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Doing a bit of wallpapering and I wanted to turn off the sockets to trim the paper neatly behind the face-plates.
Go to the fuse box and switch off 'downstairs sockets', nothing happens (well the radio stays on, luckily I guess!). Switch of all the trips one by one and the radio stays on until I switch off the whole house.
After further fiddling, it appears I can only turn of the downstairs sockets by turning off the 'downstairs sockets' and 'upstairs sockets' trips at the same time. Can this be right and if so how much is it going to cost me tomorrow when the electrician comes round?
Thanks
Matt
This is a 'how long's a piece of string question'.
There is obviously a crossed circuit somewhere in the house, most likely due to past diy bodging. Finding and correcting the problem is another matter entirely. It could take anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days.
Its not right - what's happened surely is the two ring mains have got joined - depends where the issue is how much it will be to sort out. Hopefully the issue is in the consumer unit so can be sorted easily and cheaply. could be as simple as two wires to be swapped
If you have found a socket that can only be switched off with two MCBs something is wrong and I'd hope it is just the connection in the consumer unit. It's impossible to say from here.
If it's just that your ring mains are not strictly split between upstairs and downstairs I am rather less surprised and maybe there is no problem at all.
Having re-read your post and based on previous experience of electricians cocking up I will bet 50p (no more mind) that your consumer unit has been wired up slightly incorrectly and it will be a quick easy fix.
Thanks guys, at least it could be something straightforward.
I would have thought this would have been covered in testing, but if it was DIY, who knows?
Matt
what do you need to turn the power off for, just undo the screws and pull the sockets away from the wall.
cut the paper in the right place and then poke the wall paper behind with a knife or something similar.
Got any history of work being done on the houses, extensions, new walls etc?
When I bought my house I pulled out each fuse, one by one, and tested every light fitting / socket and wrote the fuse # on each one. Loads of random spurs all over the place eg shower upstairs was off kitchen ring main downstairs.....