Upstairs lights no longer working

FuturamaPhill

Hi,

This morning I switched on the light in my bedroom and the light bulb blew (shooting glass all around my room and produced a flash of white light). I was in a hurry to get to work so left the switch in the circuit breaker in the off position and went to work. When I returned home I flicked the switch back to its normal on position.

Before I go any further I should explain my house is wired up a bit strangely basically some sockets run on the lights circuit and some lights from down stairs run on the upstairs circuit.

So when I flicked the switch on the circuit breaker to on my passage light came on downstairs however no lights upstairs will turn on. The blown bulb has been removed and the actual light fitting its self has been removed however the lights are still not coming on.

What I don't understand is that the passage light comes on so there is power in the circuit but none of the upstairs lights are coming on.

Any help or suggestions as to what has happened or how this can be fixed would be appreciated.

McKneff

There is only one thing to do. Get an electrician. Never mess with electricity or gas. They are both killers.

wealdroam

I suspect that by removing the light fitting you have broken a circuit.

As said above, it really would be best to get an electrician in.

ukpete79

without trying to sound like a scaremongerer, you need to get an electrician in ASAP

having sockets running off a lighting circuit and downstairs lights running off the upstairs is not safe.

I'm going to assume that people have 'added' to the install over a few years for it to have ended up like that... you need to get it straightened out professionally.

discat11

I can only agree with pete, there's a good reason why lighting circuits are split and why sockets have different fuses/breakers -to protect from fire.

So from what it sounds like you aren't protected from a fire that may be caused by an overload on top of the electrocution risk.

Le_Kirk

It is weird and dangerous to have sockets wired from lighting circuits due to the lower current setting of lighting circuits. It is not unusual to have lighting circuits split front to back of house (as indeed mine is) and/or upstairs to downstairs. It is a bit disconcerting when you first try to sort out issues and you discover this but providing you mark your fuse board or Consumer Unit (CU) appropriately it makes life easier.

As stated above, it seems you may have disconnected the live or the neutral cables at the light fitting and, unless you marked them, you are going to have to get "a man in" to test them. Typically lighting circuits run from room to room so that if you disconnect a pair of cables, you stop the feed to the rest of the rooms.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Its all a bit nanny state in this thread! By all means get an electrician in if you're not confident working with electricity but if you are comfortable there are a few things you could do to try and resolve this first.

If the bedroom light was the first one on the upstairs lighting circuit then removing it could have cut the power off from the rest of the upstairs lights as others have said. Obviously following safe isolation procedure (if you don't know what this is, then do not proceed), reconnect the original light back up as it was before, if you can remember and see if this restores power to the upstairs lights. If it doesn't then you may need to get an electrician in. If it trips the fuse again then the light fitting has developed a fault and should be replaced.

If you can't remember how the wires were connected, it may be possible to figure out which is which from a photo IF the cables are correctly marked.

Having a socket on a lighting circuit isn't the best idea in the world although ultimately it depends what's being plugged into it and how much current it will draw. If it was me, I would label the sockets as being on the lighting circuit with a warning on them. Having some upstairs lights on a downstairs circuit or vice versa could also potentially be dangerous IF whoever is working on the supply isn't following a safe isolation procedure and simply assumes they've turned everything off. A notice by the consumer unit would be helpful here.

G_M

If you stick your finger in the light fitting, you'll re-establish a connection between positive nd negative. The other lights upstairs should then come on (for as long as you keep your finger there). Do they? Wetting your finger first can help with getting a good connection.

As an alternative, ask an electrician to come round.

(for the avoidance of doubt, I have a warped sense of humour and my post should not be taken seriously)