Baffled by ceiling rose wiring

dancelikeamonkey

Hi - firstly don't worry I'm getting a sparky in, I knew my limits and this question is for my own sanity as I won't be around to ask him when he comes round.

Looking to change the light fitting in my new house and the wiring can be seen below.  Stupidly I didn't mark which wire was which and I've now got two brown switch wires ( I believe they are called) and I don't know which is the line connector and which is the loop. 

Googling shows this is usually obvious as one would be a blue wire with a brown shroud over it.

So... do I have some non standard wiring or is this a specific kind ( it's a five year old house if that helps)

The other thing is now that that light is removed and the wires are taped up waiting for someone with actual skills, none of the upstairs lights work. Is that expected because of the looping?

Cheers for any info. Clearly don't make it too technical, I've shown that's beyond me 😁

EssexExile

Blue - neutral from consumer unit and neutral on to next light.
Brown - live form consumer unit, live to next light, live to switch. Then separately live from switch.

If you've disconnected it all, no lights beyond this one will work.

Well, that's how it used to work years ago when brown was red and blue was black, they've probably changed it now!

FreeBear

dancelikeamonkey said: Looking to change the light fitting in my new house and the wiring can be seen below.  Stupidly I didn't mark which wire was which and I've now got two brown switch wires ( I believe they are called) and I don't know which is the line connector and which is the loop. 

Googling shows this is usually obvious as one would be a blue wire with a brown shroud over it.

So... do I have some non standard wiring or is this a specific kind ( it's a five year old house if that helps)

You should have two cables with a blue and a brown wire (plus one for earth) for the live loop. The third cable with two brown wires will be go off to the switch - Sleeving a blue/brown cable with a bit of brown sleeving is (generally) regarded as poor practice.

I suspect that you have swapped one of the live browns with one going to the switch. If so, turning on the switch should see the rest of the lights working properly.

dancelikeamonkey

Thanks FreeBear and EssexExile. I've not actually attempted writing things back up (on account of being scared 😁)

Yeah i have the wires you say and can see how the blue and green ones go. But those two brown ones in the middle, shouldn't they have some sort of marking to say which is which or is that something an electrician could work out with multimeter type things?


Looking at the original picture I can see one goes into the box on the right and one on the left, but to me that might as well be tossing a coin to decide.

molerat

I must be out of touch, 2 browns to the switch, looked it up and it is a thing now. 

The colours as in your first picture are correct, all you need to do is ensure the 2 brown switch cable is connected across the left and right blocks, doesn't  really matter which goes to which terminal on the switch, being brown means they are both considered live.  The power to the fitting comes from the 2 left blocks - permanent N and L is switched.

dancelikeamonkey

Ah that's interesting to hear. I hadn't considered it didn't matter which way round they went.

Still getting a pro to do it since he's booked in anyway but at least I've learned something new today. Thanks all.

TELLIT01

The important thing is that you realised you limitations and didn't go any further.  Many, many moons ago a friend of my parents decided to remove a double light switch completely when redecorating.  That was allegedly to make it easier to paint round!  Fast forward to late that evening when he came home from the pub after quite a few sherbets.  No light so he decided to wire it back in.  No surprise that he got it wrong and blew the entire fuse box.

ThisIsWeird

dancelikeamonkey said:

Thanks FreeBear and EssexExile. I've not actually attempted writing things back up (on account of being scared 😁)

Yeah i have the wires you say and can see how the blue and green ones go. But those two brown ones in the middle, shouldn't they have some sort of marking to say which is which or is that something an electrician could work out with multimeter type things?


Looking at the original picture I can see one goes into the box on the right and one on the left, but to me that might as well be tossing a coin to decide.

That pic helps as it shows where the individual coloured wires go in to their respective cables.
One of the blue/brown cables will be the power supply, and the other the continuation of this to the next light. A test for 'live' should quickly determine which, tho' it doesn't really matter as they simply join brown-brown and blue-blue.
Then the double brown goes off to the switch. One collects the live supply from the other browns, takes it to the switch, and returns it to the light fitting.
The actual light - the bulb - connects between this returning brown switch wire and the neutrals.
But that's only for info and not to act upon.