Faulty electrics? Burning rubber smell

VoucherMan

After some advice, mainly for neighbour I think.

About half an hour ago I felt & heard a low vibrating noise. My first thought was that one of the neighbours was drilling a hole in the wall.
After a couple of minutes it stopped but then started & stopped intermittently for a couple of minutes. At the same time though a light which I had switched on was flickering.

I then noticed a strong smell of burning rubber. Slightly worried I switched off the all the electric sockets in the living room (the only room effected) Finding no visible cause (melting wires) for the smell I went to ask the neighbours.

Her electric is off. The fusebox does not look like it's tripped as far as I can tell - she has an old box but all the switches are on. So we assume the fault is from outside.

First question - Who should she phone? If we're right about the fault being external then I'm guessing electric board.

Second question - Any idea of the likely problem / cause? I have my window open onto the street so if the problem was there the smell could have entered the house but could have dissipated quite quickly outside. It seems strange to me that my other neighbour noticed neither the smell nor the noise (neighbour whos electric has gone off thought it was a thunderstorm)

Edit.

Neighbour's phoned electric co so hopefully I'll find out in a few hours.

cyclonebri1

VoucherMan wrote: »

After some advice, mainly for neighbour I think. Yes of course it is, ;)

About half an hour ago I felt & heard a low vibrating noise. It was the earth moving, a sucess in most peoples eyes

I then noticed a strong smell of burning rubber. That's normal

Her electric is off. Manual is best anyway




.

apologies to the serious faction.

AndyPK

Have a look by your Meter, fuse box.

Her supply could be looped off yours. Hence the smell in yours and hers being off.

Yes phone her electricity board if she has no electric and nothing tripped.

VoucherMan

Mystery solved.

Electricity board's been out.

Apparently, so he says, quite a common problem. Water getting into to underground box. Just had another session for about 5 minutes. Sounded like a constant series of fireworks being let off.

The only surprise seemed to be that only one house was affected. At least until tonight or tomorrow when they come to fix it.

cyclonebri1

:(:( So dissapointed:(:(, ;)

VoucherMan

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

:(:( So dissapointed:(:(, ;)

I will be if they come out to fix it tonight and switch the power off.


No internet! :eek:

I suppose I could open a few pages in advance and pretend I'm still on line

VoucherMan

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

So dissapointed

Maybe this will make up for it.

They turned up about 7pm. By 8 o'clock they'd decided to fix it then rather than leave it until the next day. I was told my electric was about to go off.

10:15pm the electric goes off, digger moves in - right under my bedroom window :eek:

digging finished and electric back on about 3 am.


The front of my house this morning





I'd invite you round for a cup of tea but access is a bit awkward

cyclonebri1

I was having a laugh with you earlier on but boy, they must have thought it serious to do that overnight, still a nice new bit of tarmac or whatever by now I guess.

You would have had the advantage of me in that situ, I have no (little), sense of smell, comes in handy on occaission.:D