Fault Finding Electrical Circuits - Electrician Life
Fault Finding Electrical Circuits - Electrician Life
Join me as I trace a fault with a tripping RCD!
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Watch the follow up video to this where I rewire the faulty cable here: kzhead.info/sun/p7myprCLnXRppH0/bejne.html
What pliers do u use
@@chazvirdee2012 looks like knipex multi pliers
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
Thanks for watching! Sorry about your dad.
Licensed Electrical Engineer here. This is why I love my line of work. I get to troubleshoot and design.
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.
Love these style videos they really help my training. Thanks Jordan
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)
That is awesome!
That is why we in sweden use pipes, so you can change the cables.
Tjena kungen!! Yes we use corrugated pipes in Norway too. Super flexible and bendable, if installed properly. Rewiring will be no problem
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 🙂
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!
Here is some bonus info from an electrician from another country. Every installed thing has a leak current, which is normal. But if too many devices are running through the same RCCB, it can add up to the point where it trips, even though there is no short circuit anywhere. A rare thing, but when it happens it's likely in a place like a restaurant kitchen or similar, where they have machinery that consumes a lot of power running over the same RCCB. Good to know if you end up in this situation, it may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Recommended max MCBs per RCCB where I live is 9. And that is for a normal household.
IET tells us to design based on 30% of the RCCB's rating (which is very conservative). The schedule of fault current based on device type can be found online too
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.
Great insight into your process Jordan enjoyed it very much.
Awesome, thank you!
I am liking these sub-30min videos, there is something about having them less than 30min which makes me feel like they are easy to watch.
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.
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! 😊
Love a good fault finding in the morning! 🙂
Quentin Smith thanks!!
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..
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 like fault finding as well. Gives you buzz when you find the fault. I would have tested the last switch before you had cut then to save more work.
It's better to not get a buzz when fault finding :D
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
Andrew Dobson thanks!
Tripping when the customer plugs something in screams N-E fault so I'd probably check that before I did anything else.
Great insight into the thought process you sparks have , I'll definitely be using this process when my rcds next trip
You do the best troubleshooting videos man.Thank you!
For some reason the youtube algorithm brought me here and I'm not disappointed! Good video!
I loved fault finding, so satisfying when you find it.
I think you mean satisfying
Bro i just saw this video and subscribed after watching it ..... I’m learning alot thank you 🙏
Wow, learnt a lot from your video. Though I am not an electrician, I am happy that I would start trouble shooting from RCD just like you did. :)
Awesom! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I like how you broke down the wiring I would always check the RCD before going outside the board Recently had a similar fault it was the last light I checked Fault was a mouse had nibbled through the insulation cut out some nibbled cables fault sorted Thanks Jordan
When I do this, I like to go to the first junction box from the central, and start disconnecting from there rather than going about trying to find a socket or switch thats faulty. It's down to a lot of luck, but I like this way of doing it too. Thanks for the information,.
ive only started wtahcing in the past month but this is so weird seeing how diffrent jordon is hes so much more calm you can tell in more current videos he became more confident
Exactly the same as we do it over here 🇦🇺. Great watch mate and good find 👌🏼
Damaged cable by another trade at the time of construction, most likely. It never ceases to amaze me how other trades think that pvc unarmoured cable is invincible. One time a plumber roasted in service lighting cables nearby to pipework, with his blowtorch, while installing a shower. The Insulation resistance readings weren't good....☹️
Great find and all within an hour, you’re good 👍
Terry Tugwood thank you sir!
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 👍😁
Good common sense fault finding. I’m now a happy subscriber. Love your attitude and approach
Thanks!
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
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.
Get to know a great plasterer that way you could get to price these jobs more effectively and broaden the scope of work you would want to do.
Classic fault finding process.💪🏻🇩🇰
Elektrikeren thanks!
Nicely worked out. Well done and quick too.
Good logical process. Nice work.
Many many thanks
Enjoying the videos mate. Thanks
Enjoyed that puzzling riddle. Lesson for today; can now have a nap.
Excellent!
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?
I'm really thankful that we here mostly use ducted installations and usually have a junction box in the ceiling that is like switch box you use, inside the ceiling but accessable from the room under a lid. And usually the mains come from the board to that junction box, from there either to all lights separately or from box to first light and then from that light to the next. Might be without ducting between the lights but here if you do ductless cables they cannot be secured to anything, they must be able to move if a screw or something is screwed where the cable goes behind the plaster board or something. Not sure if anyone understands how I mean but I like our way. We also in older homes mount the cables on the surface, we might use MPLM cable for it with Schneider TKK fastenings
Thank you. This has enlightened me. There is an apartment being used as a Lounge which has been a headache for me. It's wired with a 3-phase supply. The 3phase main differential breaker trips periodically within the day. I've been on it for days to no avail in tracing the fault which I suspect to be leakage. I believe testing like you have should bring me positive results.
Bro loving the video! You are helping a lot of young sparks like me man ! 💯 I’ve had an old consumer ( pull out fuses instead of Mcbs; and no rcds) so basically the lighting circuits of ground and 1st floor were wired in together like a ring. So I upgraded the CU first and separated it. However now I’m getting fault on ground floor. Downstairs is kitchen, bathroom and living room. LR is perfect however first thing is there is no live going to the switch ( I havent checked the actual light fitting to see if there is current going there). But even so I am totally baffled as a young sparky why it’s tripping 😅could you offer some help please and some advice on which tests to do?
I like the thought process, so simple
This was awesome man
I always keep a few 3.5mm pins in my pocket and a threading tool in my tester box. I spend pretty much all day testing social housing so I come across stripped screws several times a day.
Black Fingers nice tip thanks!
Nicely done.
Great video and fault finding. I’m subscribing. Like how you pocketed the shield cuttings, I’d have thrown them in the bed 😂.
