lighting cable burnt

[L-E_Fault]

My girlfriends dad has a light in his kitchen, he told me he turned it on and it popped and then wouldn't work. The cable comes through a noggin, in between the joists into choc blocks. I pulled the cable down and found that one of the legs and cpc had burnt and snapped in the switch cable.

Any ideas what could of caused this?

 

[Andy™]

damage during install?

 

[L-E_Fault]

Re-wired about 20 years ago.

 

[Andy™]

could have been a manufacturing fault. a switch wire doesnt have much current flowing under normal use, so may have taken a long time for fault to get worse

 

[Evans Electric]

Sounds like a loose connection to me.

 

[Andy™]

Sounds like a loose connection to me.

i thought he was talking about inside the cable?

 

[L-E_Fault]

About 10 Inches from the choc bloc.

 

[Andy™]

any movement around that area? (i.e loose floorboards?) it would take a long time, but id imagine that it could eventually snap a solid conductor?

 

[tom1]

could an earth fault have blown it?

 

[Andy™]

could an earth fault have blown it?

unlikely, high earth current would cause damage, but it wouldnt be localised to one area, unless it was already a weakspot

 

[Adrian]

vermin

 

[paul b b]

vermin

dont talk about andy like that!

 

[Apache]

Cable kinked during installation?

 

[L-E_Fault]

I skimmed the ceiling about 6 months ago maybe I could of nicked it with my trowel. The bathroom is directly above, about 12" of the bath under tiles with no sign of water so can't see it being a floorboard issue.

 

[m4tty]

dont talk about andy like that!

Bit below the belt wasent it lol