Lighting fault

[Russdl]

Our upstairs lights (ceiling and 5amp circuit) are all on the same breaker. All has been fine for a year or so, but something has gone wrong now. The precursor may have been when a bedside light on the 5amp circuit was turned on. Apparently it flashed on/off in a regular pattern until it was switched off and now won’t turn on (led bulb that has been tested as working). 
 

Bed 1, en-suite, wardrobe. All ok

Bed 2, nothing works*
Bed 3, nothing works*
Bed 4, ceiling doesn’t work* 5 amp circuit does work. 
Bathroom and landing, nothing works. 
 

* the ceiling lights are LED panels and they are faintly glowing all the time irrespective of switch position. The glow is so dim it can only be seen at night. 
 

Electrician tells me it may be a loose neutral but he can’t get to us for a week or more to check. I’ve had a quick look in the back of the switches of the affected rooms but nothing found. 
 

Does this sound like a loose neutral. If so, is there a clever way of finding where it is?

[ProDave]

It is certainly going to be a loose wire somewhere, could be L or N.  

 

Assuming it has been wired the modern way of "loop at switch" then your problem will be behind one of the switches.  

 

Unless you feel confident checking yourself, wait for the electrician. The evenings are light now so you can manage with a few non working lights for a bit.

[Russdl]

@ProDave Yep, the lack of working lights is not an issue, the 13amp sockets are fine. 
 

I’m happy to look for a loose wire, easy enough to isolate the whole circuit. Thanks for the input, I’ll continue the search. 

[ProDave]

If you want to have a look yourself, then turn off ALL the lighting circuits, and carefully unscrew each light switch one at a time and carefully pull the switch forward.

 

Neutrals will usually be linked together in a terminal block in the back of the switch box, check all those are secure and the terminal screws are tight, and no cables will pull out of the terminal.

 

The bigger problem will be if it's a live that's loose, you could end up with 3 or 4 brown wires all falling out of their terminals as you pull the switch forward and then no simple way (for the layman) to determine which one should go back into which terminal.

[Russdl]

@ProDave all copied Dave, thanks. There’s certainly a ton of wires behind some of the switches I’ve looked behind so far so I shall take care to not disturb any lives.