Wiring in a Ring floodlight

richieboy · 4 Sep 2019 at 15:06

Hi guys,

I'm attempting to wire in a floodlight replacing an existing light, did this in one spot no problem but this one I'm not so sure about so wanted to double check - this Is the old light and wiring:

It has four cables, earth, then grey sleeved as blue, brown, and black sleeved as grey.

Here is the new fitting:

I know where the earth goes (there is a screw to attach it to on the metal plate) and assume that brown goes brown (L) and sleeved blue goes blue (N) but where does black sleeved as grey go?!

Thanks!

richieboy · 4 Sep 2019 at 15:32

By the way...I think it is some sort of switched or permanent live or that it's wired to another light the other side of the garage, not that that helps much but I've noticed if I turn the breaker off and then on but have the wall light switch off they still come on, but after a few seconds go off...and can then be switched on and off by the light switch on the wall. They are motion sensitive lights so am guessing it allows you to turn them on and off without messing up the PIR bit but just not sure what I do with wiring in the new light and if one of those should just be connected to a terminal block going to nothing maybe...

HardwareGeek · 4 Sep 2019 at 17:47

Normally 3 core wiring to a outside light would be:

brown - permanent live
black / brown sleeve - switch live / override / link to another light
Grey / blue sleeve - neutral

So in this case just use brown and grey and put the black in a choc block on its own, to make it safe as it will probably still be live when switch is on or another light linked to it activates if multiple lights have been wired to all come on if 1 light detects something

Just read your 2nd post properly - guess they were 2 PIR 1/2 coach lights and the black links them together so if 1 sensor activated both lights come on at the same time

richieboy · 4 Sep 2019 at 19:04

Thanks for your time and help, you are absolutely right the current lights are 2 PIR 1/2 coach lights, what you've said makes absolute sense so I'll just choc block the black and put tape around it to keep it safe within the ring light fitting. I take it this shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the other light should it?

HardwareGeek · 4 Sep 2019 at 19:14

You will just lose the function of them each setting the other off - so the 1 1\2 coach still there will just work solo and only come on with its own sensor

psd99 · 5 Sep 2019 at 09:26

HardwareGeek said:
You will just lose the function of them each setting the other off - so the 1 1\2 coach still there will just work solo and only come on with its own sensor

how would the second light in this scenario be wired up? would it only be connected to the switched live? or would you need to in theory place a cable from the first light's neutral and earth to the 2nd light?

HardwareGeek · 6 Sep 2019 at 18:20

psd99 said:
how would the second light in this scenario be wired up? would it only be connected to the switched live? or would you need to in theory place a cable from the first light's neutral and earth to the 2nd light?

On those lights they have 4 terminals, an extra 1 that can be used for a switch override or to control another light or be controlled by another light

most often you see 1 light and an override switch so you can turn the light on when you want using the 4th terminal

you can buy the lights in different models, so just a dumb light, PIR, LUX sensor etc

so if you wanted just 1 PIR and a dumb light then you could just take switch live and neutral (2 cores needed) from PIR light to dumb

IF you wanted 2 PIR to control each other then you need permanent live and neutral at each fitting and switch live between them (3 cores needed)

Generally best to always use at least 3 cores + earth because you may need the extra core in future even if not using it now

2nd light in this post would most likely have perm live, neutral, switch live & earth same as 1st light

how the cables run doesn't matter too much, could be to first light then onto second, or both run in separate cable back to 1 switch or to a 1 jb in loft and connected there

Neatest way would be 1 3 core cable to each light both running back to a switch and take a supply from lighting circuit there and link switch lines together

The only thing that needs to be connected between the 2 lights is the switch line, the perm live, neutral and earth could come from anywhere on the same circuit (so you don't link 2 circuits together)