Lightswitch Question

Fatman

At the bottom of the stairs i have a double lightswitch.
This controls the light at the bottom of the stairs and the landing light.
I also have a single switch on the landing which controls just the upstairs light...
If i rotate the switch at the bottom of the stairs (the double switch) then the switches will be on the wrong sides!

ailuro2

I'm not up on the recent rules, but don't you think it's better to err on the side of caution instead of landing up in hot water for giving out advice on a public forum when clearly something that is a 2 minute job some of us would do without thinking very hard isn't so obvious or easy to others.

240volts are involved here after all!!;)

bockster

Fatman wrote: »

i dont want to do waht ariba10 says.
As then the switches will be in the wrong place...

The upstairs switch will be on the downstairs side and vice versa!

so if i'm reading this correctly it is a 2 gang switch, i.e 2 seperate switches on one swith plate.
it will probably have 3 terminals for each switch on the rear, c (common), L1 and L2. the 2 switches can be considered completley electrically seperate, although there may be a link wire joining the 2 switches.

anyway,
if you are lucky it should be as simple as;- looking at the L1 and L2 pair nearest the light you want to swap, take whatever wires are in L1 and put them in L2 and vise versa.
please make sure you have the power off.
earth trips/rccd,s may still trip even with power off so don't worry if this happens,
just do it in the daytime.
if the switch/wiring does'nt reflect my description report back
maybe take a pic of wiring before you swap anything;)

hope this helps, i'll see if i can find a link to a description/picture of the switch.

ps turn off the upstairs AND downstairs lighting cicuits, if not the whole power to the house.

bockster

this http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/two_way_lighting.htm shows the wiring you can expect to see, look at the top diagram, this is one switch upstairs one switch down, but your downstairs switch will look more complicated because it includes the swich for downstairs (remember, seperatate).
the one switch has more wires in L1 and L2 but my procedure still applies.

27col

Perhaps if we had got the full story first time we could have been more use. As usual, what is wanted is a photo. The fact that 240v is involved is irrelevant as the power would not be on while the work was taking place.

ariba10

Fatman wrote: »

At the bottom of the stairs i have a double lightswitch.
This controls the light at the bottom of the stairs and the landing light.
I also have a single switch on the landing which controls just the upstairs light...
If i rotate the switch at the bottom of the stairs (the double switch) then the switches will be on the wrong sides!

You wouldn't be related to my wife would you?

She also has a habit of altering the question after she has heard the answer.

wallbash

You wouldn't be related to my wife would you?

She also has a habit of altering the question after she has heard the answer.

:rotfl:

Very funny

bengraves38

Pay someone to do it. It should only cost u about a tenner if you get someone local who can pass on their way to another job.
It's not worth risking it, if you do it wrong someone will only charge you more to put it right!
You cant see it cant smell it and u dont know its there untill its too late. Electricity can KILL:eek: . Please take care.:D

diable

bengraves38 wrote: »

Pay someone to do it. It should only cost u about a tenner if you get someone local who can pass on their way to another job.
It's not worth risking it, if you do it wrong someone will only charge you more to put it right!
You cant see it cant smell it and u dont know its there untill its too late. Electricity can KILL:eek: . Please take care.:D

You can feel it though...........

bengraves38

diable wrote: »

You can feel it though...........

LOL you really can LOL :rotfl: