Upstairs Lights Suddenly Stopped Working

Section62

coffeehound said:

Section62 said:

If you really do have "styrofoam light features" then I'd strongly advise leaving the circuit isolated and wait for the electrician to do their job.

Could be the polystyrene ceiling rose type fixtures, so hopefully not in contact with cables

That was the kind of thing I was thinking of, and there's a lot of 'hopefully' involved there than I'd like.

GDB2222

Alderbank said:

Would one of these be useful?
https://uk.bestreviews.guide/toilet-bowl-light

I found a motion sensitive toilet bowl light on Amazon. That rather made my day.

Belenus

GDB2222 said:

Alderbank said:

Would one of these be useful?
https://uk.bestreviews.guide/toilet-bowl-light

I found a motion sensitive toilet bowl light on Amazon. That rather made my day.

Does it only work for number twos then?

TELLIT01

GDB2222 said:

Alderbank said:

Would one of these be useful?
https://uk.bestreviews.guide/toilet-bowl-light

I found a motion sensitive toilet bowl light on Amazon. That rather made my day.

Such childish, toilet humour!  Some people need to grow up - I know I enjoyed it :-)

Alanp

Is there a fan in the bathroom? does it have an isolator?, 
the only thing I could think of is to turn all the light switches to off, reset the fuse, ( if it will ) then turn on each light one by one to see if it trips, do the same with the fan isolator, ( if it has one) other than that wait for the electrician 

fenwick458

Ben1989 said:

So firstly the MCB and the RCD tripped. Since I switched everything back on the RCD has not tripped at all since, just the MCB has been tripping. The latest is I switched the MCB back on and the lights do not come on at all whereas previously they did but the MCB remains on and does not trip. However I don't leave it on long enough to check as I switch it off as I imagine it's unsafe to leave it on with the lights not coming on

Based on what you've said I can't think of anything obvious that a DIYer could tackle, your best bet is just to wait for the spark to turn up, or if thats no good then attempt to find another one who can come sooner

wazza99

We had this, everything was ok, fuses etc, but just no upstairs lights, turned out to be a loose wire in the back of the upstairs two way switch

Ben1989

So, electrician is due 6th December and I've gone in the loft to try and get a headstart for him as he wants to check the pendant of one of our lights. I said styrofoam before when I meant polystyrene! Oops.

So I went into the loft and under the roll insulation are old timber boarding. Urgh. I lifted one of them to find polystrene balls. Delved deeper and they're everywhere. There's me thinking a mouse has had an absolute field day and a bit of research and it's old school insulation. 

Do some more digging and I discover it can react with the pvc on wiring  . I left it there and didn't actually find the wiring as I was just having a little mooch before delving in this weekend with a buddy. Think this could be a possibility?

grumbler

Ben1989 said:

 I discover it can react with the pvc on wiring 

It's a well known fact - it sucks plasticizers from PVC. I wonder what idiot decided to insulate loft with polystyrene in general and beans in particular.

Ben1989

Just a pain. I have no idea how to remove it all as I'll have to as I cant see a thing with it spread everywhere.