Nice one Jordan. As a retired industrial maintenance engineer, I really appreciate a thorough, methodical, approach to fault finding, and, you definitely fall into that category. It's a big thumbs-up and a sub from me.
I somehow stumbled upon this channel... and I am happy to do so... My father was an electrician... I was, and still am, interested in electricity and how it works (Dad passed away before I could ask him anything, but was always watching him while he was fixing stuff)... so thank you for making my "learning" easier and based upon real-life examples. You just got one more subscriber :D
Unfortunately the UK hasn't caught on to common sense things like this. I've lived and worked in a few European countries and they all used some type of plastic conduit.
we in Asia india Pakistan Bangladesh China. ...use conduit plastic pipes. rewire is so easy. but Indian domestic dwelling termination is a lot of doggy using tape on wire joints without wagos, connectors ...and open conductors everywhere around and above your head . ....
@@PurityVendetta The one thing the UK leads with is the sockets. The European round pin system and the US flat pin systems are awful. The fact that each plug top is fused is also a great safety feature.
@@npr1300A8 I grant you the UK domestic three pin plug is the best in the world if properly fused. The only thing I've found not to like is accidentally treading on one in the dark with bare feet 😵 Not the plug's fault but I do notice that many aren't appropriately fused as in fuse value. Great channel you have there Paul. I subbed and think I'll have to do a bit of binge watching 🙂
I like your methods for fault finding. The only thing I would do differently is a full test of the rcd first on x1/2 then x1 and x5 and then a ramp test to make sure the rcd is going faulty under load. Once the rcd passes all tests I move on to the circuits as you did 👍 Good job buddy
Before I see the fault I was guessing a cooked cable in the vaulted ceiling with the halogen GU10s. Kingspan insulation and 50w halogens with cooked cables I have seen so much in recent years
European electrical Main GFI. What a pain. You are an awesome electrician. I can see nothing wrong in the way you troubleshoot finding the ground fault. Customer going to have to live without three lights, until he is willing to tear the ceiling open and fix the wiring. Great job!
I was screaming STOP in my head when you did the second cut on the cables behind the switch at the stairs. You could have done a quick measurement on the cables as they were and saved yourself some extra work.
I agree with you David... Just remove the lamps and drivers.... You could then find it in 10 minutes Why is no one trained properly... I ain't a electrician but all the video's I see just show incompentence ..... The issue is not the cable but what is connected to the cable... All he has to do is disconnect one leg ... either live or neutral and he would of found the fault..... Is it me or have we trained everyone with no simple diagnostic skills... I WILL SAY THIS AGAIN.. THE PROBLEM IS NOT A CABLE FAULT BUT WHAT IS CONNECTED TO THE CABLE... HE SHOULD BE FORCED TO RETRAIN... RANT OVER
@@robertwheeler8476 You're not an electrician, indeed. I am. When fault finding never assume anything. Break down the circuit methodically to find the fault. Also, removing lamps and drivers is often an absolute pig of a job especially crappy old halogen units. You end up with damaged ceilings where the heat from the light fitting has dried out the plasterboard. Awful things. Hooray for LEDs!
Don,t forget to rub your chin for a few seconds when customer asks how long it will take to do the job. When customer asks how much it will cost, turn the chin rub into a few seconds of scratching.. 🤔
Enjoyed your fault finding.. I love fault finding really gets your brain going.. In Italy we use corrugato..which i think translated Is conduit..easier to change or modify lighting..
I work on public lighting and we use similar methods to find a short so we can replace that connection with new cable. Its realy fun and intresting, sometimes it can take us a cople of hours to zero in on problem if the street is long.
It's remarkable how different the electrical terms and abbreviations can be so different. I am able to follow along, but without the visuals I wouldn't be able to lol
I used a small neo magnet tapped to a nylon garden twine, then a very strong neo magnet to pull it across 10 metres of plasterboard ceiling, then tie on cable and pull in. Jobs a good en ! 😉
Grab yourself an earth leakage tester Jordan do your 1st process with the Mcbs then if the RCD resets clip the earth leakage on and switch off one by one till it drops saves ages.
@@artisanelectrics i have the 1664fc and i have had mixed results with the ramp tests. They are never ever consistent, I have ended up chasing my tail with it. I hardly ever use it to be honest and I don't think it would have saved much time.
It could be the case though, that when you switch an MCB off and the leakage reading drops, it's a neutral fault, the fault could be on another circuit?
Nicely done 👍. Very brave giving a time limit on fault finding. I always say it X for the first hour and then X per hour after and just keep the customer upto date with the progress.
