Hey guys, I've recently changed my lighting fitting from the original which had abit missing from it. I thought I had kept watch of which wires go where but obviously I haven't. After fitting the new light it doesn't work and has affect two other rooms lighting which doesn't work either. From the picture below originally both black wires had been wired into one, and both reds in the middle had been wired into one. I tried also changing the right and left wire around which made the light permanently on without the switch, leaving the other two rooms without light. Where have I gone wrong? Cheers guys.
Hum two black wires and 4 red wires. Are you sure one of those red wires isn't a black wire with a red sleeve? The two black wires are the incoming and outgoing neutral (lights are daisy chained). Two of the red wires are the incoming and outgoing lives. One red wire is the permanent live feed to the light switch, the other red wire is the switched live returning from the light switch (would normally expect this to be a black wire with red sleeving). You just need to work out which red is which.
OK here's a clue that might help. Locate which cables the 2 black wires go to, then locate the 2 red wires for those cables - these are the 2 permanent live wires. The other two will be the to- and from- switch cables: connect one to the live "loop" connector and the other to the light connector with the brown wire.
One of the cables will be a twin red and earth which will go to the switch. Find which cable this is and one red goes to loop and one red to the brown. The switch may be upside down if you do not get them in the right order,so change them at the rose or switch.
Think about that ... Changing the pair of wires over will not change it! The OP will need to invert the switch or connect to the other L terminal. However, as he may not have touched the switch, it should not matter.
I would use testers myself but no doubt the op hasn't got testers. So like above blacks neutrals stay together. Don't touch them. The classic, missing switch wire. Always mark or photo before removing learnt the hard way.!! So if the lights stays on when you use switch you have found your perm lives. Mark this somehow, So that goes in the loop try the next red one in with the brown and press switch.
If he connects the wires up in a different order as to how they were connected before he changed the rose, the switch will be upside down. He will therefore need to swap the wires at the rose or the switch for the switch to be the correct way up,or bodge it and turn the switch round.
With a standard switch there are 3 connections Com/L1/L2. Assume the Live is fed from the rose to Com and the SwLive return is from L1. If those wires are changed round at te rose and Live now goes to L1 and SwLive returns from Com, the switch operation will not change. Try it and see ... reversing Live and SwLive will NOT alter the operation of the switch.
The switch on the wall will be upside down. I.E when switch is up it will be on and when down it will be off.
So I would pair both blacks into one connector, both reds in the middle into one loop connector, then wire the other perm live into the same connector as the brown or the spare one beside it? Cheers
Not it will not ... try it and you will see. Switching Live and SwLive does NOT change the switch operation.
Indeed. It's incredibly simple and basic stuff. When I was an Apprentice I had to explain to the boss that he was talking complete and utter nonsense that reversing the wires in a 1-way switch would somehow change anything. The switch is still either open or closed and therefore the operation is identical!
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