Wiring APT Timer For Heating

opalfruit

Hi All,
My gran asked me to wire up a timer for her oil heating, she currently just has a switch in the hotpress that relays to another switch in her oil shed which has to be on for the boiler to fire up when she hits the one in the hotpress!

The house is old and the wiring questionable. I've fitted an APT timer before as they are quite straight forward however when I went to replace the switch in the hotpress to the timer I find the wiring odd:

1 brown wire to live in
1 brown wire (which was obviously the earth wire which has been marked with abit of brown insulating tape) to live out
1 blue wire to Neutral in

The Neutral wire then has a small bit of blue wire linking to Neutral Out, i.e there are only 3 wires at the switch itself.

So while the live in and out are fine for the APT Timer, I would usually connect the supply & appliance neutrals to Terminal 1 on the timer. What do I do when I only have one neutral?

Any help appreciated.

davebuck

It sounds like only the live wire is switched through the existing switch in the hotpress,as you have a neutral wire you should be able to wire up the apt timer with the 3 wires Live in,live out + neutral will work the timer and also switch the heating on.Its not ideal having no earth but as you say its old wiring.

davelerave

ya sometimes the 'diy ' people use a 3-core and sleeve the earth.:D
'3' is neutral on the 'apt',just make sure you connect feed-in to '2' so the clock works

opalfruit

Thanks guys, I had a feeling I could just use the 3 but wanted to check before hooking it up.