We find and eliminate the short circuit of the electrical wiring with our own hands. Short circuit of the electrical wiring - what it is, causes and elimination Mechanical damage to the wires of the lighting group
Regardless of the cause of the occurrence, a short circuit in the wiring is one of the most unpleasant (in terms of diagnostics and repair) malfunctions of any electrical circuit - in an apartment, a private house or industrial premises. A particularly difficult case is the closure of hidden electrical wiring, because the wires are hidden under a layer of plaster. Even if the tools of a home electrician have devices that will help you find the place of damage without opening the walls, you still need to remove the wires to repair them.
Varieties of wiring short circuits, their causes and search methods
It would seem that the causes of a short circuit in the power wiring and their varieties are different questions but in reality they are closely intertwined. In fact, a short circuit is a consequence of a number of reasons why the phase wire is in direct contact with zero, or the insulation between them does not prevent the occurrence of an arc discharge (of course, if there is voltage on the conductors). The main reasons why the wiring is short and what the consequences can be, by which the location of the breakdown can be determined, are as follows:
Physical deterioration of insulation
Occurs over time and due to even minor, but regular temperature changes.
Usually, in this case, the insulation gradually becomes brittle from flexible - cracks appear on it in which moisture or dust can accumulate. In the event of an unfavorable set of circumstances, this can provoke the occurrence of a short circuit through a microarc, and this is the most Hard case in terms of troubleshooting.
At the same time, outwardly, all the wiring looks intact, but when voltage is applied to it, it eventually knocks out the circuit breaker.
The search for the vast majority of faults in the electrical circuit occurs according to the principle of checking “weak links” - these are any contacts, transitions - all those places where the outer insulation of the cable is opened during installation. Therefore, in hidden wiring, troubleshooting should always begin in sockets, boxes and shields.
As a result - in this case, a careful inspection of the wiring is carried out - if the circuit breaker is already knocking out, then the place of insulation damage may be burnt and it will become visible. In some cases, you have to resist the “stress test” wiring - by applying increased voltage to it. This is a rather extreme method, because in fact it is necessary to provoke a full-fledged short circuit of the electrical wiring, after which the fault site is visible “with the naked eye.
For hidden wiring and finding microcracks in the insulation, you can also use a megohmmeter, but it will only show the presence of a short circuit in a localized section of the electrical circuit, and will not be able to determine the place of its occurrence.
After we find the fault, then, depending on general condition wiring, it is necessary to decide whether to change the cable or get by with the restoration of insulation using electrical tape.
An example of the operation of a megohmmeter is in the video:
Insulation damage by rodents
This is a fairly common occurrence in countryside, yes and in industrial environment such breakdowns are far from uncommon - mice gnaw through the outer insulation of cables, then the inner one and close the phase with zero.
The difficulty of finding such a malfunction may lie in the fact that it is not known where the mouse could choose a place for a “meal”. But on the other hand, usually the place of damage is clearly visible, so a superficial examination of the wire is sufficient, albeit along its entire length.
It should be borne in mind that a full circuit does not always occur here - sometimes the mouse can partially damage the insulation and close the wires not directly, but through itself. In this case, it is highly likely to find the place of damage to the wire by the dead animal, which is chained to the gnawed wire by a convulsion from electric current. Although sometimes it happens that the mouse is thrown away from the cable, especially if it manages to close the wires directly and there will be a full short circuit of the gnawed wiring.
Significant overheating of cable insulation
This is not always noticeable to the eye, but when voltage is applied to the wires, an electromagnetic field begins to act on them, which tends to straighten their metal part. While the wire is operating normally, this does not really matter, but if too powerful a consumer is connected to it, the wires will start to heat up. When, as a result of this, the insulation becomes soft, then the cores under the influence electromagnetic field loosen the plastic from the inside, and over time, it will completely break through. As a result, a full circuit will occur and the circuit breaker will be knocked out, and if you are not at all lucky, then the cable insulation itself will light up.
