In old apartments, where the wiring was laid back in the Soviet Union, short circuits quite often occur, which knock out the input circuit breaker. In order to find such a “short one” we need a continuity tester or a multimeter, a little logic and the desire to figure it out….
Before you panic, check to see if some electrical appliance is shorting, disconnect everything from the network and turn on the machine; if it hasn’t broken out, look for a short circuit, turning on all the electricity consumers in your apartment in turn. On a faulty electrical appliance, the machine will trip, and you have found the cause of the short circuit. If the machine operates without load, then read below.
First of all, we look at the apartment panel, there are two options:
1. The whole apartment sits on an introductory machine or automatic traffic jam.
2. In addition to the introductory machine, there are also machines, that is, you have several groups from which the apartment is powered.
It doesn’t matter what option you have in the panel, decide which machine is knocking you out, and unplug the outgoing wire from it. Be sure to walk around the apartment and turn off all electrical appliances, since when searching for and testing a short circuit, there may be a “reverse” and you won't understand anything. To put it simply, the signal from the dial can return through a light bulb or refrigerator and show a circuit, that is, a short circuit.
In the case when you use a multimeter instead of dialing, then on the display when short it should show one, if the return flows through some electrical appliance, then there should be a resistance greater than one.
Switch position on dial
Shorty
After making sure that everything is turned off and all the bulbs are unscrewed, we begin to look for a short circuit. From the apartment switchboard the cable goes to the first dose box, which can be found by knocking on the walls. You can also use a hover indicator; it will show if the box is bricked up.
Having opened the dose box, we look at the entire wiring diagram; the power cable should come into and out of the box. All twists must be untwisted so as not to get confused later. mark the wires with a marker, so that you can twist everything the same way later.
After all the twists are untwisted, we ring the incoming power cable. If the dial tone beeps, then short circuit in the section of cable running from the panel to the first box and the short one was found. If everything is in order in the first section, we look for the second box and call the cable using the same principle. Also call all outgoing wires from the box. It is possible that the wire on the socket was burnt and a short circuit occurred. In general, check all the wires step by step.
It is quite possible that when you open the dose boxes, you will find burnt twists that cause a short circuit. It is also possible that you will need to open all the boxes in the apartment and the short one may end up on the last box.
Dear reader. In this article we will talk about such an extremely unpleasant, but, unfortunately, often occurring phenomenon as a short circuit in the house. What is it? Imagine a situation: a family is at home, someone is watching TV, someone is on the computer, someone is in the kitchen, etc. Suddenly the light in the house disappears. What do we do in these cases? That's right, we go to the shield and lift those levers that have fallen. This is where the fun begins. The levers do not stay at the top, but fall down with a click. This is a short circuit in the house. A competent person must solve this problem. In this article we will give you advice on what to do so as not to sit in the dark and cold until the electrician arrives.
Act one. We disconnect from all outlets in the apartment everything that is included in them. We also turn off all the lights in the house. Then we go to the panel again and raise all the levers that are below. If they rose and the light appeared in the house, then this means that there is a short circuit in some electrical appliance that we unplugged from the outlet. Now we begin to plug in electrical appliances one at a time. When a faulty device is turned on, a short circuit will occur, i.e. will knock out the light. This can be absolutely any device, TV, refrigerator, table lamp, washing machine, etc. Having discovered a faulty device, we do not use it. Thus, in this case we have a short circuit not in the house, but in the appliance. And it is precisely this that needs to be repaired. The same can be true for chandeliers at home. When you turn on any switch, the lights in the house will go out. Therefore, we do not use this switch until the electrician arrives.
Now let's look at another case. They turned off everything that could be turned off. But the levers in the shield do not rise. In this case, there is a short circuit in the wiring. What can be done in this case. We lower absolutely all the levers down. Now we need to find the central automaton. There are numbers under each lever. The number on the central machine is the largest. Please note - on most machines it is written either 10 or 16 Amps. And only one of them will have the number 25 or 30 or 40 or 60 Amps. This machine is the central one. We only lift it. In most cases it will remain at the top. Next to him is a machine gun, which is wider in size than all the others and also has a lever. This is an RCD device protective shutdown. This device may not exist, but most apartments still have it. Now we raise its lever. If he stayed at the top, then that’s good. If you fall down, you will have to sit without light until the master arrives. If it remains at the top, then one by one we raise the levers of the 10 and 16 Ampere machines. When you turn on any of them, the RCD lever will fall, and the lever of the central machine may fall along with it. Now we know which machine is causing the problem. We leave it turned off, raise all the other levers up. In some part of the apartment there will be no light, any sockets will not work. But in the rest of the apartment everything will work as it did. And you can calmly wait for the technician, who will solve the problem for you.
