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On 7 Oct, 12:29, Andy Dingley wrote:
On 7 Oct, 12:09, geoffr wrote:


You have at least two faults here, both serious enough to be "pull the
fuses and fix immediately".

Firstly your socket faceplate is live. Bad.

Secondly your socket faceplate isn't earthed, via a good low-impedance
earth path. Assuming that fault #1 arises in the nature of wear &
tear, then this should have been sufficient to send a fault current
back through that earth and pop the fuse, thus isolating(sic) the
circuit.

I'd regard #2 as serious here (#1 obviously is) because although poor
earths are endemic in old installations, it sounds here as if you have
a metal-fronted socket which I'd guess was more recent and really
should be earthed properly.

Thanks Andy and John for your replies.

The face plate is a standard MK plastic one and its only the switch
which is lighting the
screw driver. I know these screw drivers aren't accurate but is it
possible that the short in the switch it too far aware from the earth
connector to send a fault current to trip the fuse?

Although, it's an old fashioned fuse box the actual wiring is
relatively recent and in good condition. When it was tested
a couple of years ago the earth loop impendance reading was 0.3 ohm
from one of the kitchen sockects. I have also checked the earth
connectors in the socket, in the kitchen fuse box and the connector to
the house itself and they are all tight, although I do understand that
without a proper tester you cant be sure there is not a fault
elsewhere. The kitchen sockets are connected in a ring.

As a further test I plugged in the toaster to the socket and instead
of touching the tap when I turned on the switch I touched the metal
side of the toaster and I had the same shock. Therefore doesnt this
imply that the earth wiring is OK as there would not have been a
circuit for the current to travel down if there was a problem with the
earth.

I appreciate the risks but before I do call in a professional could it
simply be a faulty socket switch?

This is wrong, funny, scary and sad on so many levels.

On one level it's Darwinian. You obviously don't know enough or care enough
to protect yourself from the most basic of dangers. According to Darwin
there will always be risk-takers and natural selection will ensure that the
more extreme of them have their genes de-selected from the pool. We're
watching natural selection in action, the question is which side of the line
are you?

On another level you have mis-understood the meaning of DIY. The purpose of
DIY is to provide an excuse to buy expensive tools not to be one. There are
a number of tools for testing electrical circuits but the human body is not
one of them.

On yet another level it's people like you that encourage the Nanny State to
impose ever tighter and sillier rules on the rest of us to prevent stupid
accidents. Part P came about precisely because the government believed that
by tightening the rules they could prevent or at least ameliorate the
effects of stupidity. And to a large extent they were right. Clearly they
don't understand the long term need to allow failure.

Please stop. Right now.
Then choose which of the following (both accurate) pieces of advice to
follow:

1. Don't attempt to fix it unless you understand the safety implications.
Isolate the circuit before working on it. Call a professional if you are
unsure.

2. The human tongue is sensitive to electricity and can be used to check
for voltage. Try it first on a 9V battery then progress it higher things.