Until the wire insulation melts, it is impossible to visually notice that it becomes soft - therefore, after laying a new line or connecting additional electrical equipment to it, it is necessary to check whether the cable is heating up.
Wire manufacturers usually indicate on the tags how many short-term heating the insulation can withstand, but in any case, if overheating has already occurred, then it is better to change the cable.
Direct connection of phase and neutral wires
The reasons why the power wiring was directly shorted can be very diverse - from banal inattention, which is sometimes allowed during installation, to an accident due to a storm or other natural disaster.
The main thing here is that with direct contact between the phase and zero, there is always an abrupt increase in the current strength and temperature on the current-carrying conductors. In most cases, the wires are not designed to withstand short circuit currents, so a mini-explosion occurs at the point of contact, as a result of which the insulation burns out, and the flying molten particles of current-carrying wires spread its ashes around. In this case, there is no particular problem in how to find a short circuit in the wiring - everything is visible to the naked eye - the wires are melted and everything is covered in soot.
Here it is especially necessary to take into account that soot, which covers the entire adjacent surface, like dust, in certain concentrations is capable of conducting electricity, therefore, when eliminating the consequences of a short circuit, it must be carefully cleaned.
How to prevent a short circuit
The easiest way is to follow the recommendations prescribed in the PUE - almost all entries in this book are preceded by some kind of accident or at least an emergency situation. Well, since most likely no one will memorize the rules, then at least you need to be guided by common sense, which dictates the following:
- If the wiring is old, it is highly recommended to replace it. If for some reason this is not possible, then, at a minimum, it is necessary to inspect the socket contacts and assess whether they require additional insulation.
- If the apartment was flooded by neighbors from above, then, even if nothing is closed, this is a reason to reconsider the twisting of wires in junction boxes - under the influence of moisture, the sticky side of the electrical tape loses its properties.
- Care must be taken when driving nails into walls - unsuccessful hammered nail brings with it a large amount of "headache" to replace a broken wire.
You can also just take a photo of the wires before they are hidden in the wall.
- In the private sector, it is imperative to take additional measures to protect wiring from rats and mice - there are a fairly large number of ways to control rodents found by home electricians - these can be metal corrugations, smearing cables with mastic and other methods.
- If you had to turn on a powerful device in the outlet, then it is worth double-checking whether the contacts and the condition of the insulation are burnt.
An example of searching for a short circuit with a special device is in the video:
Elimination of the consequences of a short circuit
Most often, it all comes down to replacing the damaged section of the wiring, and it is almost guaranteed that you will need to build up the cable instead of its burned-out piece. The basic rules are as follows:
- The space adjacent to the place of occurrence of the short circuit must be thoroughly cleaned of soot - it can provoke a repetition of the short circuit.
- You should not save on the wire and try to leave the current-carrying core on which the insulation burned out - it is always better to completely replace the wire.
- If a full circuit has not yet occurred, but the sockets have begun to melt, then you should not try to repair them - after numerous heating / cooling, the structure of the metal changes and the device becomes more vulnerable.
If the wiring began to shorten "from old age" (the insulation became fragile), then this is an urgent signal for a full repair - in any case, it will cost less than eliminating the consequences of a possible fire.
As a result - is it necessary to be afraid of a short circuit
Usually, the very process of the occurrence of a full-fledged short circuit of the electrical wiring takes place very quickly - everything happens within a fraction of a second, after which the protection is triggered. Old-school electricians even have black humor on this topic: “Turn it on - if it is short, then we will immediately see it.” This means that all the necessary security measures must be applied before an emergency occurs, and if it does occur, then all that remains is to eliminate the consequences.
Yandex.Direct
Of all possible problems with electricity, perhaps the most unpleasant are problems with wiring. They happen rarely and therefore always unexpectedly. Such an event is all the more unpleasant because the repair of an outlet or table lamp takes ten minutes and can wait until you have free time, while the wiring requires attention here and now and repairs will take a lot of time. If you are a radio amateur, then in the second part there are diagrams.
The fact is that for wiring they could apply aluminum wire, not resistant to fracture; the insulation could be damaged by careless work of electricians and subsequently the wire could not withstand the current overload. The result may be a short circuit, you will recognize it by the triggered safety plugs. Perhaps the wire will simply burn out quietly somewhere in the wall and half of the apartment will suddenly turn out to be without light.
IN modern apartments all wiring is hidden, laid in grooves dug in the wall, and covered with a thick layer of plaster on top, then whitewashing or wallpaper (paint, Wall panels, tapestry, etc.). Thus, the minute work available to anyone - to twist the two ends of the wire and wrap them with electrical tape - is overgrown with a mass of annoying obstacles. Repairing hidden electrical wiring will require the skill of a plasterer-painter, the appropriate tools and time.
You'll be lucky if a short in a hidden wiring (for example, due to a broken wire insulation) can be determined without destroying half of the wall between the two junction boxes. But the hands really sink when, without any noise and lighting effects, the voltage in several outlets simply disappears and the light goes out.
You have already checked the presence of voltage at the input to the apartment. Plugs are in good order. Well, if the light remains somewhere in the apartment, it means that the gap search zone is shrinking. On the other hand, this situation does not leave any hope for some other cause of the malfunction.
So, humble yourself - you have to expose the hidden wiring, look for the place where the wire breaks, and then re-plaster and glue the wallpaper. However, knowing some of the rules by which, hopefully, the wiring was laid in your apartment, you can calculate the place of the gap at least approximately. Apply your analytical skills.
First, find the last branch box where there is voltage on one of the strands of each two-wire wire (checked with a voltage indicator). If the box covers are hidden by wallpaper, they are easy to find by tapping. This is the starting point of the search.
Secondly, the directions of the wires must be determined by the shortest path for their wiring; sockets, switches and lights serve as milestones along the wiring path. Knowing where the wire runs in the wall, you can minimize losses, but wiring is not always done on the basis of elementary logic, in addition, the layout always allows you to calculate this shortest path.
How to avoid re-repair? It turns out that there is still a way to get by with little blood when looking for a gap! This will require a simple device that is best assembled or ordered in advance before the thunder strikes.
Operating principle - registration electric field live conductor.
The device consists of a four-stage bass amplifier with a gain of about 3000-5000, a rectifier, a key stage and an audio frequency generator of 900-1600 Hz, it is powered by two 3336L batteries connected in series and consumes a current of 5-8 mA. A voltage with a frequency of 50 Hz, induced by a current-carrying conductor in antenna A, is amplified by a low-frequency amplifier assembled on transistors T1 - T4, and rectified by diode D1.
A rectified negative voltage of the order of 0.2-0.4 V is supplied to the base of the transistor T5 of the key stage and unlocks it.
At this time, the blocking oscillator, assembled on the transistor T6, begins to generate audio frequency oscillations. These vibrations will be heard in the headphones that the generator is loaded with. All parts and transistors 1 of the device, except for switch V1, batteries, G1 sockets and telephones, are placed on a getinax board 120 × 72 mm in size.
The device board, batteries, sockets and power switch are located inside and on the side walls of a metal case with dimensions of 150x78x45 mm. Antenna A is a sheet of copper foil measuring 130×65 mm. It is fixed in the window of the housing cover on an insulating getinax plate measuring 146 × 74 mm. The static current gain (None) of the transistors installed in the device should be in the order of 35-50.
Transformer Tp1 is wound on a core 1115×6, winding I contains 1500 turns of PEV wire 0, 1, winding II - 600 turns of the same wire. You can check the operability of the blocking generator if you temporarily short-circuit the collector with the emitter of the transistor T5 with a wire jumper. At correct connection winding terminals I of the Tpl transformer, the generator starts to work immediately. Otherwise, you need to swap them.
