Any electricians here?

[Behemoth]

You should see our lashup we've got here, we've got two sets of fuse boxes. Not quite wure what happened here when they built our place in the 60's!

[pipTheGeek]

I have replaced some of the fuse holders with MCBs. As fuses blow I'll replace them with MCBs, thats why I haven't bothered to buy spare fuses. Just hope the lighting fuse doesn't go at 21:00 on christmas eve or something.

My grandfathers house has some interesting wiring. Becuase of the way it has grown over time (the original bit is several hundred years old) it has two consumer units one end, then a big cable runs outside to supply the other end which has another consumer unit, plus one for storage heaters, then the garage has another consumer unit.

Not as interesting as my in-laws that has a power point wired into the lighting circuit! They stopped using it once we discovered. Probably ought to blank it off at some point.

[Behemoth]

I have replaced some of the fuse holders with MCBs. As fuses blow I'll replace them with MCBs, thats why I haven't bothered to buy spare fuses. Just hope the lighting fuse doesn't go at 21:00 on christmas eve or something.

My grandfathers house has some interesting wiring. Becuase of the way it has grown over time (the original bit is several hundred years old) it has two consumer units one end, then a big cable runs outside to supply the other end which has another consumer unit, plus one for storage heaters, then the garage has another consumer unit.

Not as interesting as my in-laws that has a power point wired into the lighting circuit! They stopped using it once we discovered. Probably ought to blank it off at some point.

Now that is a lash up ! We've been re-wiring our place quietly every time we redecorate a room, although we still have a fuse box where the gas boiler is aswell as the main box in the garage.

[Stoo]

My sister's place, we found a ceiling light wired to the main circuit and controlled by a normal light switch.. given that we were moving lights about and generally fixing things, it could have been seriously nasty if we'd only isolated the lighting circuit, then proceeded to rip the old lights out..

[Michael]

With regards to:

So nothing can really go wrong from me turning those things on?

nope, if they were unsafe a sparky would have disabled them

Sorry dude but no way, i'm an electrician by trade and I can't tell what's going on with the wiring behind that box so how can you? I would never put trust that whoever worked in a place before me has covered all the bases. For all you know now there are live wires laying exposed in the ceiling and under the floor and the next apprentice/tradey to be crawling about might be in for... well... a shock. Especially if the place is still using old rewireable fuses and has no RCD.

It happens.

[nibbler]

Well I fixed it. Got some fuse wire from a local hardware store and located the blown fuse. All the lights work! It's very satisfying to have done that, cheers for the help in identifying where I should be looking guys!

[Rob_B]

Now my son, you are a man...

[blueball]

Now put the fusewire in the "man drawer".

[Rob_B]

raaaaah, man drawer!

*chest bumps his man drawer*

[GoNz0]

you also need to buy a bigger hammer to celebrate.

[TheAnimus]

and a magazine to line the bottom of the man drawer, you know in case any glue leaks.

[Rob_B]

I don't use a magazine, cos that's how I roll, livin on the edge...

[GoNz0]

tusk, you can use a screwdriver with paper stuck to it... you will learn the hard way.

[aonali6]

Half of the lights in our house have gone out... it's a victorian tenement flat in Glasgow and pretty much the entire rear half of the house has no lights on. The mains sockets still provide power. It started last night when I turned a light on and it flashed as if the bulb had gone but in fact it had done something else... is it a fuse that's gone?

Thanks for any help you guys have

Nick

You have a loose connection somewhere. The high current of the vacuum burned it. Very common problem almost aways triggered by the vacuum.
The problem could be in any junction box on the circut(receptacle. fixture, switch etc.). Most common cause of this is the back stab connection on receptacles...........!