of your house, you may have more than one lighting circuit.

Red is 30 amp, and this is likely in many examples to be a ring circuit used for sockets. I'm expecting from what you have said that you'll find at least two of these in your fuse box, one for upstairs sockets and another for downstairs sockets. So, these are the ones you should check.

Blue is 15 amp. There are other colours in use too, like green for 45 amps, which is likely to be used for an electric cooker or large heaters.

Anyway, what I hope will happen is that you'll find one of the red fuse holders has a blown fuse in it. Replace with some fresh 30 amp fuse wire and turn the electric back on with all the appliances unplugged from the circuit that blew (also any fused spurs taken off the circuit, for example immersion heaters should be turned off too). If it blows again without anything connected, you have an electrical fault that needs an electrician and shouldn't attempt to replace the fuse again. If it doesn't, you can start connecting your various electrical items to it again. If connecting something causes it to blow again and it isn't that you're just attempting to use too many amps at once, then you probably have a faulty appliance that needs to be repaired and should stop using that appliance until it has been serviced.

Most houses have two or more ring main (socket) circuits, but some only have one, such as mine.

Ben84

ed110220 wrote: »

Most houses have two or more ring main (socket) circuits, but some only have one, such as mine.

Mine too actually (wired in the 1960s I think), but the OP does apparently have non-functional sockets upstairs while downstairs is ok, so I'm assuming that they have two independent circuits for sockets because of this.