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Can I ask you folk for some advice about the wiring of my flat

Started by willbo, April 27, 2021, 07:07:43 PM

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paruses

Do you have low voltage lighting? I have a similar noise that comes on when spots are turned on. The idiot who had the house a few owners ago was a DIY enthusiast/narcissist with poor skills so everything is boxed in. I was worried a out it for the same burning - down reasons but an electrician friend assured me it was OK and just the transformer (I think - but he said it was OK).



paruses


Icehaven

Quote from: paruses on May 12, 2021, 10:32:08 AM
Do you have low voltage lighting? I have a similar noise that comes on when spots are turned on. The idiot who had the house a few owners ago was a DIY enthusiast/narcissist with poor skills so everything is boxed in. I was worried a out it for the same burning - down reasons but an electrician friend assured me it was OK and just the transformer (I think - but he said it was OK).

I'm not sure, it could be that but it's odd that it only started about 6 weeks after we moved in.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on May 12, 2021, 10:59:04 AM
It's a demon. Be careful of it.

This is way more likely, I'll call the Vatican.

buzby

Quote from: icehaven on May 12, 2021, 11:28:18 AM
I'm not sure, it could be that but it's odd that it only started about 6 weeks after we moved in.
First assumption: the fridge-freezer isn't up against a nearby wall downstairs is it? Hollow stud walls can be very good at transmitting sound. As the air temperature is going up, it's the time of year that fridge freezers start doing more work.

If that's not the case, are there any devices plugged into sockets on that wall? Try turning the sockets off and unplugging them if so. A 50hz hum without the presence of a transformer (such as an Low Voltage lighting transformer previously mentioned) can be a sign that there's a dead short from Live to either Earth or Neutral - at high currents, the cables themselves will vibrate at 50Hz (you would see the electric meter spinning off it's bearings if that was the case though).

Icehaven

Quote from: buzby on May 12, 2021, 11:43:44 AM
First assumption: the fridge-freezer isn't up against a nearby wall downstairs is it? Hollow stud walls can be very good at transmitting sound. As the air temperature is going up, it's the time of year that fridge freezers start doing more work.


Hmm well the fridge is directly underneath where the noise is coming from but it's not up against any walls, it's just on the floor, and it's a lot louder at the top of the stairs than right by the fridge itself, but then the wall might be amplifying it somehow (although it isn't actually touching it). If it is that then it's weird we didn't hear it for over a month but maybe it's moved slightly and that's made some kind of difference. I'll try switching it off for a moment when I get home and see if that's it.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: icehaven on May 12, 2021, 09:52:56 AM
I moved about 2 months ago and about a fortnight ago we suddenly noticed an electric sounding hum coming from an inside wall. It definitely only started then as it's quite loud at the top of the stairs so we'd have noticed before if it had been there since we moved in, and it's not always there but it is more than it's not. It's the wall between the main bedroom and the stairs and isn't an outside wall or shared with a neighbour, so it's got to be something to do with wiring (unless some mice have got a tiny little grow going) but I'm loathe to say anything to the letting agent as they'll almost definitely have to get an electrician to open the wall to see what's going on, then we'll have to wait for a plasterer to come and fix it and it'll be a mess in the meantime etc. At the same time however I obviously don't want the house to burn down so I'm probably going to have to tell them at some point. I've not tried turning everything off at the fuse box then back on one by one to see if it's connected to one particular fuse yet but even if we do there's not much we can do about it other than tell the agent and an electrician would just do it again anyway. Ah well, we've got contents insura...Oh fuck no we don't.
Not wishing to worry you, but it sounds like something you should get looked at. Probably dodgy wiring. If it's a loose wire, it could just hang there for ages and nothing goes wrong (maybe a socket or light doesn't work), but there's always the chance it touches something it shouldn't. Electricians are normally fairly good at doing these things without demolishing too much. On the plus side, if you tell the landlord and the place burns down, you could contact your favourite tv-advertised lawyer and sue them for your lost possessions.

You could get an idea of what the problem is by going into your consumer unit (the one with the circuit breakers) and switching each one off and checking if the hum remains. They're usually labelled "lighting" "cooker" "mains 1" "mains 2" (depending on how many ring mains there are feeding sockets).

First off, cut all the power to see if it's even coming from something fed from your unit.