Electrical Q?

[Padmei]

Better tell the registered sparky who showed me that one.

If the lite fitting is in an old house they used to run the live wires daisy chained around the lite fittings & then down to the switch. Sometimes lite fittings are used as junctions for live wires so although the switch is off there could very well be live wires you're working on. I'm sure the reg sparky that told you what to do was aware of the age of your house or style of wiring in it & that's why he said it was alright. I'm not trying to pass myself off as the chief safety officer on KB but passing on a few bits of knowledge that could help you decide whether or not you want to carry on down the path of DIY wiring.

Voltaire i can't believe they still allow that fricking ali insulation strip to be laid under houses - it's a fricking death trap. One wrong staple/ nail & that stuff is live waiting for the next sparky/plumber to get jammed betwen it & an excellently earthed water pipe. It gives me the shits. Incidentially I would love it if anyone is going to get theeir houses re insulated to test the average ambient temp of a cold bedroom, hall etc over a week or so vs the average ambient outside temp & repeat it again after the insulation has been done. I reckon I know what the difference would be.

[Padmei]

Hey, thanks for putting in the time and effort to write up all this info. I thought it would be an easy fix but seeing as how it's not my house and I'm just boarding I wont actually attempt to do anything myself, as I said I thought there might be something I could do myself but after seeing that the power will have to be turned off I might just let the people know whats happened, I just feel bad as they had to replace the showerhead as that had a split in the hose and now this...just feel like I'm breaking everything even though it's not my fault lol

No worries bro. LOL I was on a job yesterday that was like that- things were going wrong that I had nothing to do with but I was getting the vibe from the owners it was all my fault.
Roll on the lotto win I say

[Swoop]

I'm sure the reg sparky that told you what to do was aware of the age of your house or style of wiring in it & that's why he said it was alright.

Told? No, he showed me by doing the work on the dead side of the circuit. Not at home but on a commercial job.

The fitting was reasonably heavy as well. (Edit: <--- think about it.)

[Akzle]

just feel like I'm breaking everything even though it's not my fault lol

it totally is.

[jellywrestler]

I've had proper qualified sparkies in who happily wired new switches and such up with the power still on. They are just "very very careful" to do one wire at a time, from old fitting to new fitting, to avoid crossing the beams.

Just sayin'

(Me, I turn off the whole house to do stuff like that.)

yep i've been a sparky for 33 years and do as much live stuff as i can as it keeps the brain ticking over but no way would i recommend anybody who isn't a sparky (and some who are even) to do live.
Drew on here told me he works on stuff live and his basic approach is laughable to anyone in the know, he'll lose an eye one day or worse I'm pickin.

[jellywrestler]

Proper process would be to identify the circuit breaker or fuse, turn off the breaker and lock it, or remove the fuse. Test and then take the fitting apart.

clearly you don't know shit,
a lot of domestic circuit breakers are removable and very few of any in a domestic situation are 'lockable'

[Whynot]

Man apologies for sounding like a cock

Sounds like you have had plenty of practise