I was wondering if anyone would give me a bit of help please.
I was going to change my downstairs toilet ceiling rose (it is ancient and has been in the house since before we owned it) and whilst i was removing it the whole of the assembly fell apart in my hands. I do know it had three three cable entry points with three reds in one, two blacks in another and a single black in the third.
My new light has two narrow openings for live and neutral and a screw for the earth in the back of the socket. It has a large round glass cover with the ligth fixture at right angles to the ceiling rather than handing down from the ceiling.
I'm assuming that as there are three red cables twisted together then the toilet light is part of another circuit. I'm also assuming that the two blacks together are neutrals and the single black on its own is the switch live.
I really want to know how to identify the switch live please.

You are most likely right in regards identifying the wires, you have what is called Loop-in wiring.

You will need a multimeter if you do want to check and rather me explain it, watch this video by the man himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLshqOmltU

Thanks GavHandy.
Sorry not to have responded sooner.

Hi Suedeblue,

How old is the cabling in the house?

Odd (at least I think so....) for a ceiling rose to fall apart unless it's either seriously old or exposed to tons of heat - either of them would make me question the condition of the wiring that went inside it!

Is the cable PVC (red/black I'm guessing at the age) or is it cloth covered or even leadshethed?

Are you putting up another rose or some other kind of fitting?

BG

Hi BillyGoat,
I'm replacing with a round flush fitting cheapo 40w light.
I've sourced a plastic backed fitting to get around the earth issue.
One of the cables has some grey outer sleeving, but the others are too far back in the ceiling to see. It really is dark as hell even with the torch and the aperture is small. The house was built circa 60's and has had an extension in the 80's.