chris_c201 Posted March 29, 2006 Posted March 29, 2006 Guys, Looking for some info on a total nightmare in ma Sister's house to do with lighting circuits..... Basically it is an old(ish) house and has the system of wires were there is 7 wires for the light, of which several are looped.....Its in the sitting room so there are two seperate lights run off 1 double switch..... Currently no wires are connected up due to two different people having a bash at it and now we have no idea what is what...... One one side there is 1 constant live, an earth, 2 red wires (not live) and 2 black.... On the other there is one earth, 3 red and 3 black (no live) We have had it connected up in such a way that the side with the constant live is working fine but in this scenario no matter what you do at the other side its not working, occasionally it will flicker at half light but never a fully switched live..... We have a tester and you can end up with a switched live (black wire?) but when connected up it still doesn't work.... Is it possible during the various efforts at wiring the switch has blown or is it more likely that our wiring is just wrong.... anyone with any experience / advice on this please feel free as i am out of idea's... any wiring diagrams would be superb!!
SEEVERS Posted March 30, 2006 Posted March 30, 2006 Chris,the only wiring diagram that would be of any use to you would be the original......and judging by what you say,that will be f**ked also as 2 dudes have been tampering with your leccy. Where is this house,maybe get my bro down to sort it out for you (approved electrician) Let me know bud. Del.
col666 Posted March 30, 2006 Posted March 30, 2006 Bit confusing! So there are 2 lights? switched from one position in room? a separate switch for each light? the lights arent 2-wayed, i.e switched from other side of room aswell are they? There are a few different ways to wire lights, when you say 7 wires do you mean 7 cores? is it wired in single cores or are the cores part of a cable? Will try and help but not easy when you cant see it[*-)]
BlackWagon Posted March 30, 2006 Posted March 30, 2006 Hi mate, Here is a diagram of what the wires are for. I drew it in mspaint so forgive the raw pic lol, I've been a spark for 20 odd years but im no artist! I also left out the earth (green/yellow) for clarity. You need to establish which wires do which jobs in the pic and join them. Note the black used as a returning switch-live or switchwire. This is the common loop-in system as used since 1970 The 'box' with the terminals is the ceiling rose (round plastic bit) - drawn square for clarity. cheers!
chris_c201 Posted March 30, 2006 Author Posted March 30, 2006 Del - Think your right about tampering being the issue here.... the house is in Dalmuir Clydebank but we can discuss later.... Col - Yep there is two seperate lights wired back to the one switch (box) with two seperate switches... they are only 1 way (i.e. only one switch point for the lights) The cores are part of wires... 3 cores each although i can't think how there is 7 at each side now.... need to go down and refresh my memory! BlackWagon - Thanks for the diagram mate, much appreciated, how does this go though for this scenario where there are the two lights.... i see your saying that the Neutral and Live go to next fitting but how do you know which is the "switched live for the 2nd fitting? Again thanks to everyone for their help....
BlackWagon Posted April 2, 2006 Posted April 2, 2006 The 2 switches in this room should have a loop wire between them to carry the main live over then 2 returning switch-wires - one going to each light fitting. The neutral will be at the light fitting already - the live drops down to the switch then returns to the light fitting completing the circuit. To test them you can put all power off and use a pp3 battery and a 9v bell....? the bell is wired to any pair and the battery put to the other end - a circuit being made will make it ring. Does this help? Its how we identify wires in old houses but hard to explain clearly and takes 2 people to do. The outgoing wires in the diagram go to the next room etc. Cheers )
chris_c201 Posted April 6, 2006 Author Posted April 6, 2006 Finally got this sorted last night..... Spend a while pondering over it and finally realised there was no "looped" neutral coming from the first socket to the second..... Cheers for the diagram Blackwagon.. .thats what prompted me to realise..... Thanks for your help guys.....
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