To establish a key stage, a voltage of 0.2-0.4 V in negative polarity must be applied to the base of the transistor T5. It can be removed from the divider, made up of fixed resistors with a resistance of 5, 1 kOhm and 150 Ohm, included in a common power circuit. When this voltage is applied to the key stage, the supply voltage of the LF blocking generator should be 7 ~ 8 V. Setting up a low-frequency amplifier is reduced to selecting the resistance of the resistor R3, on which the modes of transistors T2 - T4 depend. The use of a variable resistor R2 in the circuit allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the device.
The hidden wiring route or the place of its damage is determined as follows.
To the circuit, the breakage or route of which needs to be determined, connect the phase of the 220/380 V power supply. Headphones are connected to the device and the power is turned on. When the power is turned on, the tone of the generator should be heard for some time in the headphones. This testifies to normal operation device. Antenna A is directed towards the intended location of the wire and, by the presence of a tone in the head phones, its route is traced. In the event of a wire break, the tone stops at a distance of 5-7 cm from the break.
A normally adjusted device allows you to register the presence of a voltage of 50 Hz at a distance of 6~8 cm from the conductor. In all cases, the metal housing of the instrument must be in contact with the operator's hands.
In addition to determining the laying of the wiring and its breaks, using the device, you can determine the location of the short circuit of the hidden wiring. To do this, an electromagnetic sensor is connected to the input of the device through connector G1, which allows registering the magnetic field of conductors with alternating current.
The electromagnetic sensor is an open magnetic circuit made of W-shaped transformer iron with a coil containing 3000-6000 turns of PEV-2 wire with a cross section of 0.1-0.12 mm. P112 core (sh9, sh10, sh14, etc. can be used), the thickness of the set is 12-15 mm. The sensor is mounted on a rod and connected to the device with a flexible shielded cable 1.5-2 m long. The location of the short circuit of the hidden wiring is determined as follows.
A pair of wires, the place of the short circuit of which must be determined, is connected to a special step-down transformer
The sensor is brought to the place where the wires are laid with the open side of the magnetic circuit and, by the presence of a signal in the headphones, their route is traced. Behind the short circuit, there is no magnetic field of the wires, the signal disappears.
The Tp1 transformer is wound on a Sh16 core, the package thickness is 32 mm. Winding I contains 1560 turns of wire PEV-2 0.14 mm, winding II - 8 turns of wire PEV 2 0.8 mm. Capacitor C1 is included in the primary winding circuit to limit the current in the secondary circuit when searching for a short circuit in short sections (5-8 m).
Another device that allows you to fix the presence of voltage in the network in a non-contact way can be used to indicate the route of hidden wiring.
The device responds to the electrical component of the electromagnetic field, and its operation does not depend on the presence or absence of current in the wiring.
The voltage signaling device is powered by a 9 V battery. The current consumption in the indication mode is 15 mA, in the absence of a signal - 5 mA. Dimensions 100x50x30 mm, weight 250g.
A schematic diagram of a non-contact signaling device is shown in Figure 5.
It consists of the following units: antenna, electrometric amplifier, discriminator and pulse extension unit, sound signal izatsii and control unit health device. The electrometric amplifier is made on an integrated circuit MS2 voltage follower with a field effect transistor at the input. Its sensitivity depends mainly on the resistance of the resistor R6, within a small range it can be adjusted by the resistor R5.
The discriminator and pulse expansion unit consists of a rectifier based on diodes D1 and D2 and a single vibrator based on transistors T1 and T2, the threshold of which is set by the DZ diode. The sound signaling unit is made according to the multivibrator circuit based on transistors T3 and T4. A miniature electromagnetic capsule Gr1 of the DEMSH or TM-2A type is included in the collector circuit of the transistor T4.
Schematic diagram of a non-contact voltage detector
The health monitoring unit is an asymmetric multivibrator on an MC1 integrated circuit, which generates short pulses with a repetition rate determined by the capacitance of the capacitor C1. These pulses once every 5-6 s through the capacitor C2 arrive at the An1 antenna and cause the device to operate. In this case, the signaling device emits a single sound signal with a duration of less than OD s, indicating that the device is in good condition. If the voltage indicator is inserted into electric field electrical installations, then an EMF will be induced in the antenna, which is fed to the input of the amplifier. From the output of the amplifier, the variable component of the current through the capacitor C3 enters the discriminator. If the signal level is less than the specified one, then the one-shot will not start.
