Where is the fusebox ?

Hello.  A friend of mine has a pub and the hand dryier in the gents has never worked.  Tried the spur fuse but nothing.  I put a beepy red tester pen (technical jargon to the spur and got nothing.  The BRTP does an excellent job of tracing live cables (well at least around switches, sockets and shallow cable runs, so I'm guessing that there is no power to the spur.  Non of the fuse boards have any tripped circuits, but then again this is in a pub that has probabley had all sorts of dodgy additions. All I can think is that there is a yet to be discovered breaker somewhere.  Any thoughts on how to find it ?  Thanks.

Maf said:

Hello.  A friend of mine has a pub and the hand dryier in the gents has never worked.  Tried the spur fuse but nothing.  I put a beepy red tester pen (technical jargon to the spur and got nothing.  The BRTP does an excellent job of tracing live cables (well at least around switches, sockets and shallow cable runs, so I'm guessing that there is no power to the spur.  Non of the fuse boards have any tripped circuits, but then again this is in a pub that has probabley had all sorts of dodgy additions. All I can think is that there is a yet to be discovered breaker somewhere.  Any thoughts on how to find it ?  Thanks.

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1/  Stop using ANY guesswork...

2/ Test the physical conductors with a proper approved voltage tester to see if there is any voltage that may be less than your bleepy, (non-contact) device can detect.

3/ Measure if there is any continuity between Neutral & Earth and or try shorting Neutral & Earth, to see if any RCD's trip in any fuse boards.

4/ Open up all fuse boards to see if there are any disconnected cables hanging lose inside them.

5/  Long lead continuity testing between suspect spur...  and almost anything else you can find to see if it is connected in any way shape or form....?

6/ Have a beer then go back to guesswork...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guinness Guinness  

7/ wire in a new circuit for the hand dryer.

8. Walk away. Pub electrics are best avoided and publican often won't pay to fix things properly

Murdoch said:

8. Walk away. Pub electrics are best avoided and publican often won't pay to fix things properly

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Pales in comaprison to farm electrics though.....

9/  NEVER assume the mcb labelled "gents hand dryer" will actually turn off the gents hand dryer.  Last time I made that optimistic assumption, I turned off an office full of computers.

10, always insist on payment, not beer and food

SPECIAL LOCATION said:

try shorting Neutral & Earth, to see if any RCD's trip in any fuse boards.

Guinness Guinness  

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That's hardly an approved or sensible means of doing anything...

Phoenix said:

Pales in comaprison to farm electrics though.....

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Murdoch said:

Pub electrics are best avoided and publican often won't pay to fix things properl

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Motor repair garages are the worst  ....great at charging us the Earth for  a 1/2 hour job  but never want to pay for new light  / socket etc , 

Risteard said:

That's hardly an approved or sensible means of doing anything...

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Why is that Risteard ?       The old Drummond  mains tester,   L - E   will often  trip RCBOs  ....if one drops out  you've found the circuit .   :C         I always meant to buy one of those Martindale   fuse finders  ...bit expensive  but when constantly finding unmarked boards   could have been a  useful tool .   

Risteard said:

That's hardly an approved or sensible means of doing anything...

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Perfectly sensible if you have absolutely no idea where a cable is fed from,

and you have exhausted most other avenues of investigation. 

Go back and read my point 2/  i.e prove the circuit is dead first...

Now if this unknown circuit happens to be off a board with a shared RCD supplying other circuits..

It is quite possible the RCD would trip if you were "Working Safely" cutting the dead cable and the N-E shorted during this normal  Safe working...

So to simulate an already proven cable being cut by touching N&E is hardly going to endanger anyone....

Any more than what happens quite frequently if you were say cutting into a ring cable fed from a split -load board to extend it...

But it may just give an indication of which board the cable connects to if it is RCD protected with other circuits.

Guinness