Is there an electrician in the house..?

dimanche 13 mars 2016

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but here goes:

I was replacing a couple of outside light units today. The first one went fine and was isolated by breaking the 'lighting' circuit on the consumer unit. The second one, even though it looked to be on the same circuit and works from the same switch plate, didn't... Badly didn't...

Assuming (I know, I know) the circuit was isolated, I was shortening the supply cable by cutting it with a pair of pliers. Bad mistake. It went pop. Very luckily indeed I was fine. I then isolated the complete consumer unit and continued.

Finished and not only did the light not work but I've noticed that a single wall socket in my music room has stopped working (2 other sockets fine) plus another single 13a wall socket in an adjacent room has also stopped working. There don't appear to be any tripped fuses and everything else in the house is ok... (Though I haven't tested the hifi which was plugged into the duff socket yet to see if it still works when plugged into a good socket - too much upheaval and too much trauma right now...)

What the heck have I done and is there a DIY fix? I'm not usually such a clot and I really could use some help..! Oh, no signs of blackening externally on the affected sockets. I haven't taken them off the wall yet. That's a job for when it's light.