With a decrease in the distance to parts of the electrical installation that are energized, it increases sharply. When the predetermined signal level is reached, the single vibrator starts and the sound signaling unit starts to generate a sound signal. All parts of the signaling device are mounted on printed circuit board and together with the battery are placed in a metal case with end walls made of insulating material. One of the end walls is made of foil getinax and is used as an antenna. The foil was removed from a part of the getinax surface, the dimensions of the antenna are specified when the device is adjusted. On the part of the end wall free of foil, two rows of holes about 1.5 mm in diameter were drilled for the sound channel of the acoustic chamber.
Figure 6 shows the design of the acoustic resonator chamber and the attachment of the electromagnetic capsule to it. Used as the other wall of the chamber side wall signaling housing. This camera is placed under the circuit board.
A button for turning on the device and a HI1 socket for connecting a charger are mounted in the second end wall. Establishing a voltage signaling device does not cause difficulties and comes down mainly to adjusting the response threshold according to the electric field strength.
The design of the acoustic resonator chamber with the G1 capsule attached to it.
First, check the current consumed in the absence of an audible signal. The current should not exceed 5-6 mA. After that, the collector and emitter of transistor T2 are short-circuited. This should generate an audible signal. In the absence of a health monitoring signal, the multivibrator on the MC1 chip is checked. In conclusion, the signaling device is tested, gradually bringing it closer to the distance allowed by safety regulations to the current-carrying wire. In this case, the device should work and give an audible signal.
A properly adjusted signaling device allows you to register an alternating voltage of 220/380 V at a distance of 5-10 cm. In this case, the metal case of the signaling device must be in contact with the operator's hand. If the triggering distance of the signaling device differs from the specified one, the sensitivity of the amplifier should be adjusted by selecting the resistance of the resistor R5. If the sensitivity of the signaling device is insufficient, the resistance of the resistor R5 should be reduced, if it is too high, it should be increased. If it is necessary to change the sensitivity of the signaling device over a wide range, you should select the resistance of the resistor R6 or change the size of the antenna.
When the damage location is established, you can try to replace the entire damaged wire without destroying the walls. If the hidden wiring was laid in special grooves, try to pull out the damaged piece of wire, using it to stretch a new one.
To do this, disconnect one end of the damaged section in the junction box. Access to the other end can be obtained by disassembling the first socket or switch after damage.
If this fails, then, knowing the location of the damage to the hidden wiring, you can limit yourself to point intervention without punching the wall along the entire length of the wiring route
svet4house.com
Hello.
As I understand it, you entered into an agreement with the provider for connecting to the Internet, and during the work on the wiring of the cable, he damaged the common property in the MKD, which is this wire, unless of course this wire is not after the meter, because. in this case it is the neighbor's property.
Then you are not responsible.
Approved
Government Decree
Russian Federation
dated August 13, 2006 N 491
RULES
MAINTENANCE OF COMMON PROPERTY IN AN APARTMENT BUILDING
7. Composition common property the intra-house power supply system is switched on, consisting of introductory cabinets, input-distributing devices, protection, monitoring and control equipment, collective (general house) metering devices electrical energy, floor shields and cabinets, lighting installations of premises common use, electrical installations smoke exhaust systems, automatic fire alarm internal fire water supply, cargo, passenger and fire elevators, automatically locking devices for entrance doors of an apartment building, networks (cables) from the external border established in accordance with paragraph 8 of these Rules to individual, common (apartment) electrical energy meters, as well as other electrical equipment located on these networks.
You are a consumer of a service (work), and therefore the performer is responsible for any actions. which resulted in damage to any other third parties.
