no lights upstairs!!

hemsk

I was trying to replace an old style light fixture in the living room to a "philips MyLiving spot star warmglow" fixture instead. It's basically a fixture with 3 LED spot lights.

Unfortunately, whoever installed the wiring didn't mark the "switch live" wires and I didn't take note of it before disconnecting the old ceiling rose.

Now i have bare wires handing from the ceiling, (power is turned off at the fuze box).

How to go about testing which wires goes to the switch safely? alternatively how much would it cost for an electrician to tell which cable goes to the switch?

Aylesbury_Duck

You don’t test it. You get someone in who knows what they’re doing.

Depends where you live on what an electrician will charge for a call-out but that’ll probably be the only charge for such a straightforward job.

tbw

We had trouble fitting a new ceiling light after replastering - couldn't see which wires were which. Local electrician charged £50 for coming out to fix it.

unforeseen

Unfortunately, whoever installed the wiring didn't mark the "switch live" wires and I didn't take note of it before disconnecting the old ceiling rose

It never normally is. The assumption is that the person making changes knows what they are doing and notes the original connections before disconnecting.

Risteard

hemsk wrote: »

I was trying to replace an old style light fixture in the living room to a "philips MyLiving spot star warmglow" fixture instead. It's basically a fixture with 3 LED spot lights.

Unfortunately, whoever installed the wiring didn't mark the "switch live" wires and I didn't take note of it before disconnecting the old ceiling rose.

Now i have bare wires handing from the ceiling, (power is turned off at the fuze box).

How to go about testing which wires goes to the switch safely? alternatively how much would it cost for an electrician to tell which cable goes to the switch?

Get an Electrician - not to tell you what goes where but to actually do the job.

Risteard

unforeseen wrote: »

It never normally is. The assumption is that the person making changes knows what they are doing and notes the original connections before disconnecting.

It's always been a requirement to identify it as a phase conductor if not using the correct cable for the job (twin brown and previously twin red).

hemsk

sorted!

I'd done most of the work already and had a good understanding of my issue.

An electrician I spoke to on the phone told me to get an voltage and continuity tester and explained how to use and what to expect.

I now have a new light in my front room and restore lighting upstairs. It's a fairly common problem DIY'ers would face. the moral of the story is do your research before disconnecting wires!

Best of all I saved £90 in call out charges