Is there any reason a spur would have L and N transposed on the load? (Ed.)

[LetsNotGetKilled]

Hi

I am changing an outside light
when i removed the light. It had brown tape on the blue wire and blue tape on the brown.

So i inspected the spur. spur had LOAD wired in reverse (L and N reversed)

But the wires going from the socket to the spur all seem correct. (until they get swapped going into the spur)

On testing with the pen tester thing ...the L was giving a signal. so I think all the mains sockets are good. plus I tested the socket with the plug in test thing,

Is there a reason why anyone would swap these over?

Can I just wire this correctly

Thanks



outside light

inside

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The wiring colours need to be correct at both ends of the cable, so best to check both ends, and decide why they had decided to reverse it.

 

[LetsNotGetKilled]

Yes.. my question is..

is there any reason why someone would reverse this?

And would putting it correctly be dangerous?

 

[pete01]

I've never seen that done before, I cant think of a reason why.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I also do not know why any one would do that - very odd.
Presumably discovered earlier and decided tape easier than altering.

However -

It had brown tape on the blue wire and blue tape on the brown.

Ok. Would you consider that as identifying the use of the conductors as per the regulations?

So i inspected the spur. spur had LOAD wired in reverse (L and N reversed)

Well, to be accurate it is only the colours that are reversed; the actual L and N are correct.

 

[LetsNotGetKilled]

Hang on..the LOAD part of the spur has L an N .. Reversed..

The Supply part looks ok.. but it's been reversed by then..

Am I getting this right

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

is there any reason why someone would reverse this?

That is why you need to investigate, why they have done, what they have done. They might have even done a joint in the cable, where they crossed it, then couldn't be bothered to redo the joint. As said - you need to investigate, before correcting it.

And would putting it correctly be dangerous?

There are number of issues caused by wrong polarity,

 

[LetsNotGetKilled]

The cable going though the wall is a single piece of twin and earth with no joins.

The cable coming from the sockets to the spur also appears to be a single cable. And the pen tester indicates live on the line coming to the spur.

So that all looks ok

 

[pete01]

If you was to forget about colours it's still the same and would work as normal, just cant get my head around why.

 

[SUNRAY]

I suggest the original light fitting was a basic bulkhead or so where the error at the switch simply wasn't noticed. moving on and the light fitting was changed by a DIYer and the error was spotted and sleeved.

Quite a simple scenario.

'course it's also possible there is a brown to CPC fault and this botch stopped the MCB tripping.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

'course it's also possible there is a brown to CPC fault and this botch stopped the MCB tripping.

Unless there is also an RCD.

 

[SUNRAY]

I suggest the original light fitting was a basic bulkhead or so where the error at the switch simply wasn't noticed. moving on and the light fitting was changed by a DIYer and the error was spotted and sleeved.

Quite a simple scenario.

'course it's also possible there is a brown to CPC fault and this botch stopped the MCB tripping.

Looking at the pics again the switch still looks original and doesn't look got at. So doesn't look like a DIYers secondary balls up

 

[LetsNotGetKilled]

My concerns..

it's confusing.. And confusing=potentially dangerous.

And the spur is wired backwards. Does it work wired wrong?

And also there might be a good reason for the crossed over wiring that I don't know about. Hence my post. Asking if there was ever a good reason for this to be wired like this...

 

[SUNRAY]

Unless there is also an RCD.

Just chewing the cud so far.

 

[LetsNotGetKilled]

Unless there is also an RCD.

What's these bits about tripping things.