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One of the common reasons why problems arise with electrical appliances, is damage to the cable in a certain section of the wiring. It is good when the location of the cable break is known and is accessible for quick repair. But what to do if a break or short circuit occurs in a closed section of the circuit, somewhere in the grooves? In this case, you need to either call a professional electrician to troubleshoot the problem, or look for the break yourself. And if you decided to read this article, then you probably chose the second option.
Short circuit in hidden wiring
We are looking for short circuit areas
Before searching for a break hidden wiring, you should make sure that there is voltage at the input and that the machines are working properly. If, upon inspection of the machines, it is determined that the plugs are in the cocked state, then the emergency occurred in the house itself, but if the machine is in the off position, then this indicates a short circuit has occurred. Then you can begin to directly search for the area where the failure occurred.
As a rule, wiring in the house is installed according to the radial principle. In other words, beams (wiring) diverge from the dose box to the sockets, and a separate cable is supplied to each switch. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the wiring diagram that is installed in your home - this will greatly simplify the search for a break or short circuit in the circuit.
Find the dose box and open it - there are several twists inside. It is recommended to measure the resistance and voltage on each line. If the indicators are positive everywhere, you need to look for the cause in another dose box. As soon as you find a twist on which there is no tension and resistance, this means that there is a break in this line that needs to be repaired.
We are looking for short circuits in hidden wiring
So we have defined common area, where the rupture occurred. Now you need to find out in what specific place the gap occurred, and then eliminate it. Let's look at how to find a break in hidden wiring.
Finding the break point
The first and simplest method of further action is to open the plaster and find a wire that has no voltage. The autopsy is performed with distribution box and further to the site of damage. A large exposed area of grooves on the wall, dust and noise - all this in order to find and eliminate an area several centimeters in size.
Note that in some cases it is difficult to even determine the route of the cable that runs in the wall. It’s good if the electricians used GOST standards and wiring installation rules when laying the cable, but there are often cases when the cables are laid by the most shortcut to reduce costs. In this case, it may be necessary to remove all the plaster from the wall in order to determine the route and eliminate the defect. In order to avoid such destructive repairs, electricians use a special device to detect broken hidden wiring.
Professionals most often use the MS-58M device - a special non-contact probe for determining the voltage on the path through various materials, incl. concrete, brick, wood, etc.
Device MS-58M
For everyday purposes, simple combination type variations like MS-48NS are also used. Using this device, you can determine the voltage on a certain section of the conductor, ring the wire, and also determine the section of the route where the voltage disappears.
Device MS-48NS
As a rule, such devices accurately determine the location of the break - up to 8-12 cm. In this way, the amount of work is significantly reduced and the cable can be repaired without significant damage.
When installing electrical wiring, first of all it is necessary to ensure the reliability of the installation. After all, working with electricity is no joke. Safety in electrical installations always comes first. True, despite the fact that installation work even first-class specialists can perform it, life still makes its own adjustments. Here's a typical example. finished. Everything was done as needed - redevelopment, clean finishing of room surfaces, a modern bathroom, installed suspended ceiling. And suddenly the electrical wiring is damaged... the owner of the apartment will immediately panic, because all this beauty will have to be disturbed in order to eliminate the defect.
It’s good if the network runs in pipes, cable ducts, or the wiring is open (which is unlikely to happen with such repairs). If not, and it is laid in grooves and plastered, then the level of “destruction” of the finishing in the newly renovated apartment depends on the accuracy of detection of the area of damage.
Your lights have gone out, your apartment has lost power? Don't start to panic, the whole house may have lost power. Make sure you are the only one with no tension. I had a similar case when my apartment lost power and I was looking for the reasons at home, only then I decided to ring the bell for my neighbors and realized that this was a planned outage.
Remember at what moment this happened. Perhaps you turned on some powerful device and therefore the machine or RCD turned off. Look in the panel in the apartment to see if there are machines with the toggle switch down, and also check in the panel on the landing. If you find a machine with the toggle switch down, turn it on by lifting it up. RCDs do not always turn off because something is not working properly in your house, sometimes this happens due to a high voltage drop in the network.
If you find a disconnected machine or RCD and when I try to turn it on, it turns off again, possible reasons a malfunction of this machine, a malfunction of some device connected to this group, or a short circuit on the conductor (wiring); the insulation could have melted due to overload. In these cases, you can’t go anywhere without a specialist! Of course, you can turn off the devices and try to turn them on again.
If a short circuit occurs at home for which you could not determine the cause yourself, you must immediately call an electrician. You shouldn’t troubleshoot problems yourself, because in addition to general knowledge about electricity, you also need to have significant practical experience. Be able to use a special device to detect the location of damage and correct them with minimal losses for finishing.