I thought neutral to earth when you said it was tripping as soon as they plugged in 😁. I would have gone for the screw on the switch plate nicked a neutral when pushing it back or a metal light fitting with the same 😁. I do love a bit of fault finding! Loving the vids Jordan. Keep them coming 👍😁
I had one just a few weeks ago on an overhead crane (I do industrial maintenance) with 2 separate S/Cs; one on motor wires snagging on a DIN rail, the second on a catenary cable - I think it was just pot luck which SC was tripping it at a given time.... A 24vdc pilot lamp blowing fuses on a vacuum pump supply is another personal "favourite" find. I've seen also SCs where cables have been carelessly stripped and the insulation nicked ever-so-slightly with pliers / snips.
Brilliant fault finding. I never thought of using the multifunctional tester set on continuity, testing between each CB for the short circuit fault. Also giving the high and low resistance readings. I think I would of just used a continuity tester. Brilliant videos! 😊
Well done Jordan. I am a qualified house electrician and then worked on heavy commercial vehicles and like you loved fault finding and as you said being s detective gave me such a buzz especially when you find the fault. Kind Regards John (love your programme especially how you started off being an electrician)
Definitely a good one Jordan what’s exasperating is not fixing it in the time allocated and you know with the location fishing a new cable gonna be a nightmare. Possible nick when the boards were put up my guess and then heat damage from the halogens a distant second. I have to say it’s gonna be a bigger fix. A TDR or a Savary special could narrow the exact location of the fault with a bit of math. Then the option would be what we would do here in use cut the board at the location to get to the problem would help with fishing new wire as well. That way repair to the plasterboard would be less significant. The point is that issue has to be fixed sooner or later not sure kicking the can down the road by the customer solves anything other than leave himself with a headache.
As a retired service engineer always get as much info from the customer before fault finding as sometimes that points to the problem if not done already.
That's one of several things to hate about downlights, you have a set of christmas tree fairy lights and transformers and junctions strung in the roof rather than a simple pendant and switch live. At least with these new wireless light offerings you have a central junction point and feeds out from there.
Mice,rats,bats,squrriels, birds in roof!Even seen a nail through roof batten & into a cable clipped to side of rafter,plasterboard nails/screws through plasterboard into cables, have always like fault finding,the fun you can have..A inspection camera,a very useful tool to have,can be a great help at times looking into cavities,etc.
your'e doing a great job but at 15:15 i would have removed one of the lights at the back of the room cutting the string of lights in 2 parts after that i would have probably gone for the one in the middle on the left side.
In Italy that electrical panel would be out of the norm because the total MCT's output is higher than that supported by the rccd (unless elsewhere there is a properly sized MCT on top)
and this is the reason that in the Netherlands we lay all cables through PVC tubes. if something goes wrong, tie a new cable to the old one and pull the old one out and put the new one in. finished.
This is why I like hungarian electrics, because you have everything in flexi con and you can easily rewire it, just pull another one in it. Alltough fault's like this usually don't occur, because most people don't have rcds. By the way I thought the rcd failed but no. My rcd by from F&G is still working after 35 years!
Good background info (I am a learner of spark things). It seems the rcd is the big thing here for domestic electrics that covers all bases for shock current safety at least as far a regulations. It must be very difficult to not have them in as standard now and I womder how many people have not had severe shocks now and not died?
@@jamblob3208 In ,,z butiful hungari" rcds still aren't nescescary. You can use them, but you won't get slaughtered if you don't. By the way in my aunt's flat it's impossible to get a shock, because nothing is earthed, and the building is too big to be able to conduct the electricity down to earth.
Easy fix - its only flat, skimmed drywall - no artex, wallpaper, etc. Just cut sections out, make the repair, brace the holes and replace the cut sections. Then just fill the gaps and at that point I always give the customer the option - you can sand and paint yourself, a decorator could do it or i can do it for an extra fee.
Same comment on the second switch, check the reading first before giving yourself extra work. To replace the faulty cable, find the joists on the cable route and Stanley knife a narrow channel in the plasterboard where the joists are and just loop the cable in the ceiling void and come in and out and under each joist, put a clip in the underside of the joist to hold cable and make good the chase, voila.
You might wanna search for dry wall screws with a magnet perhaps. Who knows, you might get lucky. You could perhaps use a cable finder to track the cable if you open it in both ends (to check for screws in its path)
7 MCB´s on a single RCD? In The Netherlands there is a maximum of MCB´s you can put on a RCD and that is four. My humble switchboard has two RCD,,s with six MCB´s with one being a combined group for an induction cooker(2 Phase/@ Neutral). Earth leakages are some of the most difficult malfunctions in an installation esspecially in a house where everything is covered up. Great stuff!
