Help with ceiling light wiring please...

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 14:06

Hey,

Bought some ceiling lights from Ikea, but I'm having some trouble wiring them up. There are 3 wires coming from the ceiling:

2 x red
1x red + 1x black
1x red + 1x black

To the old ceiling pendant, one red from the first wire and both blacks were actively connected to the light. The 3 other reds were all screwed to a blank terminal (I've taped them together temporarily).

The new fitting as you can see has space for 2 x live and 2 x neutral (no earth). How should I got about wiring this up?

Cheers,

Suman

Thebug · 26 Jan 2008 at 14:34

Do you have a pic of before you took it apart as you will need to know the switch wires

The three you have taped up should be the live loom

You will need some terminal blocks

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 15:06

Nope no pic of before, sorry

but it's wired like I said (the solitary red to the red on the pendant, and the two blacks to the single black on the pendant - the other 3 wires together to one terminal, not connected to anything else).

Terminal blocks? I bust apart the old ceiling pendant and was going to use a screw terminal from there to hold the 3 reds together... is that ok?

Cheers,

Suman

Brum Man · 26 Jan 2008 at 15:22

As mentioned, you need to know which one is the switch cable and which is the mains in and out.

What you should have is one live/neutral coming in, one live/neutral going back out and one that will be swich cable with both being the live, just with one going to the switch and one coming back. Although the problem with wiring is you never know what the previous person has done!

RJC · 26 Jan 2008 at 15:48

Do you have a multimeter!

Rob

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 16:47

I wired it up in a sort of logical way... and it works perfectly! Just wanna know if it's safe to leave the wiring like this...

There is no earth connection so I've just tucked those wires out of the way... and the 3 live ring wires are all screwed into a brass screw terminal which i wrenched out of the old pendant (is that ok??).

Thanks

Suman

Tom0 · 26 Jan 2008 at 16:51

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 16:55

Tom0 said:
RTFM

Clearly you haven't seen an Ikea manual before - there are no words to read

ScoobyDoo · 26 Jan 2008 at 17:22

Sumanji said:
I wired it up in a sort of logical way... and it works perfectly! Just wanna know if it's safe to leave the wiring like this...

There is no earth connection so I've just tucked those wires out of the way... and the 3 live ring wires are all screwed into a brass screw terminal which i wrenched out of the old pendant (is that ok??).

Thanks

Suman

Not the safest wiring ive seen.

I wouldnt recommend you keep those live wires connected just to that brass block.
You really need a block connector, only about 20p from any diy shop to make things safer.

Again dont just tuck the earth cables out of the way, they need to go into a safe block connector.

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 17:50

Cool, thanks Scoobs - will rock down to B&Q now and pick a couple up

Cheers,

Suman

MehulLakhani · 26 Jan 2008 at 17:52

Is it one of these type lights ?

Brum Man · 26 Jan 2008 at 18:33

Sumanji said:
Cool, thanks Scoobs - will rock down to B&Q now and pick a couple up

Or what I usually do is have all that in the loft space in a juntion box and then just have one cable coming down with the neutral coming from the ring and the live coming from the switched live.

Just makes is a bit neater and you end up with a lot more room behind the light fitting as the are sometimes quite tight.

Sumanji · 26 Jan 2008 at 18:35

MehulLakhani said:
Is it one of these type lights ?

Fo' sho'

Sumanji · 27 Jan 2008 at 13:25

Ok I wandered over to B&Q and they have lots of connector blocks but no terminal ones...

They just have ones where there are 6 connections in and 6 out (each paired, but none connected to each other). I just need one to join the 3 lives wires (ring in, ring out and switch).

So should I be looking for something different?

Cheers,

Suman

Brum Man · 27 Jan 2008 at 14:15

Just get one of those, cut one of the pairs off using a knife and put two lives in one side and one in the other.

Doesn't matter how they're connected in the block, just that connecting them using one will be safer than what you've got at the moment.

Jonny ///M · 27 Jan 2008 at 14:36

I'm confused by the 3 wires just being tucked together. I did the light in the landing and it had a lot of reds and a blacks. Some of them where for the other switch downstairs(some loop?) I think the three of them just bolted down to the same plate though so nothing different from what you have done.

Surely it has to be earthed though? Even though it has a blastic mounting it's still mostly metal.....

Dreadi · 27 Jan 2008 at 14:41

Brum Man · 27 Jan 2008 at 15:22

Jonny ///M said:
I'm confused by the 3 wires just being tucked together.

One is the live in, one is the live out going to the next light, probably in a different room, and one is the switch cable. Hence they all need to be connected, it just looks a bit odd when done as it is at the moment.

Landing wiring will be slightly different as that will not doubt be a two way switch, with the one that is done here being a one way.

The earth cables *should* go into that brass block, although the fitting doesn't look that great for wiring up!

JBod · 27 Jan 2008 at 17:23

Suck it and see*

*Note: Do not do this