Special equipment for finding burnt wiring is needed not only for its restoration. Any attempt to make a hole in the wall at random can end badly if you don’t know whether the wiring is laid there or not. For example, in old buildings, in order to install a pipe for a heated towel rail in the wall in the bathroom, it is necessary to make a deep groove. And it is not a fact that work cannot take place in the area electrical wires or cable. And most likely there is no wiring diagram for this place. It is precisely in this case that a special device is required to detect hidden wiring in the building. Subsequently, you can call a specialist who, thanks to the device, will be able to draw up a diagram of the entire lighting network and mark the branches of wires that fit into sockets or switches.
And if you have not yet made serious repairs to your apartment, then you are in a more advantageous situation than the owner of an apartment with major repairs. Thanks to the ready-made diagram, you can first do the electrical installation and only then finish the rooms or add socket groups with peace of mind. All old aluminum wires will be replaced with copper, which greatly reduces the possibility of short circuits and electrical wiring failures.
To summarize, it is worth saying that if some sockets in your house do not work or there is no electricity at all, then you should not be upset. Take advantage of new age help and technology.
Today I will tell you how to find a short circuit in an apartment, and, if possible, eliminate it. This will be only my experience, but I hope it will be very useful to you.
How to find a short circuit in an apartment
So, how to find a short circuit in an apartment when you are at home, doing what you love, and suddenly it suddenly becomes dark. I'll tell you step by step:
- We take a flashlight (therefore, it is advisable to get an emergency flashlight in the apartment - just for such cases) and go to the electrical panel
- We look and see that all the local machines, together with the general switch, are looking down. It’s immediately clear that something has probably shorted out.
- As I told you in the article, in this situation, when all the machines are facing down, I first turn on the common switch. But he immediately falls down. Now there is no doubt. There is a "short man" in the apartment. There is a possibility that something could have burned out. But let's take things in order. There is one trick with which you can at least find the source of your shorty without calling a specialist and then decide what to do. Well, if something burns out, there’s nothing you can do about it.
- We begin to sequentially go through all the sockets in the house and first turn off the devices that were turned on before the circuit was connected to these sockets (for example, a TV, video recorder, telephone, computer, etc.), and then remove the plugs from all sockets
- Let's take a walk around the apartment again and remember where else there might be an outlet. In general, when everything is turned off, let’s go back to the electrical panel and turn on the general switch again
- If it falls down again, then you can call a specialist. There is no need to look further for the reason. However, in most cases, like mine, the general switch turned on. Now it’s clear that one of the wires that we removed from the socket or the device connected to it is shorting
- The next step is to turn on the local machines sequentially one after another
- If any of the machines fell down, then the problem is in the machine. Call the technician again. But, most likely, it will work out for you, as it happened for me.
- So, let's summarize: we turned off all the devices, turned off all the wires from the sockets, turned on the general switch and all the local circuit breakers. And all our machine guns look up. A good sign. Just for fun, let's turn on a light somewhere. You will appreciate that you yourself were able to at least return the light to the apartment and all the machines are working for you
- Now, we turn on the lights sequentially with all the switches available in the apartment. Most likely it works. Great, really. Turn off the light. We leave the one we need only for the convenience of research
- Now let's go through all the plugs that have been removed from the sockets. Let's look at them carefully. We may see blackening on some wires. Then we don't touch them. We will check them at the last moment, when everything else is working.
- And finally, sequentially, moving from one socket to another, we begin to carefully turn on the removed plugs, which do not arouse suspicion. That's what I did. And he finally reached the extension cord to which the washing machine was connected. When I turned on the plug, the machine switched off again. Now I know exactly who said "Meow"
- We turn off this plug again, go to the electrical panel and turn on all the machines in sequence. The reason has been established. In my case, the extension cord failed. Well washing machine I just checked through another extension cord. She worked
- Thus, through simple actions, we did not call a specialist, saved money, were left with light and were very pleased with ourselves
THERE IS ONE IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATION. IF YOU HAVE VERY VALUABLE (EXPENSIVE) DEVICES, POSTPONE CHECKING THEM TILL THE VERY END. IF EVERYTHING IS WORKING AT ALL, IE YOU HAVE ALREADY PLUGED ALL THE OTHER PLUGS INTO THE SOCKETS AND YOUR MOST FAVORITE AND EXPENSIVE COMPUTER (TV) IS LEFT TO CHECK – IN THIS CASE, YOU SHOULD NOT PLUG THE PLUG ON AGAIN – CALL A SPECIALIST.
If the experience of a short circuit that happened to me did not make an impression on you and you are still not at all confident in yourself and are afraid of electricity like fire, just call a specialist after reading the article:. And to make at least a little friend with electricity, refer to the article:.
And here is a selection of creepy but beautiful short circuits:
Today we learned how to find a short circuit in an apartment.