Any electricians out there?

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Our house has developed a weird electrical glitch. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago, when my partner put in a new thermostat. This house has three storeys – the top storey is a converted loft which was made into an artist’s studio by our predecessors. And because it is a long way up and they didn’t want to make a big mess, they fitted a wireless thermostat on that floor. Fast forward to about three weeks ago and the thermostat was worn out – the LCD screen was unreadable and so of course it couldn’t be used. So my partner bought a replacement and fitted it himself. He’s no electrician but he copied the previous wiring and it all worked. But then shortly after that, the lights started behaving oddly. First the light over the stairs went funny, and would only turn on some of the time. We tried a new bulb, but that didn’t solve the problem. We checked the light fitting itself, but that was also OK. That light is operated by two switches, one at the top and one at the bottom, but the light sometimes wouldn’t turn on when the bottom one was switched, instead we had to run upstairs and switch the top switch, and then it would work. Of course we thought there must be some issue with the switch – but then other lights started doing odd things. The bathroom light started refusing to turn on, or turning on after a period of rumination. Since there is a pull switch in there, you can’t tell by looking whether it is switched on or off, and after a while you forget how many times you’ve pulled it. So when the light didn’t turn on and you walked away, it would suddenly come on a minute or two later. Next was the girls’ bedrooms. Both those rooms have two separate sets of lights, a central pendant light and two spotlights by the window (maybe intended for a desk), each with their own switch. But then they also started behaving peculiarly. Sometimes, if you switched one switch, nothing would happen, and then both lights would come on when you switched the other on as well. Or sometimes they would swap and each switch would switch on the other’s light. Then the same thing started happening in the kitchen, which is a long room with two sets of lights switched separately. When the nearer switch was switched on, the farthest set of lights would come on instead of the nearer ones and vice versa. Now the lights in the loft are also misbehaving. One set of spotlights will turn on but then goes off after a minute or so and refuses to work again. Obviously all these problems, over three floors and involving several different circuits with separate circuit breakers, can’t be due to a simple problem such as a loose wire in the switch. Is it possible that somehow the new wireless thermostat could be producing some sort of interference that is messing everything up? The photo isn’t our house – chandeliers at the assembly rooms in Bath, England. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.