its inductance.

neon screwdrivers.....never trust em

it lights up away from the CU end cos your a shorter  route to earth, whereas at the CU its very low so chooses to go the easy route.

nothing to worry about.

oh and please, please get a decent multimeter

ss

H'mmmm.

So it's inductance - nothing to worry about (Superspark)

Or

An earth fault which definitely needs sorting (Plugwash)

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

So do I worry or don't I?  And will a decent earth connection straight back to the CU cure it?

Thanks - if confused -

John D


Thought - I suppose if it is an earth fault as I have no test equipment I could do a continuity test using 12v feed and a couple of bulbs......after disconnecting from the CU, naturally....!

[quote author=JohnDavies  link=1106954462/0#5 date=1106959760]H'mmmm.

So it's inductance - nothing to worry about (Superspark)

Or

An earth fault which definitely needs sorting (Plugwash)

[/quote]
the result you are getting doesn't mean the objects are live.

what it DOES MEAN is that they are NOT EARTHED when they sure as hell should be in case something live touches them.

Actually, it seems logical if you think about it - yes, it is caused by induction, and yes, there is an earth fault!

I will check the feed cable by substitution and see if this cures it as the fault is present on all sockets and roses, although all earths look  sound visually.  

A thought - I do have a multimeter - I normally use it for car wiring but it has higher settings - is it a simple thing for anyone to tell me how to test and what the readings should be?

Thanks

John D

what you need to do JD is make a flylead from some cable, do your 12v bulb setup, turn off CU, remove earth cable for this particular light circuit, and then go to your furthest light fitting, link one end of the earth cable to the lighting earth at the CU
then take the other end to the furthest point.

this is a good, although wont tell you of high resistances ect, way of checking.

but i would advice you to go for an atleast £9.99 multimeter

my test gear has cost me well over 2 grand, obviously you wouldent need most of it, but my £60 quid multimeter holds its own  

i still think its induction.

it can appear at the lighting point and not at the CU, think of it like an earth rod, your one, the supply is one.

your closer as a path.....

electricity always takes the shortest route, which is great, unless its across your chest....

its good your checking JD.

i agree there could be a break in the earth cable, but i think its unlikly because ive come across this before, which is why the neon in my box is used as the party piece only  

ss

oh btw stoday, just thaught id let everyone know here

STODAYS APPLICATION TO TRADE WAS REFUSED.
on the grounds of being totaly unqualified, and showing no evedence of being so.

whoops....did i say that

it should be noted that sparkys seem to refer to any pickup of voltage on close wires as inductance even though the behaviour looks far more like capacitance between the cores.

Ok, not havin a go, or meaning to cause any offence but.......

Helping solve faults like this one are what this part of the forum is all about.
As many of you have pointed out, neon screwdrivers are not nest instruments, simply indicators, indicators that will glow from 100-500 volts, and only then if the person holding them isn`t wearing gloves, decent shoes or standing on a ladder.
whilst just testing for continuity using a bellset (or battery/lamp)is ok,  it will not give any indication of resistance/impedance so isn`t really suitable for solving potentially leathal faults like this one (the intensity of the lamp isn`t a satisfactory indicator im afraid )

Stuff like this is ok for fixing cars but isn`t suitable for fixed electrical installations, domestic or otherwise.

Not ranting, just think its important that everybody understands why it is nescescery to test and why we all spend a lot of money on test gear and the maintenance of it.

Paul;

.....the problem is neons are crap.
full stop. no questions about it, honestly...
they cant even tell you with reliability if something is live!

they cant prove continuety...
can i ask how you found the break in the earth cable?

the problem is running a earth wire from the cu and testing with this will not work as it wont be subject to the inductance that occours in bunches of cables.
so it wont light the neon

on a multimeter you should also be using a loop impendence tester to measure the PFC and PSC (Ze and Zs ect) and from this you must work out trip times from the impendence of the circuit, if its too high then you would have to use bigger conductors, or by use of an rcd ect ect etc, but without having a go, and not meaning to sound like it, but thats why we went to college and spend £10000s of pounds on electrical test equipment and training, satisfying red tape and registering.........

a neon screwdriver....if thats the only bit of test kit you have used......please, please, use the multimeter and altleast get some R1+R2s on your circuits.

ss