Old consumer unit & wiring issue.

[moustachebandit]

Afternoon all,

Over Christmas I changed a light pendant in the house in order to fit a new light. All pretty straight forward, however I made a mistake and blew a fuse in the consumer unit (old wired fuse type - with one main trip).

To resolve my mistake I broke out the multimeter and noticed that the light pendant was still receiving current despite the fuse being pulled.

I then popped off a few other pendants and with all the fuses pulled they all still showed current?

Thankfully I always click the power off with the main trip when I am wiring anything but this has got me a little concerned about the wiring in the house.

Surely with the respective fuses pulled no power should be supplied to the lighting circuit etc? Or am I wrong on that? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

[megaphone]

What voltage were you reading on the circuit with all the fuses pulled?

[woodypup59]

Where you have long runs of cable next to each other you can get induced voltages which can fool test gear.

So if the (fuse blown) lighting circuit cable runs along a powered cable for some distance you can get a false reading.

So to be certain you're not going give yourself a belt or worse, switch off the mains switch to start with.

Also use a wooden ladder rather than metal.

[eliot]

megaphone said:

What voltage were you reading on the circuit with all the fuses pulled?

Without wishing to be a pedant about the pendant....He said he was reading current - not voltage. So I think we need to establish what the meter is set to, connected to and reading.

[Laplandboss]

I suspect he means voltage. You cannot receive current - you draw it by putting a load across a power source.

Nobody is going to diagnose the problem on the internet. I recommend the OP gets a competent spark to have a look. If he still has an old rewirable consumer unit, a proper looking at is probably long overdue.