wiring to ceiling light

doningtonphil

We recently repainted our ceiling and took down the light.

From what I recall the wires through the ceiling all terminated into the relevant terminal blocks then the live/earth/neutral from the light fitting connected into the terminal blocks.

I am now trying to put up a new light fitting into the termnal blocks and it wont work.

I have 3 cables coming through the ceiliing. All 3 reds go into 1 terminal block, all 3 earths go into another terminal block. 2 of the blacks share a terminal block and the other black is on its own.

I connected my brown light wire to the reds, the green/yellow to the earths and the blue wire to the single black wire.

turned power on, flicked light switch, nothing happened.

Connected blue wire to terminal block with 2x blacks in and light stays on permanently.

I have checked connections in light switch, what am I doing wrong?

tonto33

single black wire is switch wire (live) goes to brown two blacks go to blue (neutral) green yellow to earth

doningtonphil

nice one, works a treat.

someone once suggested taking a photo of an installation before disconnecting. Great advice that I never follow!!!

thanks for your prompt response 33

YorkshireBoy

doningtonphil wrote: »

someone once suggested taking a photo of an installation before disconnecting. Great advice that I never follow!!!

Some other good advice, which hopefully you DO follow, is to turn off the mains at the consumer unit before disconnecting light fittings.

This is because even with the light switch off, and the lamp not lit, the 3 red wires you mentioned are permanently LIVE!!!!! Something which you clearly did not know, otherwise you wouldn't have connected the light fitting to these.

And you don't even need a camera for the task you were doing. All you needed to do was make a mental note (or sketch) of the following:

1. 3 red wires in...nothing going out
2. 2 or 3 G/Y wires in...nothing out (in the case of a standard plastic ceiling rose)
3. 2 black wires in...blue pendant wire connected
4. Single black wire (hopefully red or brown tape on it!)...brown pendant wire connected.

doningtonphil

Yes

I 'always' turn off at the consumer unit, well I say always...
while trying to resolve the issue before posting my plea for help I decided to check the wores into the switch (and found one was loose) I also found the wire was still live and got a nice shock- bit of a buzz and vibration. It turns out I forgot to switch off the mains before trying that exercise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried the mental note once when replacing a rose on a landing light fitting (with 2 way switch). I took care to separate the loose wires but as I glanced away to pick up the new rose one of the wires moved and I had no clue where it should go.

With most mobiles having a camera these days, a quick snap is well worth taking

Myser

You may want to invest in a Volt Stick to check if a circuit/cable is actually dead before working on it:

Sound volt stick

brutus1983

doningtonphil wrote: »

Yes

I 'always' turn off at the consumer unit, well I say always...
while trying to resolve the issue before posting my plea for help I decided to check the wores into the switch (and found one was loose) I also found the wire was still live and got a nice shock- bit of a buzz and vibration. It turns out I forgot to switch off the mains before trying that exercise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried the mental note once when replacing a rose on a landing light fitting (with 2 way switch). I took care to separate the loose wires but as I glanced away to pick up the new rose one of the wires moved and I had no clue where it should go.

With most mobiles having a camera these days, a quick snap is well worth taking

youve just proven to yourself that you are incompetent to do this sort of work youve just nearly cuased a christmas tragedy for your fammily you may have got away with it this time what about next time

and as for volt sticks they are not a proven method of checking safe isolation

keystone

Myser wrote: »

You may want to invest in a Volt Stick to check if a circuit/cable is actually dead before working on it:

Frankly, these are as useless and therefore as dangerous as a neon screwdriver when testing for dead. Multimeter. Simples.

Cheers