Ceiling Light Wiring Problem

tommytadge

Hi, hope someone can help me.

Tried fitting a new light to my hallway, which has 2 lights and 3 separate switches.

Removed the ceiling rose from the first light point. There were 2 cables coming out of the ceiling each with 1 red, 1 black and 1 earth wire.

Connected up the new light fitting as follows :-

• 2 reds to the spare terminal
• 2 earths in the E terminal
• 1 of the blacks (cable coming from direction of switch) to the L terminal
• Other black in the N terminal
• New light brown wire to the L and blue wire to the N.

Turned power back on, new light comes on, but is very dim. The light is a 3 light fitting with 40W halogen bulbs, each of which are now emitting a dull orange glow.

The other light in the hallway, which I haven’t touched is working perfectly and all the switches operate as required. No dimmers are fitted to any of the switches.

Could the light fitting be faulty or am I just an electrical numpty.

Any advice would be appreciated. Don’t really want to get an electrician if it is just something basic gone wrong.

Cheers in advance.

keith969

Have you checked with a neon mains tester which wires are live with the switches on and off? And when you replaced the light, did you note first the connections to the old light?

I can only think of a couple of reasons why the new light would be dim:

- you have connected it in series with another light. But if the other light works fine, this does not seem to be the case.
- you are somehow running it off live and earth rather than live and neutral, this should trip your consumer unit, but maybe you have just an old fusebox?
- the light fitting itself it faulty and they've wired the lights in series (hard to believe but anything's possible).

DVardysShadow

OK. I am slightly unsure, but it looks like you are taking down an old light fitting and replacing it with a 3 halogen light fitting. In which case your description of the incoming wiring looks right. I assume this is how the old fitting was wired too.

In which case, I would go with what keith says "the light fitting itself it faulty and they've wired the lights in series (hard to believe but anything's possible)." The 3 lights on the fitting should be wired in parallel

keystone

Its equally possible that the terminals in the rose aren't properly tightened up and there is a loose wire. That should be checked. BTW the "spare" terminal is technically called the "loop".

Cheers

The_Mighty_Gusset

You've wired it up wrong.
I'm betting the original fitting wasn't wired like that, but you didn't take notice, thinking it would wire back up 'logically'
Sorry, but that's not necessarily the case - it's not a question of +ve and -ve, it's more a question of 'in' and 'out' and, since you've only got two colours to play with, sometimes a red wire has to connect to a black one.
Unfortunately, without seeing it, and checking things with a meter, there's no way of knowing which way you need to wire it.
Sorry I can't be more help.

tommytadge

Thanks guys for your help.

In my urgency to get the job done, i thought i noted how the old light was wired but can't say with 100% certainty that this was the case.

The house is only 10 years old, so the fusebox is relatively up to date.

Think i will try a different light fitting tomorrow, to rule out the possibility or otherwise of a faulty light.

These neon mains testers that Keith suggested. How do i go about checking with one of these ? Not sure i would be confident enough to test anything with the power still connected, if that is how it is done.

The_Mighty_Gusset

Let's see if this works :


Note how there are black and blue wires, both with red tape on them to denote that they are 'live' - it's a black wire connected to the 'live' brown wire to the light fitting.

You can't rely on your old wiring still having the tape on it - or even that tape was used in the first place.

keystone

tommytadge wrote: »

Think i will try a different light fitting tomorrow, to rule out the possibility or otherwise of a faulty light.

It sounds as though it is wired correctly. Please check the cables are properly located in the reminals and that the screws are properly tightened. That goes for the wires to the new fitting especially. If you do not have a proper connection you won't get the benefit of a full belt of domestic AC volts which will result in a dim output.

These neon mains testers that Keith suggested. How do i go about checking with one of these ? Not sure i would be confident enough to test anything with the power still connected, if that is how it is done.

TBH they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot. At the very best they are only indicative. To do it properly you need a multimeter. In any event you'd need to test with volts ON.

Cheers

ronaldmacdonald

you dont need the power "on" if you are just trying to identify the switch cable

keystone

The_Mighty_Gusset wrote: »

You've wired it up wrong.

How so?

Red from both "in and "switch" to loop, black from "in" to N, sleeved black from "switch" to L seems quite OK to me.


Cheers

The_Mighty_Gusset

keystone wrote: »

How so?

Because it's not working as it should !

I don't know exactly where the fault lies, which is why I've posted a diagram - which will hopefully enable the original poster to trace the fault.