At some point in your marquee erecting career you\u2019ll have a problem with the power supply, generally shown by a lack of available light, lack of music or lack of tea facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Golden rule: Start at the power source and work your way to the marquee.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no point dismantling a chandelier looking for a fault only to find the extension lead powering it has accidentally been turned off in the house. Trust me I know as I\u2019ve done it several times (an intelligent person would learn..)<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re getting your power from a house using RCD adapter plugs (if you\u2019re not then you should be) then they have little red tabs in the top saying they\u2019re working. No red tab means it\u2019s either tripped (reset it) or there\u2019s no power (house has a power cut) or the fuse has gone (replace it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next step is to follow the extension lead across to the marquee \u2013 you\u2019re checking to see if it\u2019s been cut through or damaged by a lawn mower\/hedge cutter\/etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you get to the marquee end of the extension lead disconnect it from whatever\u2019s plugged in and test it with something you know works (you might need a separate 16amp plug to 13amp socket adapter for this step). Ideally this would be a 13amp socket tester but failing that a radio or hoover. Nothing too valuable in case there\u2019s actually problems with the power supply! If you get power at the socket but not the other end then swap the extension lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have power then the next step (assuming it\u2019s lighting) is to take the dimmer out -bypass it by connecting the chandeliers straight on to the extension lead. If the chandeliers work then you\u2019ve got a problem with the dimmer (if overloaded they can melt inside which is fatal for them. Remember maximum two 5-arm chandeliers per dimmer). If the chandeliers still don\u2019t work then you\u2019ve got a problem with one or both of the chandeliers. Take them down and test them individually to see where the fault lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Problems with power happen quite regularly, generally it\u2019s nuisance tripping (a bulb blowing) that means resetting the RCD adapter or even the trip inside the house. We test the chandeliers last as they\u2019re furthest from the house and can mean taking down all the linings. It won\u2019t be an early day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst talking about power it\u2019s worth mentioning that most catering equipment isn\u2019t electrically tested regularly enough so often trips an RCD. If it keeps tripping don\u2019t be tempted to remove the RCD, it\u2019s there to protect people. If there\u2019s faulty equipment it should not be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottom line: Always have a 13amp socket tester, a 16amp plug to 13amp socket adapter, a few fuses and a small screwdriver in your van. A torch wouldn\u2019t go a miss either \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n An early blog this week as I\u2019m away next week. Yes, yes more holidays than Santa. I\u2019d point out that we\u2019re having another baby in November when all hell will break loose so we\u2019re going away while we can!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks for reading<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spencer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At some point in your marquee erecting career you\u2019ll have a problem with the power supply, generally shown by a lack of available light, lack of music or lack of tea facilities. What to do? Golden rule: Start at the power source and work your way to the marquee. There\u2019s no point dismantling a chandelier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marqueesforsale.uk\/diy2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}