New Ceiling light permanently on?!?

WhileyD

Hi all,

I just fitted a new ceiling light in our bedroom. Pretty easy i thought, but no, its permanently on and i cant turn it off at the switch.

The cable coming from the ceiling is grey with 3 wires in it. 1 is red, 1 is black and the other has no plastic around it so i assume that is the earth.

The new light comes fitted with what looks like some sort of junction box with 8 holes for the cable in it. 3 of these holes on one side are taken up with the cables from the light, 1 if left empty. The other side all 4 holes are empty.

I've tried to match the colours, so red cable coming from the ceiling is connected to the opposite port to the red/brown cable coming from the light. And the black cable coming from the ceiling to the port opposite the blue cables from the light. Earth to earth.

However, this results in the light being permanently on and the wall switch not working to turn it off.

Can you help?

Thanks in advance from any suggestions!

penrhyn

There should be more wires in the ceiling!
Feel around for them or see if the three you have found are connected back to a choc block.
Usually lighting is wired up as below:-

real1314

Have you taken down a previously fitted light? How was that one wired up?

macman

Not a good idea to do wiring if you don't really know what you are doing. Just 'matching the colours' is never going to be sufficient.
Did you not make a note of how the old light was wired up?

27col

You mention the cable coming from the ceiling as if it is the only one. This would be extremely unusual. I would expect to see a minimum of two, one of which is the supply and the other the switch cable. Are you certain that there is only one cable coming through the ceiling.
If there really is only one then you have wired the light correctly and the fault is elsewhere, probably the switch. I used to wire lights in this manner many years ago. I would put a junction box in the floor of the room above under a removable access panel and just run one cable down to ceiling rose in the room below. This made it easy to fit light fittings which did not generally come with enough connections to accommodate all the wires that had been in the ceiling rose. Nowadays I am seeing some fittings that do have enough connections, as indeed, yours does. If I was looking at your problem I would first check to see that the switch was actually working.

WhileyD

Thanks for all your answers!

penrhyn - thats what i thought, as theres been at least two wires for everyother light but not this one. I think its coming from a junction box like 27col mentions.

real1314 - i only wish i had! I wont every make the same mistake again!

macman - the instructions in the new light said to match the colours, not in those words but this was the result.

27 col - thanks! How would you suggest to test the light switch is working?

zax47

27col wrote: »

You mention the cable coming from the ceiling as if it is the only one. This would be extremely unusual.

Why unusual? Several ways to wire a lighting circuit - could be loop-at-switch (LAS) or the old "junction box" (JB) method, not all houses are loop-at-light. Many of the properties I work on are LAS and more and more new build ones are. Different, yes, but not unusual. LAS is the better way IMO, gives you a useful neutral at the switch.

I would expect to see a minimum of two, one of which is the supply and the other the switch cable.

Not if it's LAS, JB, or linked to another fitting which comes on at the same time.

Nowadays I am seeing some fittings that do have enough connections, as indeed, yours does.

I read this that the fitting has several lamps (bulbs) which are connected together, with just a Live, Neutral and Earth to connect to the installation.

zax47

WhileyD wrote: »

Thanks for all your answers!

Can we have some pictures please? Each one paints a thousand words.

Have you had the switch off at all?

ormus

testing a swtich?
use a 240v test screwdriver. the common (red or brown wire) should always be live, and the black or blue wire (poss marked L1) should be live only when the switch is on.

macman

If you have 'matched the colours', and have reconnected all the wires that you disconnected, then there must be a coincidental switch fault.
Roughly how old is the property (or if you know, how old is the wiring)?

shandypants5

If you only had one cable coming from the ceiling then it may be extended from the real junction box, so there is not a lot for you to get wrong.

If you have connected the return cable to the earth by mistake then that would cause the light to be permanently on.

I wouldnt trust the colours of the wires inside the new light fitting either, a lot of them are assembled by people paid in bowls of rice.