Wiring spotlights

j.col · 15 Sep 2015 at 15:06

Hi, my son was hoping to wire some spot lights in his room, he's done his electrical at college and gained his certificates. However he's a bit unsure.

Basically, he wants to put in 4 spot lights as well as keeping his main light.
He's brought a 2 gang, 2 way switch because he wants the spotlights separate to the switch that controls the main light.

So basically, at the moment with one switch. He's identified that he has a common and Switch feed at his switch, which is fed from the ceiling rose.

He was wondering if this is how you would do it:

Using a junction box, connect a feed from the Switch(L2) to the junction box and running this along with the neutral to each light. He says this because the Switch he bought has 4 terminals. One Live Terminal(L), then L1(Main Light Switch Feed), L2(Spotlight switch feed), L3(spare). Which he believes the common is passed to each Terminal and the switch itself does the switching internally. So he believes that if you turn The first switch off, the feed will still be going to the L2 Terminal which is feeding the spotlights?

Does this sound about right? i think its the switch that has confused him as he said hes used to normally having 6 terminals.

Feel free to leave some help and suggestions!

The spotlights and Switch Below:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/Classic-Tilted-Downlight-Satin-Nickel-4-Pack/p/139787

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biard-LED-R...201_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JZ09EW8DMTMAWH5KW85

Werewolf · 15 Sep 2015 at 15:15

I'll move this to Home & Garden where someone will hopefully be able to shed some light on what needs to be done.

Yaayuh! · 15 Sep 2015 at 15:22

Werewolf said:
I'll move this to Home & Garden where someone will hopefully be able to shed some light on what needs to be done.

Excellent.

lude1962 · 15 Sep 2015 at 15:57

So he believes that if you turn The first switch off, the feed will still be going to the L2 Terminal which is feeding the spotlights?

does the switch work as 3 separate on/off switches is the question, what does the instructions say?

j.col · 15 Sep 2015 at 17:25

Yes, that's correct.

He's still waiting for the switch to arrive, but yes, i believe that's how he thinks it works. It wasn't clear on the website how it works but hopefully that is how. He wanted to get advice before wiring anything.

Beer_MonsterUK · 15 Sep 2015 at 17:41

I take it at the moment, he has a 1 gang switch feeding 1 main light and he wants to change it to a 2 gang switch feeding the main light and the LED spots?

If so, then the permenantly live feed needs to go into the common terminal of the 2 gang switch then take a switchwire up to the main light (Connected into the L1 terminal) and a new switchwire up to feed the LED spots (Probably connected to L2, but can't know for sure without seeing a wiring diagram of the new fangled switch). It sounds to me like he's missing a switchwire to feed the new LED's.

R B Customs · 15 Sep 2015 at 18:12

I think whichever way you look at it he's going to have to run a switch cable from the new 2-gang switch, which might mean a new chase will need to be cut and the current switch wiring wil likey need replacing as a result.

The problem is you have two buttons on your switch, 2 fittings, but only one switch cable.

Thinking outside of the box, you could do all of this with minimal alterations with you were to use a remote bulb such as easybulb for the main pendant. you can even get easybulb GU10's so they can be independant too (I hve a lot of easybulbs in my house and can vouch for them) you would just patch the new GU10s onto the main light, leave the switch as it is (standard non-fancy switch) and use the easybulb remote or phone app to control the bulbs.

also, check that your current back-box is deep enough to take that switch! depending ont he age of the house you may have 16mm back-boxes.

Beer_MonsterUK · 15 Sep 2015 at 19:53

If he's lucky and if the existing Twin & Earth (presumably) cable has been properly capped, there's a chance you could use the existing cable as a draw wire and replace it with a 3 core & earth without too much chopping & chasing.

j.col · 15 Sep 2015 at 22:29

Beer_MonsterUK said:
I take it at the moment, he has a 1 gang switch feeding 1 main light and he wants to change it to a 2 gang switch feeding the main light and the LED spots?

If so, then the permenantly live feed needs to go into the common terminal of the 2 gang switch then take a switchwire up to the main light (Connected into the L1 terminal) and a new switchwire up to feed the LED spots (Probably connected to L2, but can't know for sure without seeing a wiring diagram of the new fangled switch). It sounds to me like he's missing a switchwire to feed the new LED's.

Yeah thats how his is wired atm, 1 gang with a Permanent live in the COM and a Switch feed in L1. The way you said to do it is how he was planning on doing it. i dont think i explained it clearly enough.

He knows he has to take another switch feed from the switch to the new lights, obviously to be able to control them separately. Then take the neutral from the Ceiling rose as well and run them together in series to each light.

He's had a look at the back box, he believes its deep enough but he has plenty in the shed that would be useable.

Thank you for all your feedback!

j.col · 15 Sep 2015 at 22:31

Beer_MonsterUK said:
If he's lucky and if the existing Twin & Earth (presumably) cable has been properly capped, there's a chance you could use the existing cable as a draw wire and replace it with a 3 core & earth without too much chopping & chasing.

Yeah that was his plan, attatching the new cable to the old and pulling it through. Then use 2 cores as Switch lines and 1 as a Permanent Live. Then the Earth ofc!