Electricity

[Mooshamoo]

I woke up this morning to an electricity issue.

All of my lights turn on, but none of my plug sockets work. This has never happened before.

So all my light switches turn on, but if I plug an appliance into any socket it doesn't work.

I just rang a couple of local electricians and their call out fees are really huge.

I was just wondering has anyone fixed this by themselves.

I'm going to just try a few things this weekend and then if I have to give in an get an electrician next week I will

Someone online said to unplug all appliances as it could be a faulty appliance. I've just done that.

I was just wondering has this happened to anyone else and were you able to fix it yourself? Thanks

OP. Last time this happened to me it was caused by an extension lead.

Leave the 4th switch down and the rest up. Now by process of elimination test your all your appliances and sockets to see what's not working.

Your upstairs and downstairs sockets are ‘usually’ on different circuits, so even if downstairs is left off, you should have power upstairs.

Get something like a lamp (so you can easily see if it works), flip all the switches on and take the lamp round to each socket in turn and see which one flips the power off. Then don’t plug anything into that one while you source an electrician. Tell us which socket it is and others may be able to suggest possible issues.

Also I know it’s the sockets you said are not working but you haven’t had a bulb go anywhere? Sometimes a light bulb goes and it may be on the same circuit. That usually throws the main first fuse out.

I had this problem and eventually realised it was the under cabinet kitchen lights, old fluorescent type. Might be worth checking if you have them, disconnect and try the trip switch again

Well I have a slightly better update.

Thanks to the advice on here earlier, I put all the switches up but left the fourth one down.

However even after I tried that, I tried the plug sockets in three different rooms upstairs and downstairs. And none of the plug sockets worked. So I assumed that none of the plug sockets in the house were working.

I rang an electrician and he said that if I left the fourth switch down, it was very unlikely that no socket at all in the house would work, that one or two should work somewhere.

I went back to the house and tried every plug socket. The plug sockets do work in the two rooms in the front of the house. They work in my upstairs front bedroom and downstairs front bedroom. The plug sockets don't work in any of the rest of the rooms, which are the living room, kitchen, back bedroom and bathroom, which are all the rooms in the middle and back of the house.

So at least the front two rooms are working for now and I can charge my phone!

With the 4th switch down, and the rest up, the plug sockets work in two front rooms, and don't work in the four back rooms.

Unplug absolutely everything. Then plug back things one at a time. If the toaster works unplug before plugging on something else until hopefully one thing ends up tripping. If you can, use the same plug outlet in every room for trying things. If the let’s say kettle trips your socket on the bedroom it could well be the socket wiring has come loose behind.

I'm happy I have at least two sockets working for now. It was horrible when I thought they were all gone, and I couldn't charge phone, set alarm or anything. Thanks for the advice on here.

I wouldnt have know to leave fourth switch down, if I hadn't asked on here.

At least I have two working sockets now.

at a guess that 4th switch that is down is the one that provides electric to the other rooms

The two switches that keep tripping are the problem ones. If all sockets in the house are empty, and you reset all trips, if all trips stay in the on position, take some electric item & plug into every socket until the offending trip goes, this will at least narrow down the offending socket (s). Do not treat twin sockets as one.

Be absolutely certain that you have unplugged everything from the non working sockets. Check behind furniture to make sure nothing is plugged in. If the fourth switch still won’t go up, then the problem lies with the wiring not an appliance and you are going to need an electrician or at least someone who is comfortable with checking behind socket covers.

Have you hung any pictures or knocked any nails in the wall lately? It may be that you’ve hit a cable.

Well you'll be glad to know. I have an update.

The last time I was in the house, the fourth switch across stubbornly refused to go up. I unplugged everything out. It still wouldn't go up.

I left the house for a couple of days, and went to visit my parents. I came back to the house and tried the switch again, and yay the fourth switch now goes up! And all of the plug sockets are working.

So in my case, it seemed that I needed to plug everything out, and also wait a couple of days for it to re set itself back to normal

I'm so happy I don't need an electrician.

All sorted now.

I can guarantee that you've not cured it by giving it a bit of a rest!

It sounds to me as if you've had a short circuit which has sorted itself out over the weekend - so very possibly water getting into the electrics somewhere and now it's dried out.

I wonder if you've an outside light or socket on the same circuit as your downstairs sockets? With the rain and wind last week I can easily imagine water getting in to an outside light fitting.

If you've got outside electrics which go off when you flip the fourth switch down then it will probably be that.

Ah, sorry but it doesn't quite work like that. A consumer unit doesn't take time to 'reset' itself. Possibly PP's suggestion of water ingress was correct and now it's dried off it's not short circuiting maybe? I don't know - but I'd be prepared that it is quite likely to happen again, so probably worth asking round for electrician recommendations at least, so you have some points of contact if it does.

But at least you know now which switches relate to which electrics :)

Definitely sounds like water is causing the problem - most likely in one of the sockets. At this time of year, with the first really cold spell it could be condensation - and kitchen/bathroom is the most likely culprit.

If the exact same thing happens again, with the 4th switch down in the consumer unit, plug in a hairdryer on a long extension in a front socket that works. For each socket at the back of the house, undo the screws and pull it away about 12-25mm and give it a 1-minute blast from the hairdryer down the gap.

Another vote for something drying out.

RCDs don’t need a rest - you have an intermittent fault.

Yeah I didn't mean that it literally reset itself.

I meant that whatever was wrong fixed itself after a couple of days.

It could have been water that dried out.

Or it could be a faulty appliance that I plugged out.

Whatever it was , has fixed itself.

If it happens again I'll get an electrician. But for now it all seems to be working

The actual trip switch could have failed internally & time to replace, we have one at work that always needs to be flicked twice before staying on , so it’s definitely on its way out