wiring up a ceiling light too many wires!! HELP!!

Panza75

Hi All.
PLEASE HELP!!
I bought a light for my son's bedroom but when i detached the old light i found, to my horror, 6 wires rather than the expected 2!
Coming out of the ceiling there are 2 cables and in each are a red, black and yellow/green cables (6 in total) and the light that i have bought to go up there has access for a blue and a brown wire!

do i wind together the reds and put them to the brown and then wire together the blacks and put them to the blue???? what about the yellow/green?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Sancho.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

you might get some help in these threads.

Look1

Look2.

ormus

old colors.
just substitute red to brown and black to blue, if required.

ps.
note the switched live wire. it should have a (red) marker on the end. as shown.

googler

If the reds are wound together at one terminal at the moment, and if the black and yell/green are the same, then I'd be inclined to say leave them that way - get a terminal block, attach them to the terminal block the same way, and take blue from the black and brown from the red on the other side of the terminal block. Are the reds currently attached to a terminal marked positive or +ve on the existing light? Are the blacks all attached to negative or -ve? Are the yell/green all attached to a terminal with the universal earth symbol?

Don't assume because you've switched off at the lightswitch that the cables are dead - switch off the whole lighting circuit at the fusebox or consumer unit.

If you don't know what a terminal block is, or are stumped by this level of wiring complexity, should you really be doing this? Is it time to call an electrician?

Brian_Bullocks

googler wrote: »

If you don't know what a terminal block is, or are stumped by this level of wiring complexity, should you really be doing this? Is it time to call an electrician?

I agree with what you write. The OP is just asking for trouble. Messing up the wiring could invalidate the house insurance as well :eek:

DVardysShadow

Judge it by what goes into the old lamp. Regardless of what comes out of the ceiling, there will only be 2 connections into the old lamp, plus an earth [green/yellow]. Provide you maintain the right wires into the connections on the new lamp you will be fine. Oops, you got impatient and disconnected the lot? Then you will have to understand the wiring and sort it from first principles.

ormus

ive omitted the lamps from this one. for clarity. and named the four connections.
your two lamp wires go to N2 and SL4.

normal prctice is black (or blue) to N2, and red (or brown) to SL4.
(they can go either way round).

earth is (usually) only required for metal lamp fittings.

if you havent got a ceiling rose, then you will need some terminal/connecting blocks.

keystone

Dvardy is correct. Did you oberve carefully what wires went where in the old light?

Did the old light have one of these:



If it did the wiring inside would look like this:




As you say there are only two cables it will be the end of the run so the cable on the upper RHS will not exist (as Ormus diagram shows that is taking the power onto the next lamp on the circuit) so we can ignore it.

You need to identify which is the "switched" live. Thats the one on the lower RHS of this picture. As you can see the reds from both cables are connected together. The black from the supply cable is connected to the connector to whioch the blue from the fitting connects. The switched live black where it arrives from the switch itself should be sleeved with a red sleeve to indicate that its live and that connects to the brown wire from the fitting.

It sounds as though you may have removed the rose [STRIKE]thing[/STRIKE] thinking its part of the whole light fitting itself which it isn't. Was your old light like this:



If your new fitting is a pendant light (like the one above) with just a length of flex containing blue and brown conductors then you need to replace the rose and then reconnect as shown.

If, however, the new fitting doesn't require a rose (which it may not if its a fitting like this:



then we have another situation and as googler says you'll have to replicate the connections in the rose by another means.

So first things first. Does the new light not need a ceiling rose? Can you upload/post a pic of the underside of the new fitting?

Whatever you do, as already advised and in all circumstances, make sure that the complete lighting circuit is off and totally dead beforte you touch anything else as the supply cable will remain live even though the switch is off.

If the above doesn't make immediate sense to you then you should get someone in to look at it for you.

Cheers

DVardysShadow

keystone wrote: »

UltimateHandyMan .co .uk make Ultimate Numpties of themselves :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

27col

The mere fact that the op took the wires out without noting where they were connected should ring alarm bells as to his ability to do the job safely. If you can read the diagrams that have been helpfully posted by ormus and keystone then have a go, if not, then keep well clear.

keystone

DVardysShadow wrote: »

UltimateHandyMan .co .uk make Ultimate Numpties of themselves :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

T'was the first picture that came up on search showing a complete pendant fitting and rose. didn't really look at the url and don't really care actually (:p) but you'm right anyway.

Cheers