Home lighting wiring confusion ???

[BillyWilson]

Ok so my elderly neighbor went to replace a cracked ceiling rose in his hall way, he took the fixture down and unfortunately made no note of which wires went where so when he came to replace the fixture he understandably got a little confused - this is where I come in, I agreed to take a look and now after a fair bit of head scratching am now also a little confused

So basically he has a wall fixture with 3 switches, these control 2 hall way lights downstairs (which work together) 1 upstairs hall way light and 1 other additional light - I've got the upstairs and down stairs lights working as they should with the appropriate switches - I can get the additional light to come on and stay on permanently or work with one of the other switches but I cant get it to work with the one remaining switch - I have 4 wires left to play with, 2 black and 2 red (there are no earths)

I'm sure its quite straight forward but with my limited knowledge I cant quite figure out how to do it so any guidance and advice would be very much appreciated?

Cheers guys.

 

[oharaf]

Pics behind switch and the rose will help

 

[jockspark]

hi this started off as a like for like swap of a light
please tell me you have not changed any connections in the switches.
now is it possible to take a pic of the cables you have at
the light

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[jockspark]

Connect the reds together and put into the loop terminal on the rose. The two blacks go either side of the lamp.

thats if there is only one light in the hall
and it not just a loop from light to light

 

[BillyWilson]

hi this started off as a like for like swap of a light
please tell me you have not changed any connections in the switches.
now is it possible to take a pic of the cables you have at
the light

I haven't even gone near the switch, was told everything worked fine before so don't plan on opening up that can of worms -

Currently at my girlfriends house so cant get any photos till this evening, the guy did mention that he thought 2 of the black wires were connected together but he wasn't sure?

 

[Taylortwocities]

More info = more help

Need to know how many cables at the ceiling rose, if any of them are joined together and if any of them have a red (or brown) sleeve on them.

Edit: DO NOT TOUCH THE SWITCH, or change anything else. It all worked before the ceiling rose was removed, so any sorting out needs to be done there.

 

[BillyWilson]

Ok so I finally got a photo -


//media.diynot.com/107000_106571_11031_59447917_thumb.jpg


As you can see there is 4 wires remaining - 2 black and 2 red, now the old gentleman thinks the 2 black wires were connected together? But he cant remember where in that case the remaining 2 red wires were located? I have no idea if this is even correct so any help much appreciated

Thanks for the responses so far fellas.


*EDIT* so that photo turned out really small! Can anyone tell me how I go about getting a full size image on here?

 

[Adrian80]

From look at your pic, it seems there are 4 cables containing a black and red wire each.

basically you have one that comes with the power (loop in ) and then one that leaves to the next light (loop out). You also have a switch wire, this wire breaks the live at the switch, hopefully this cable is marked, you are supposed to add a little brown sleeve to the neutral nowadays, But i guess your looking for a black wire with a red mark on it.

Then your last cable is links to the other light...

You just need to work out which cable is what, then follow a diagram on the sticky.

You need a meter to work out what cable is what though.
A

If you didnt add the blue tape to the black wire, i would guess thats your switch cable.

 

[BillyWilson]

The wires that are connected into the ceiling rose are the ones that Ive so far figured out and connected up - these work as they should - the 2 remaining cables coming through the ceiling which are currently unconnected are for the 3rd light - I'm unsure of how to connect these wires up to work with the 3rd switch?

Like I've said - I can get this light to come on or work with one of the other switches but I cant get it working as it should with the 3rd wall switch?

 

[Adrian80]

Well it seems you have worked out which is the switch wire. Disconnect the wires not in the rose, if that one light stays on you got it right with the loop in wire. If not work swap the other wire around until it does.

Then work out which wire operates the second hallway light. This should be connected to the blue and brown parts of the rose/pendent.

Then the remaining wire should be connected to the same terminals as the loopin cable.

This should sort it.

A

 

[BillyWilson]

The old gentleman seems to think that the remaining 2 black wires were connected together separately from the ceiling rose and that the 2 red wires that accompany the black ones were then connected somehow into the ceiling rose - could this be a possibility and if so how would that work?

 

[Adrian80]

are there any two way switches for the hall lights?.

look at the wiki for wiring a twoway switch at the rose, and check at the switch there isnt't two cables leaving from it. If there were this would indicate a modern two way switch arrangement.

i think the process of eliminating what cable does what is the best idea, also the old rose may have had a different config, compared to the new one.
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[BillyWilson]

Everything is connected to a 3 switch wall socket?

 

[Adrian80]

I dont have anything further to add, try what i said in the first post, but otherwise see if anyone else has suggestions.
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