kitchen light has 8 different wires,that run all the lights in the house

happenstance

Hi,

My kitchen had a big strip light, I ripped this out to replace with something nice but it looks like all lights are connected inside this light fitting. All disconnected and no lights in the house.

What's the best way to fix this? As the strip light isn't going back in there is no space in the new light fitting to connect them all again

DTDfanBoy

I hope you took photos and took note of which wire was which before you took the whole lot apart :eek:

happenstance

Sadly no i m thinking that will cost me.

One of the sets of wires is blue and black, the rest are just black and red. Is that good?

MoneyMate

Best to contact someone with electrical experience

retepetsir

The kitchen will be part of the loop lighting circuit and by the sounds of it, is one of the first in the loop hence the issues.

I suggest getting a qualified sparky in to fault-find and connect it all up correctly again!

I_have_spoken

For older wiring, Red to Brown and Black to Blue.

When using a connector block within the ceiling void -




Using a ceiling rose -

happenstance

Ah thanks looks like I've got the ceiling rose version, looks like I have to buy a new light is this won't fit in new light fitting.

PheoUK

happenstance wrote: »

Ah thanks looks like I've got the ceiling rose version, looks like I have to buy a new light is this won't fit in new light fitting.

You can use a chocblock in the ceiling if needed - that's all the ceiling rose has (with some labels, and attached to the ceiling rose)

The fun you are going to have is figuring out what is permanent live/supply/feed, what is switched live if you've jumbled it all up. I suggest you go away and read about looped in wjring (took me a couple of different articles to feel confident is got my head around it - now it's easy)

happenstance

Sadly I'm going at admit defeat, I have a few other tasks that need an electrician and I'm low on time. Next time I'll know that house lights work in a loop like old Christmas tree lights

Davesnave

happenstance wrote: »

. Next time I'll know that house lights work in a loop like old Christmas tree lights

Not quite....

The old Christmas tree lights were wired in series and house lighting is wired in parallel.

When a bulb failed on the old Christmas lights, all of them went out, as the electricity had to pass through every bulb to complete the circuit.

House lighting circuits are designed so that the electricity can continue to flow by bypassing a faulty bulb.......

But you removed the bypass as well.

gadgetmind

This is about the most common reason for friends and neighbours to shout "Help!" in my direction. If someone has lost track of what's what, you need to proceed carefully and use a meter to buzz out every cable, which can easily take half an hour.

If you can't work it out and.or don't have a meter, then give someone a call. They will have heard this tale many times before!