Garden Wiring Problem

jmcloughlin

Can somebody please help, My problem is that i am installing garden lights, our electrician allowed for swa cable to run out from the house out to the garden during the build.

When i open up the switch on the wall, there are four wires, one is the live from the meter box and the other three are the swa cable wires. The switch on the wall is a two way switch. The swa earth is connect to the side of the two way switch surround, The swa nuetral is not connected to anything and the swa live is connected to terminal 1 of the switch.

The live from the meter box is connected to the comm of the two way switch.

When i turn on the switch and check the voltage at the other end of the swa cable with a multimeter am am getting 240 in the live, 160 in the neutral and 80 in the earth. I have also buzzed out the swa cable to ensure the live, neutral and earth wires arent touching. (and there not).

I cant understand what is going on, any help would be appreciated.

DublinDilbert

jmcloughlin wrote: »

The swa nuetral is not connected to anything

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but the neutral needs to be connected

How long is it built? the electrician should come back and run a neutral, the neutral needs to come from the board or off a lighting circuit.

jmcloughlin wrote: »

getting 240 in the live, 160 in the neutral and 80 in the earth. I have also buzzed out the swa cable to ensure the live, neutral and earth wires arent touching. (and there not).

What meter are you using? What are you metering between?

The neutral cable is floating, so is just picking up a small bit of voltage of the live cable (as they are running parallel to each other).

I'd be more worried about the earth cable, as it appears to be floating too, i would guess that where its connected inside the house, isn't correctly earthed, hence this will need to be addressed too. Although it may be earthed correct, but your "meter" is too sensitive.

jmcloughlin

Thanks for the reply, The house is built less than a year. What i cant understand is that the garden lights to the front of the house are wired on a seperate circuit the exact same way only at another switch with the neutral wire floating and they work fine.

Does anyone have any feedback on how/where the neutral and earth are picking up power from if they are not connected to the live in any way and the back garden lights are wired the same as above only on a different circuit.

I dont think taking another neutral from the meter box would be possible without opening up finished plasterwork. Would it be advisable to join the earth and neutral together at the switch and earth them both there.

I should have said that the neutrals are terminated in connector blocks but floating

I have also ruled out the switch and swa cable.

davelerave

there's normally a t+e supply(rcbo protected) brought to switch for the swa.you could upload a picture of switch if possible