Ceiling wiring

27col

You say that you have a cable hanging down with a lamp-holder on the end. The cable must be coming from somewhere, presumably a ceiling rose on the ceiling, as shown by ormus. To an electrician, a ceiling rose is where the connections are made and have nothing to do with any circular decorative plaster fitting on the ceiling, which is also called a ceiling rose. If you look inside the ceiling rose you will see that the drop pendant cable is connected to some terminals. There should also be an earth in the ceiling rose. You need to replace the length of cable going to the lamp-holder with a twin and earth flex and join the earth wire in the flex to the earth wire in the ceiling rose. If there is no earth in the ceiling rose then the job is probably beyond your pay scale, as they say in the Navy. If you are intending to use a fitting of the type you illustrate it is unlikely that the old ceiling rose will go inside the fitting and will have to be replaced with connectors. Needless to say, make sure the power is off before you open up the ceiling rose.

zax47

27col wrote: »

You say that you have a cable hanging down with a lamp-holder on the end. The cable must be coming from somewhere, presumably a ceiling rose on the ceiling, as shown by ormus. To an electrician, a ceiling rose is where the connections are made and have nothing to do with any circular decorative plaster fitting on the ceiling, which is also called a ceiling rose. If you look inside the ceiling rose you will see that the drop pendant cable is connected to some terminals. There should also be an earth in the ceiling rose. You need to replace the length of cable going to the lamp-holder with a twin and earth flex and join the earth wire in the flex to the earth wire in the ceiling rose. If there is no earth in the ceiling rose then the job is probably beyond your pay scale, as they say in the Navy. If you are intending to use a fitting of the type you illustrate it is unlikely that the old ceiling rose will go inside the fitting and will have to be replaced with connectors. Needless to say, make sure the power is off before you open up the ceiling rose.

Or......it could be wired using the JB method, no ceiling roses at all. (but hasn't the OP said that it is already?) Why do you all keep insisting that there MUST be a ceiling rose - there doesn't have to be. Look here, method 3.

pendulum

Thanks all.
There's definitely no ceiling roses. I just have wires coming directly from the ceiling. I know the house uses junction boxes because I've taken the carpets up in some upstairs rooms to lay laminate flooring and I can see drawing on the floorboards which says "junction box".

I didn't get much time today but at first light tomorrow I will be going up in the loft to investigate and look for the junction box and see what the situation is. I'm always very careful to make sure the electrics off and nothing's live, electricity scars me which is probably a good thing.

Will let you know how I get on.

ormus

a junction box system will be like the above.
the top (white) cable is the new lamp/pendant cable.

sometimes, the junction boxes can be almost anywhere in relation to the hole in the ceiling.

note: the switched live wire. the one with the red tape marker on it.

27col

zax47 wrote: »

Or......it could be wired using the JB method, no ceiling roses at all. (but hasn't the OP said that it is already?) Why do you all keep insisting that there MUST be a ceiling rose - there doesn't have to be. Look here, method 3.

I stand corrected. In all my years as an electrician I never came across a set up where the wire came out of the ceiling without passing through a rose of some sort. Even if the system was wired with JB's and a hatch in the floor of the room above.