New Wiring For Illuminated Mirror in Bathroom

Raiser

Hi Folks,

I just bought a new Illuminated Mirror for my Bathroom, it has a fluorescent tube set in it.

I need to get it wired up and I want to do a DIY job on it......

Plan is to tap into the existing wiring going to the main ceiling light in bathroom and feed this across the attic 7 or 8 feet and down the cavity wall - fishing it out through a hole with a coat hanger or something.

Could you DIY experts please advise on any potential pitfalls etc. that I should be aware of?

I think its safe to isolate the lighting circuit at the fusebox to work on this - I want to use a worklamp that runs off mains sockets.....

Any other considerations etc. please let me know so I don't fry myself or burn the house down etc.

P.S. What grade/rating wiring should I be asking for? Don't want to be guessing at it based on existing wiring etc. etc.

beldin

Firstly is there both live and neutral feed at the celing light. Older houses just have the neutral at the light and a switched live going to the light. This means that if you want your mirror light on you have to turn on the main light, not a proper job.
More modern houses have a ceiling rose where both live and neutral are daisychained around the house. You will have to work out which one you have.

Secondly the wire should be 1.5 twin and earth , which should be sufficent for the job.

Finally the cavity wall , is this an external wall , if so the insulation may get in the way and if it is internal the wooded studs will have to be drilled through. Not a big proble either case although it can be a pain.

Regarding the safety , be paranoid , turn on the light before switching off the fusebox so that you can verify that the light did actually go off and make sure no one else in the house decides to turn on the tripped switch..

Raiser

Hi Beldin - thanks for taking the time to reply - greatly appreciated.

House is only 3 years old - typical Semi-Det. ????

I do know that when I mixed up my wiring over dining room table that I could turn on sitting room light, toilet light etc. from kitchen light switch - from this I suppose I can deduce that - as you say - live and neutral have been daisy-chained around the house....

Going from there - where am I going to tap my neutral and live from to bring to my pull swith in mirror-light and not have to turn on main light first???

Bloke at work suggested the Power-shower circuit cause of the switch reason and beacuse it has an RCD - but this is a 60 AMP circuit.....(?)

patrido

do *not* use the power shower circuit unless you put in a fused connection unit to protect the 1.5. without it you could end up pulling up to 60 amps down the 1.5t+e before tripping the mcb. that means one thing - fire and lots of toxic smoke.

anyway, in general it's best to get power for lights from lighting circuits, so there are no surprises.

if you have a ceiling rose (or a junction box) for the main light. there will be 3 or 4 cables connected to it. as well as the cable/flex going to the light itself, there should be a circuit cable (or perhaps two - if its in the middle of the circuit) and a switch cable. the circuit cables will have 1 blue and 1 brown, while the switch cable should have 2 browns.

you feed the neutral from the blue cable - they'll all be connected together. as you want a permenant live feed, connect to the brown of the circuit cables.

i don't mean to be patronizing, but unless you're 100% sure what you're doing, and you've familiarised yourself with the latest wiring rules, good wiring practice, etc... getting in an electrician is the wisest course of action. and whatever you decide, good luck

Raiser

Thanks Patrido - & warning heeded - will not proceed unless I've researched all angles and am happy with all details.

beldin

Okay to check out the rose, just turn off the mains and unscrew the cover of the fitting. In the modern setting there should be
a) 3 blue wires (neutral in, neutral out and neutral to bulb)
b) 3 brown wires (live in , live out and live to switch)
c) two brown wires (coming from switch and to bulb)
d) Earth wires somewhere.

If that isn't there then it is a bitch to pick up a live connection as you have to cut an existing live wire , put the ends in a junction box and run the live to your switch which is messy but doable.

Anyway if you have the first option which you should have then just put your new cable into the connectors for a and b above. This might mean 2 wires in the same connector hole but should be okay...

stag39

Beldin are you a qualifyed electrician!!! if not don't give electrical advice please!!!!

there are 3, repeat 3 ways of wiring for electrical circuits in modern houses....all within the regulations!!!.. i,m too tired to list them at the moment...

O/P please unscrew your light fitting on the ceiling and list what you see and post here...be carefull may have live terminals even if light is switched off..

also people you forgot to advise on a major wire to run to the mirror light....the EARTH wire....

beldin

Well sorry if any advice I gave is wrong.
Although I did state the wire used should be twin and earth
And to check in the rose for the earth connections.
Also I have stated every time to knock off connections at the fusebox..

I am not a qualified electrician but then I don't see any major problem with connecting up 3 wires if reasonable precautions are taken.

stag39

ok if you have a threeplate wiring for your light circuit at your ceiling rose..( that means a permanent live at the rose as well as a switch wire) you can use some 1.5 twin and earth..the earth has to be sleeved with earth sleeve or to use green/yellow insulation tape..

if no pernament live at the rose.. use single pvc/pvc cable ..brown from the light switch and blue and the earth from the rose..
if this method is used the mirror light can be switched also from the normal light switch...replacing the switch with a new one to give another individual switch

note- there must be an earth run to the light fitting...

Raiser

Hey Stag39 - appreciate your taking the time and effort to post this advice - am at work now - will check out existing wiring at main light later on today.

stag39

beldin wrote:

Well sorry if any advice I gave is wrong.
Although I did state the wire used should be twin and earth
And to check in the rose for the earth connections.
Also I have stated every time to knock off connections at the fusebox..

I am not a qualified electrician but then I don't see any major problem with connecting up 3 wires if reasonable precautions are taken.

sorry beldin, you weren't far wrong but you forgot to mention to connect the earth wire to the earth terminal...a bit of a mistake for in the bathroom..

and they brought in the new law into england for no reason then.. :rolleyes:
which by the way is coming this way... refer to other recent post's with electrics for further info..

Stoner

Raiser,

If you screwed the top of the ceiling rose from which you hoped to loop the fitting from and took a pic of the connections we could sort this out very easily.

Most likely you'll need to get a permanant feed from a switch drop as i doubt very much that there will be a constant feed at the ceiling rose, this method of wiring is loosly called the English way in Ireland, regardless of regulations etc most Irish sparks will loop their feed through the light switchs and you'll have to grap a feed from a switch by taping on, pull up, tie on, pull back down etc, LOL sounds hard but if we knew what the connections looked like anyone of us will tell you what you have to do very quickly.