Hello there everyone. I have a promblem fitting a new light fitting in my kitchen. There is a bit of a story to this one so please bear with me.

My missus had asked her dad to come round and change the light which was in the form of a pendant hanging from a ceiling rose. He then disconnected this without checking where all the wires went. We then tried connecting this new fitting and had it either permantly on or tripping the fuse/ breaker.

I then decided to go it alone and came accross this site which showed me that I needed to find the switched live wire.

Firstly I would like to mention that there are two cables coming from the ceiling both containing a black, red and earth wire.

I bought a multimeter and found out which black was the swtched live, attached red tape to it and proceeded to connect this to the live terminal, earth to earth and the one black to neutral leaving the two reds out of it....

I got nothing when i turned the power back on??

Please advise on what could be the problem.

Thanks a lot.

G

G,

When you say that you "left the two reds out of it" what do you mean?

From the way the other wires are connected, the two reds should be connected together to supply a live to the switch, BUT not connected to anything else. If your new fitting has a live loop terminal, put both reds into it and screw it up. If not, then use a cable connector strip or Wago connector to put the two reds together.

dave

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But you cannot tell him much.

Hi Dave thanks for the reply.

The reason I have not connected teh reds is because on a page on this site... or video he shows terminating the reds and not connecting them to anything.

My new light fitting has four terminal live - Earth - Neutral -then one on the end with nothing connected from the light.

If it clarifies anything the switch for it is a 2 gang switch, one for diining one for kitchen.

I know I should probably ring the electrician but I have come this far and need to finish teh job myself now.

Thanks again,


P.s. Think I have had a lightbulb moment!? The reds i was talking about are " out of it" but not connected together... if they are connected together then put into the fourth terminal I mentioned then the light will work is that what you are saying?

Indeed exactly what Dave.M is saying.


BTW

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

Cheers for that will try again first light tomorrow.

Good Morning. I have tried this morning and no light.

Everthing is as it should be so i tool teh switch off and found the black wire had broken off the connection. I cut a bit of sleeving off and connected it but it is too short and if i close it then it will snap again I am sure. Although as it was connected I again tried to measure, using my multimeter the two cables of three wires in the kitchen and both sets of red and black make a circuit?

Is this right?

Cheers again

I have just read that again and even I cabbot understand it and I wrote it!! Here is the situation now ecplained slightly better I hope.

The light switch is a 2 gang one, the left switch for the dining room teh right for the kitchen.

When i check the cables in the kitchen ( two cables both with L-N & E) with the multimeter I only get a circuit reading when the left light switch is turned on, and then i can get a circuit reading from both sets of cable wires ( r & B).

Is this correct? Apologies if this does not make sense and I will try to take somwe pictures this lunchtime to make it clearer.

Thanks a lot.
G

Pics would speak a thousand words...

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

Hi win o thanks for your patience here. I will upload pics as soon as i can but can i just ask that when checking for the switched live using my analogue mulimeter, I am getting a reading from both sets of red and black wires from both the cables. Although one set has a slightly higher resistance than the other.

Wouod you say the lesser resistance one is the switched live?

Thanks for this by the way. Last question I swear!

Should be virtually no resistance...but with a broken wire somewhere

http://www.ultimatehandyman.org/video/e ... d-live.php

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

GioDIY,
Sorry for not getting back today but I have just had 8 hours of chemotherapy treatment and am not quite on form yet.

You mentioned a broken wire in one post, can you clarify which wire and exactly where it is broken?

dave

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Hi Dave, Thanks for getting back. I have managed to get the light working so I thank all who helped.

The wire i mentioned was in the switch which I changed because I initially, in my ignorance thought that was the problem. It was the black (switched) wire that broke out of the screw connection because the new switch i bought had the com, L1 and L2 the other way up so i was stretching the black wire.

Hope that makes sense to you.

Was going to fit a fused switch over the weekend for my new cooker hood and fit the bathroom extractor but I have been reading the part p regulations and it seems that a job like that needs to be done by an authorised compentent person!

Looks like the end of my elctrical DIY mission.

Thanks to you all again

G