I have one electrical zone in my house that has no electricity. I have checked the circuit breaker and it is not the problem. There are no GFIs on this circuit. I was testing one outlet and got a nasty spark, but why would that knock out the entire line instead of just throwing out the circuit breaker? Any ideas of what the problem can be?

Carl, February 2009

Just guessing...

In the UK power wiring is organised on a ring circuit. With this arrangement you may not notice a broken connection because power will come from the other side of the ring.

If a second connection then breaks on that circuit a string of outlets will suddenly become dead.

Examine all sockets (including the working ones) - don't stop checking when you find the first bad connection.

Good luck...

Peccavi, February 2009