This is pretty much the fault I have, even down to having the same consumer unit !!!! An electrician is coming tomorrow, and thanks to this excellent video, I have a very good understanding of what he will be doing. Top video, and now subscribed :-)
you done well to find that in 1 hour
Fault finding can vary very much! Me and a colleague spent 4 hours finding an earth fail, we found the fuse and there many old light fittings on that fuse. We took a guess that it was the source. But nooo, the very old light fittings were all good but there was 1 socket on that light circuit where an amateur had connected on that socket and he had screwed the wires to a pinch in the box..
Super useful video. Thanks mate.
Done plenty of this, good video
Good vid keep it up 👍
Lovely ! GOD bless you !
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 ! 😉
Sounds great!
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
Mate between you and nick bundy, you give me, at 57 a new lease of life and getting back into sparkying.
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.
Excellent work proces
I'd love to work in electrics. I find it so interesting especially the problem solving side of it.
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 😂😂
@@jasonhounsell3297, yeah you're probably right. I should have probably said I'd love to work in electrics while knowing what I'm doing.
That's why i never give a timescale for fault finding 😂
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 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
It was a cable fault not a problem with anything connected you clearly haven’t watched the follow up video.
I love electricians who are perfect lol. I employed hundreds over the years, but sadly never met any, except me of course. 😉
@@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!
@@stuartmc18 I would guess a very poor electrician. I suspect you are a cable puller!!!
Well done 👍
Hi Is there mouse lose about this house 🤣 great job of detecting the fault . Admittedly the additive they put in cables is a deterrent to rodent damage. I have had a problem were a cable was damaged by a screw . But became problematic over time because of thermal movement in the property . O the joys of being an electrical contractor Best wishes Mike in the U.K. 👍
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
Nice work Jordan....
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).
You did well to find the problem. I would do the same thing as you. How would I replace the wire? I will pull a new cord or chop plasterboard out using an obsoleting saw. Easy to patch back up but time consuming
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 🤔🤫😂🤣
Hi Jordan I am a fan of your work just a quick question on insulation resistance test. Don't you have to remove bulbs and other electronic devices connected to the circuit before carrying out your insulation resistance test in the Distribution board circuits.
Very good way of finding a fault quality work sparks
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)
The cable finder always works for me simple and effective, then you can work most things out off the back of that ....
I like your testing - I would not have snipped the neutrals at 13:36 - I'd re-checked for the CPC neutral short first. Good fun - thanks.
I was gonna say the same thing.
Thanks for the tips!
Great stuff but invest in a battery driver! What's that plier/stripper tool you use, btw? Looks great!
I had a job where the customer (a mate at work) had had a garage workshop installed and it was powered up then when they plugged a lawn mower in it tripped. The lecy who installed the garage system said your mower is faulty but did not come to site. I looked at the install and found the lecy had put the neutral in the wrong side of the split load board back in the house.! Moved it across to the neutral bar on the same side as the live. Job done!!!! Foot note: the mower was fine it tripped as soon as you plugged in anything....
Great job and video
Nice video Jordan. I too love fault finding, but since i'm not a certified electrician, I'm not clear what your terminology means...would you consider making a short schematic of the circuits and talking your debugging strategy over the schematic, so someone that understands electrical circuits understands the underlying implementation architecture? (or maybe an idea for future debugging scenarios?) Thx, Jim
When you mentioned it was a modern build and therefore switches were wired to neutral ... What did you mean by that? One thing I think I spotted was absence of rose joints, so live and neutral come from switch box. Is that what you meant by modern wiring?
Looks like the perfect job for a bit of flexi con clipped to the ceiling
Otherwise known as a bundy special?
Bit dusty but put new lights cable in use mini saw DreMel type then seal and plaster over trace done lots of times
Troubleshooting 101, good job
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.
I absolutely love the wireless switches. Total godsend 👍
Could i please know the clamp model you are using? It looks like very professional. Thank you.
I would have checked the earth leak using ramp test first then moved on to the circuits any electronics are circuits within circuits LCR circuits with shorts often don,t draw enough current to creat a dead short but earth leak will detect, we used to have to wire high integrity earths due to electronics naturally leaking thus they started asking us to verify earth leakage current as some as I saw that the electronic transformers were on the circuit I would have been all over them dimmer switches used to cause havoc when earth leaks first came to be common practice in consumer units gone were the days of rcd socket located near exits industrial now tend to go 20a 4mm circuits with earthen leak sockets and clicks for light fitting makes fault finding very easy keep the good work up Jordan
Outside light? Halogen heat damage? Look for any new things they’ve hung on wall
In the Netherlands we have a max of 5 mcb's behind a RCD. More mcb's means more RCD's . In you case to much leakage of the single RCD
A superb fault find job bud.may I ask please,what make were the combination stripper and cutter pliers,you were using in this video.they are a brilliant pair of pliers.
kzhead.info/sun/apurkbmggJqImGg/bejne.html
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.
Northy 32 nice tip! I do have one but forgot to use it! Thanks
@@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?
Loving the videos, even though I am not in any way a trained electrician - so, I hope my question is not too daft. As the transformers do not have an earth cable to connect, would it be acceptable to disconnect the earth cables from where the fault occurs? I know that there "should" be an earth on lighting circuits, but as there is technically no need in this case, would it be a problem? (Accepting that the earth is shorting with the neutral.)
You could use Nick Bundy’s spare plasticon and surface mount it😉😂
Thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks for watching
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.
Thats my method.
Very good video 👍
RE screws, put them back in the the switch but from the back, that way you know which is which and never loose them
Don't you guys have an MEN system (multiple earth neutral)? In Australia we have the MEN that eeds to be disconnected before testing IR.
Good job 👍
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?