Chris wrote:
I've witnessed a couple of strange things in our domestic electrical
circuits recently.

1. Flickering light. I checked behind the switch and found that the
earth wire had come loose. Reconnecting it solved the problem. I'm not
an electrician, but this doesn't sound right to me - I could
understand it it was a loose live or neutral...

2. We have two lighting circuits in the house (upstairs and
downstairs). The fuse blew on the downstairs circuit. All the lights
in the house stopped working, even though the fuse for the upstairs
circuit was fine. Replacing the blown fuse brought all the lights back
to life. Subsequently, removing the fuse for each of the circuits
individually gave the exepect result - only the lights on that circuit
stopped working.

Can any electrician out there give me an idea what's going on?


It sounds like a complete overhaul is needed.

Looks like the wiring is random as to whether breakers are in the live
neutral or earth.

And colors have been simply switched around till 'stuff worked'

I don't want to get all Elfin Safety about this, but if you know this,
and fail to address it, you MAY void your house insurance.

Without more detail its hard to be sure, but its worrying enough to
warrant at least a visit from a competent electrician, or if you feel up
to it some detailed investigation yourself.

It might require a complete rewire..

I think if it were me,I would immediately check my house insurance
poilicy, and if the house was recently acquired, contact my solicitor.

Then I would contact the insurance company and say 'I think my house is
is in a dangerous condition, and may need a rewire, what is your
position with respect to covering the cost of this?


Thanks,
Chris.