All of the circuits that have load a between phase and neutral will show a low insulation resistance reading between phase and earth if there is a fault between earth and neutral on any circuit. You should not insulation resistance test phase to earth if there is a fault from neutral to Earth. You will damage sensitive equipment such as dimmers or USB outlets.
You could have disconnected the suspect cable at both ends and then energized them individually and used a non contact tester to id any breaks. If that failed, you could use TDR to measure the distance to the break. Most electricians don’t own one though and rental could be expensive.
Hi! Jordan I am electrician got all nvq3 electrical installation test 2391 but I don't do much practice because I work a company as maintenance, I did watch your video fault find most and this video I have watch many times is my favourite how to doing insulation testing. I need more practice, what advice you can offer me, thanks appreciate your video are very useful , have nice day or night Bro
Did you hear about cable tracer its a kit that makes thing very easy to find the cable where it goes. Up to testing switching was fine after that i would disconnect all the lighting in that room tracing cables and insulation test each at the same time. You would save time in that way
Well found. You might get lucky catching and re-running the duff line, but it's a swine of a job. Loft conversions are a major source of wiring faults because each successive trade covers the fault with their work. I wish people would run conduit and individual wires (they insist on that in some EU countries).
‘It’s a fairly new build’ but smoke says replace by 2015? Are these smokes 10 years which would indicate fitted in 2005? Not so much a new build but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Depends how long the supplier then merchants held the stock, its not unusual for these things to be sitting around a warehouse for 12 months and your relying on the merchant to rotate stock as for lasting ten years , never had one last more than 6
Rodent damage I had the same thing Had to take off tiles on roof ,and cut some battens to pull celotex out Massive rat damage ir to close in on ,but many faults. Great video mate 👍
May be do an earth leakage test first. If its just started tripping it something that they have plugged in that's took the rcd over its leakage threshold. Also ask questions to the customer and ask when it first started and if they have installed anything new that sometimes points to the area you want to be looking at.
I'm not electrician but if i were id hate to watch one of your videos and think to myself.. hmm that house looks familiar lol.. and ur fixing my work lol 🤔🤫😂🤣
I've had that with Doncaster cables the neutral inside the cable had a slash in the sheath and was intermittently touching the earth in a kitchen, luckily an easy fix as it was just a leg between 2 sockets. But when you moved the cable the fault cleared. Its mad to think that it probably passed an initial eicr or not
Artisan Electrics ...but do-able? I have a metal 2 gang back box in a chased wall. Whoever did the job didn’t install it level and now the screws don’t align with the lugs and socket doesn’t sit straight or flush against the tiles. Obviously, I don’t want to have to pull off the tiles however I was hoping you might have some ideas on how to remedy the problem.
Could be a nail etc but if nothing has been done recently then I would say its more like its rat crap on the wire after eating off the insulation BUT I wouldn't expect it to be quite that low ohms. Personally if the client doesnt care having a go at pulling the wire through could be worth it but it takes bugger all to stop the new wire being able to be pulled through, but if you get the old one out at least you know what caused the problem. Love to know what you find if you ever do
Long time watcher not a spark, But i would like to guess water ingres in the roof into one or more light fittings /junction boxes etc:) all the storms and heavy rain of late.Guessed when you asked
As always, enjoy watching your videos. Always informative. Your explanation is clear. Your a professional Jordan. Would like to see more fault finding vlogs. BTW where can I buy the cutter/snips you're using?
Just wanted to ask a question. I'm starting a business from home that will use a lot of power, and I'd like to kind of work out, which household plugs are for each 10 amp circuit. What's the best way to do this? I mean, just plugging something in to each plug and having only one circuit turn on?
I love fault finding too.. It's in me blood 😁 you pretty much did what I would do. Pulling a new cable in is gonna be tricky, but maybe surface channel the ceiling board and oval conduit new into it? If no access behind, not much choice. Great video again 👍
@@GoalOrientedLifting I used to work for a company making hazardous area cctv equipment, fault finding and building camera systems, rack equipment etc, loved it. Got made redundant now work for myself as an electrician. I still get to see interesting things and mysteries people leave behind. 😉
Aye, wait until your on a timescale, and in a house and can’t find the fault, and your like an idiot not being able to find it and the customer knows it 😂😂
Quick question, If i have 1 × 30A stove circuit breaker 1 × 40A circuit breaker for the inverter inlet 2 × 15A circuit breakers foe the plugs 2 × 5A circuit breaker for the lights, what should be the current rating for my Main circuit Breaker, will i be fine with a double pole 63A MCB?
Can you get a transformer capable of feeding the remaining 3 lights and connect that to the feed off the last working light. That way you could loose the earth connection as the last 3 lights would only have a 12v supply
