Hello and happy holidays everyone!
So very christmassy to happen but last night at 9:30pm our apartment lost power, we have messaged and called the landlord this morning to no response. There is total power loss and it is an old switchboard which i dont know how it works.
I looked and the switchboard seems very rusty and not in best shape, i added some photos. as an international student i have no idea what to do haha.
any help is appreciated
by joemamaforeal
24 comments
I see the thing on the left called “NFI Schutzschalter” and it’s turned off. What happens, if you flip it on? Does ist stay on or will it go off instantly after?
If flipping the switch on the left does nothing with the safety bulbs screwed in you can check if they have a button which isn’t pressed, some models have these.
If not, you should have some spares in your flat, replacing the current ones should fix it. Maybe one burned trough, happens sometimes.
Do you have power anywhere? I saw that you removed all the fuses, have any of them tripped?
What is the FI for? It’s off. Did you turn it off?
Have you tried switching the black switch on the left up to “I”? Does it switch right back down to “0”?
Also, do you have any idea what caused the outage (were you using a specific electric appliance..?)
The RCD (labeled Siemens NFI schutzschalter) switch next to the fuse board (the grey one) is set to off.
Unless you did that, this might be the issue. Try switching it back on (after obviously screwing back the fuses) and see if it triggers again.
If it does that, something causing a residual current in your apartment. It could be water somewhere it shouldn’t be or something broken in your oven or other appliance. You could then remove fuses until you isolated the faulty circuit.
By the way, those old fuses would show a red dot in the middle if they have triggered. Then they are broken and need to be replaced. Therefore you can screw them out and replace the actual fuse.
That thing looks like it belongs in a museum.
Do the neighbors and/or the common rooms (stairway etc.) have power?
he might be in egypt trying to dig up a replacement fuse, i hear theres poor reception in the desert
Woahhh! Wer hat denn noch so eine alte Installation!
If your landlord is not responding and you are of power, write them an email stating your issues and call an electrician to fix it. The landlord has to pay for it.
From my experience there should be two fuse boxes. One that is in your apartment and another one that is in the hallway, probably right next to the electricity meter. Which one is the one in the photo?
I once had a similar issue where all fuses in my apartment looked fine but the one next to the electricity meter was blown. Had to screw in a new fuse that was luckily still in the main fuse box.
So which fuse box is this? Did you find the other one?
I fear he died of old age last century, judging from the electrical installation from the Kaiser’s time
You shouldn’t call your landlord, but your facility manager. Typically you see display in your house with “Hausmeisterservice” or “Havarienummern”
Be careful, some fuses can break when you unscrew them.
Hey, sorry if this is a stupid comment as you mentioned you’d tried the switch (and I ain’t German,) but it looks like it has a test button below it. I don’t have a fuse box like this, but I do have an extension cable with a button like that which will pop out when it’s surge protection circuit is tripped.
Edited to remove a suggestion another commenter suggested is dangerous.
have you thought about putting the switch on the left, back up?
Its turned off.
And please if you have no idea, leave the sockets there alone. they have windows you can see if broken. They look fine.
Just turn the NFI Back on, and look what happens.
You saw that the FI on the left in the white box is off (turned down)?
Is that on purpose by you?
If not, that can be the reason for the loss of power. Turn it on (up) again.
Otherwise the four fuses in the black box are done when they trigger and need to be replaced by new ones. You can get new ones in a Baumarkt for example. Best to show them one of the old ones.
Just cautiosly turn one of the ceramic parts counter-clock-wise to release the one fuse sitting behind and hope that the fuse isn’t totally broken.
I imagine that you had a surge somewhere and the safety jumped in order to not short the whole thing. Try to unplug everything you have at home and insert the fuses and switch the lever to left to on. Should this not work then one of the fuses is burnt. Usually you can tell when the little center piece in the fuse sort of jumps out or is burnt.
The thing on the left side, is it a RCD?
Write your Landlord an EMail and Message that if this Problem isnt fixed by tomorrow you will be calling an elctrician to fix this and deducting his Pay from your rent.
They might react quite qickly after this.
thank you so much for all your help guys! you thankfully a neighbour came in and saved the day!
The black box is an old type fuse box, which hold the electrical fuse inserts like this one https://www.wasserman.eu/en/p/fuse-insert-2a-dii-gg-biwtz-500v-e27-002312401-168563 . This kind is still used in EU, and I have similar fuses at my apt. White caps unscrew, and you can take out and replace the fuse-plug. The little glass on the second one is cloudy, making me think it was blown.
Call him again, every 10min one call. Until he responds. Otherwise you have the option to lower your rent for a month if he doesn’t fix it. Set your landlord a day until it has to be fixed or you will cut the tent for the next month. That usually gets them up their feet pretty quickly, but it also shouldn’t be your first option, because it very much strains your relationship with your landlord.
So imo wait this day, call him a couple times more and if he doesn’t respond until tomorrow threaten him with your rent.
the third fuse from the right is shot – unscrew it, check the rating on it ( how many amps/volts) and go buy a new one and replace it