Light fitting

patg

Hi, hope you may be able to advise me on a problem.

I am replacing a hallway light fitting which controls 2 lights (1x upstairs and 1x downstairs)

Problem being the connection box on the old fitting bears no resemblance to the new fitting so I wasn't able to work out which wires go into which socket by comparing the two items.

Furthermore I have a B&Q book for reference however all the wires in the house are simply grey so I cannot proceed by following the book's instructions on live, neutral etc - colour coded instructions.

My best efforts yesterday resulted in the light being connected in the downstairs hall but the upstairs one not working and all other lights downstairs not working too!

How can I work out which wire is live, neutral etc.....

Many thanks in advance

DublinDilbert

Sounds like your in trouble my friend.

Rule number 1, don't disconnect things, unless your sure exactly which is which... and if the colour coding is not correct label them. IF your not sure, take a digital pic, post here at boards and we'll help you out!

When you say the wires are gray, is it just the outside PVC thats gray? is the inner PVC insulation a different colour?

Roughly when was the house wired? (50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's??? )

How many wires have you got?

What do you mean by the hallway fitting controls 2 lights?? do you mean that the switch in the hall controls both the hall and landing light?

Your B&Q book probably has all the diagrams for the UK light circuit wiring, which is different to what we use here...

If all the wires have been disconnected it might be hard to figure out what's what, without belling out some of the wires...

patg

Hi DublinDilbert

The house is a fairly new build so the wiring would date to the original construction in the 80s.

The tubings are all grey - the inner PVC insulation is black on each wire so I don't know any way of telling what wire is earth, neutral etc. How can I work that out?

The switch as you suggest controls the hall and the upstairs landing.

I have put the old fitting back on for the time being with each of the wires where it originally came from and all lights are working once again. - thats fine for now but obviously I still want to replace the fitting.

I would be grateful if you could further advise on this.

patg

I have added some photos - apologies for the poor quality they were taken by phone.

You can see the unlabelled wires from photo 103, photo 104 is the existing connection box which has a small wire cut down and running between two sockets on the box (A and Photo 105 is the new fitting which you will see does not resemble the connection fitting on the old fitting.

Regards

DublinDilbert

AHHHHHH ok... you said light fitting in your original post, but you meant light switch

OK, i see the problem now.... Looks like the electrican only had one roll of cable with black insulation on it! Although in this case the insulation colour will not help, as they should all be brown or red ( depending on when it was wired. )

Can you confirm if you have 2 way switching? ( i assume you do)


1) You'll need to take the 2 wires for the 2 way switch to upstairs, from the terminals marked L1 & L2 and transfer to new switch. (NB there will be 2 L1 and 2 L2s on your switch, take the ones from the correct side)

2) You'll need to take the single wire from the old switch, it should be in terminal L1 of the old switch, and transfer to the new switch.

3) you'll need to take the live in / out wires and put each of them to the 2 common terminals. take the "link" wire off the back of the old switch, and put it on to the new switch, this will link the 2 terminals marked "common" or "com".

To be honest it should be a case of just matching up the com/L1/L2 wires from each of the switches, and transferring one at a time...

patg

Dublin Dilbert

Thanks for your advice - now sorted.

Matching up connections to where they were on the old switch was how I started trying to sort this out. Problem being the different sockets were labelled up differently on the old box and also they are in different positions as far as I can see. - particularly as far as the small cut off piece is concerned.

Anyway, I have had another bash at it following your advice and its worked out perfectly so thanks for your help.

I'm sure for those with a bit of savvy this would be a very simple task but not for the unitiated. Many thanks for the help.

DublinDilbert

patg wrote: »

Dublin Dilbert

Thanks for your advice - now sorted.

Matching up connections to where they were on the old switch was how I started trying to sort this out. Problem being the different sockets were labelled up differently on the old box and also they are in different positions as far as I can see. - particularly as far as the small cut off piece is concerned.

Anyway, I have had another bash at it following your advice and its worked out perfectly so thanks for your help.

I'm sure for those with a bit of savvy this would be a very simple task but not for the unitiated. Many thanks for the help.

No worries... You also now have the satisfaction of another job done....

patg

Hey DublinDilbert. Remember me from yesterday. Well guess what?

Although the light switches work I have managed to do something where ALL the lights in the downstairs of our house now only work when the hallway light is on!!

Have to laugh really. Please advise if you think I may have done something easily rectifiable. If not I may have to concede defeat.

DublinDilbert

Which switch is controlling all the down stairs lights?

Your live in / live out link has been broken.... and the switch is controlling the live out to the rest of the house...

You will need a phase test to identify the live out line. Find the terminal that is going live when the switch that's controlling on the lights down stairs is on! toggle the switch a few times make sure the phase tester goes on and off with the lights!

You will then need to knock off the power and connect the wire you found above into the common. I'm guessing you already have 2 wires in the common terminals with the link in between them, so you'll need to disconnect one of these. The one you should keep is the permanently live one, although this will be hard to tell as they both will appear permanently live with the link wire in place....