Is there an electrician in the house?

[VonClinkerhofen]

I bought a light from IKEA yesterday for my living room. I switched power off at mains. And wired and fitted it to the ceiling in the same way that the old one was ...I think. When I have switched the power source back on at the box the light came on instantly and it won't switch on or off at the wall. So I now have 24 hour lighting.

The instructions from IKEA say "if you have any problems ring an electrician" (helpful!).

So what I want to know is...

a) Is it it something I've done?

b) Or is it the light fitting?

c) Surely it's not the wiring in my house cos the last light didn't do this?

 

[VonClinkerhofen]

That's your problem.
To fix it you'll need a meter and enough courage to find out which wires are live as you try the switch.
Or call out an electrician.

So what your saying is..I've wired it up wrong...so I can just swap them round and it should work

 

[VonClinkerhofen]

Sound like you’ve wired the permanent live in to the switched live of the light. In the old light fitting you should have had 3 twin&earth cables coming in and 4 separate connection blocks. There should be a “neutral” block for the neutrals, a “loop” block which is for the permanent incoming and outgoing live of the lighting circuit and a permanent live to the switch, a “live” block for the switched live back from the switch and the brown feed wire to the actual light bulb and finally an “earth” block which all the earth wires go into.

If I remember correctly the lights that come from Ikea have a live, neutral, and earth block but no block for the “loop”. So im thinking that you may have put all the red wires into the live block making the light permanently live.

To rectify this you will need to get your self a connector block to connect the “in and out” permanent live of the lighting circuit and the permanent live down to the switch. Then connect only the “switched live” that comes back from the switch into the live connector of the light.


Hope this makes sense

Thanks

*reaches for the Yellow Pages*