Article 1095
Harm caused to life, health or property of a citizen or property legal entity due to design, prescription or other defects in the product, work or service, as well as due to inaccurate or insufficient information about the product (work, service), is subject to compensation by the seller or manufacturer of the product, the person who performed the work or provided the service (performer), regardless of their guilt and whether the victim was in a contractual relationship with them or not.
Article 1096
2. Damage caused as a result of shortcomings in work or service shall be subject to compensation by the person who performed the work or provided the service (performer).
Article 1098
The seller or manufacturer of goods, performer of work or service is released from liability if he proves that the damage was caused by force majeure or violation by the consumer established rules use of goods, results of work, services or their storage.
LAW
ABOUT CONSUMER PROTECTION
Article 14
1. Damage caused to the life, health or property of the consumer due to design, production, prescription or other defects in the goods (work, service) is subject to compensation in full.
2. The right to demand compensation for damage caused due to defects in goods (work, services) is recognized for any victim, regardless of whether he was in a contractual relationship with the seller (executor) or not.
Usually, wiring repair starts when there are problems with the power supply. Sooner or later, situations arise when a socket stops working in a house or apartment or the lighting goes out. In this case, any owner proceeds independently to repair the wiring or hires specialists.
Causes of wiring failure can be different. The most common of them:
- - a short circuit, occurs, as a rule, due to damage to the insulation between the wires. Most often, the cause of a short circuit is the place where the wires are bent - the socket connection input, in lamp sockets, twisted wires of electrical appliances - iron, hair dryer, table lamp.
Also, the cause of a short circuit can be the connection to one outlet of a large number of electrical appliances through tees, as a result, the contacts become very hot, and this leads to melting of the wire insulation.
- - poor contact at the junction of the wires. This type of malfunction appears when the contact between the connected wires is broken.
- - mechanical damage to wires. This often happens when the owners start drilling or hammering nails into the wall in which the hidden electrical wiring is located.
Where does electrical wiring repair begin?
Since the power supply of the house or apartment comes from the introductory electrical panel, wiring repair starts with him. First of all, you need to check the on position of the protective devices (circuit breakers, RCDs, etc.).
Perhaps the reason for the lack of power in the house may be disconnected circuit breakers or blown fuses. If, during the inspection of the electrical panel, the protective automatic devices are in the off position, then a short circuit in the electrical wiring elements should be assumed.
Also, the reason for tripping circuit breakers can be overcurrent. This happens when the machine is overloaded while turning on powerful equipment. To do this, you need to turn off some of the electrical appliances and after a while turn on the machine again.
If it turns out that there is no voltage in the house or apartment, and the protective devices in the input electrical panel are in the on position, try to perform the “on-off” operations of the circuit breakers several times. Perhaps the cause of the malfunction may be the lack of contact inside the machine itself.
Finding faulty electrical wiring
So, if the actions described above do not bring results, you need to start troubleshooting and directly repair the wiring.
Troubleshooting consists in dividing the entire electrical wiring into separate sections. To know how the wiring is divided into sections, it is advisable to have a wiring diagram handy.
A small example of repairing electrical wiring in a private house
Initial data: Let's say sockets and lighting in the kitchen and in the bedroom do not work.
Cause of malfunction: Wire-2 is damaged (but we don’t know about it yet).
Electrical wiring repair let's break it down into several stages. First you need to check the power in junction box number 2, since it is from it that the kitchen and bedroom are powered.
Let's open this box and take a look. The wire connection points must be intact, not broken (burned out in case of short circuit) and in good condition(without melting wire insulation). If necessary, we press the twisted wires for better contact (if twisting was used to connect the wires).
If there is no visible damage in the box, after inspection, we check for voltage at the junctions (on the twist) of wires 1 and 2 (box No. 2). There must be tension! If not, then the problem is a bad connection.
Go ahead, now you need to check if the voltage comes to the junction box number 3. To do this, open it and also check with a pointer the presence of voltage on conductive conductors wires. There is no tension! So the problem is in the wire (for example, it was damaged by an electric drill when installing the picture).
To finally make sure that the wire is damaged, you need to check it for integrity. To do this, turn off the machine at the entrance to the house, unscrew the wire-2 on both sides (in the junction box No. 2 and No. 3) and, using the “dialing”, check the wire cores for integrity.
Solve the problem with a damaged section of the wire in this case possible in three ways:
- 1 . Remove the damaged wire and lay a new one in the wall instead. To do this, you need to ditch a section of the wall with a damaged wire;
- 2 . Lay over the damaged wire open way new in the cable channel (open wiring).
- 3 . If, during the installation of electrical wiring, a three-wire wire was initially laid, and there is no grounding in the house, then you can use the third core as a working one (this is provided that one of the cores is damaged in the non-working wire).
If there is no electricity in the whole house, then first of all, the presence of voltage on the introductory machine is checked. If the circuit breaker is working, the voltage will be both at the input and at the output of the machine (of course, in the on position of the latter), and then act according to the above scheme.
Wiring repair tool
Main wiring repair tools are.
We continue to search for faults in the electrical network. After, we proceed to check the wiring.
Important! Observe when working with electricity. Without work experience, carry out all work only with the power turned off.
Mechanical damage to the wires of the lighting group
The wiring of the apartment lighting group depends on the type of house. IN brick houses built in the 50s-60s-70s, the lighting of the apartment is laid in the floor screed of the upper apartment. IN panel houses lighting wiring is laid in the cavity of the floor slabs. Less common are other wiring options. In any case, the electrical wiring starts from the automatic lighting group installed in the floor panel and "goes" to the first junction box apartments.
From the first junction box, the lighting wiring goes in one line to the first room, the second line to the bathroom and kitchen.
Wire Damage Repair
If the lighting wiring goes along the floor of the upper apartment, the repair of such wiring will be fraught with problems of neighborly communication. It is likely that the neighbors upstairs were doing repairs and damaged your wiring. Need to check.
If the neighbors do not have repairs, then to troubleshoot you need to move from box to box in your apartment, checking (ringing) the wires for their integrity.
All work is done with the power off. For dialing, use a megger or a home-made dial from a light bulb and a battery (9V).
I note that in most houses, a junction box is laid above each switch.
Room lighting problems
If the lighting in the room does not work, look for damage to the lighting wires. Start checking the lighting wiring in the room from the chandelier.
- Check the connection of the chandelier (maybe one of the power wires has come off or broken off).
- Together with the contacts of the chandelier, check the contacts of the switch.
- Next, check the line from the chandelier to the junction box above the switch.
- Then, check the line from the junction box above the switch to the switch.
Note if you have aluminum wiring, then most likely the malfunction is due to a broken wire in the chandelier connection or in the switch. Unless, of course, you drilled a wire into the wall.
Copper wiring does not break. If there is a malfunction, look for a screw contact that has fallen off in the connection of a chandelier or switch. There is also the possibility of a weakened contact in the junction box if the connection in it was made with poor-quality terminals.
Checking the electrical wiring socket group
Troubleshooting an outlet group is similar to checking lighting.
1. Check the groups first. If the current from the machine goes out, go to the apartment. 2. If all sockets do not work, then start checking the sockets from the first, counting from the shield, socket of the group. Let me remind you that all the sockets of the group are connected by a loop (in parallel). If the contact in the first outlet of the group breaks or comes off, then other outlets will not work. Check the contacts in the first socket. If there is contact oxidation, clean it. 3. If everything is in order in the first outlet, check the line from the first outlet to the nearest junction box. Next, check the line from it to the next box and so on to the shield. That is, you move from the outlet to. 4. For socket groups, there is a high probability of a wire break in the wall. This is due to hanging furniture or interior details on the walls. How to find the wiring in the wall and check it for integrity, I wrote in the article: worth reading. 5. After a malfunction is found, it remains to replace the faulty section of the wiring by laying or making new wiring in the box, or making a different look.Mechanical damage to wires is a rather rare malfunction and is typical for old houses.
