Light fitting loop connection

[Spatel90]

Hi,

I’m trying to fit a new ceiling light and am having a bit of trouble understanding which wires should be fitted to the new fixture and which ones are loop and what to do with them. It seems like the live switch hasn’t been marked in any way by the installers.

There’s 3 main sets of wires:
Blue, brown, earth
Blue, brown, earth
Brown, brown

Pictures attached, any advice appreciated.

 

[EFLImpudence]

The three browns together are the loop.
the other brown is the switched live and
the blues are the neutral.

Mark the single brown before you disconnect and do not mix them up.

 

[Iggifer]

Doesn't need to be marked as they seem to have used twin brown cable - this is greatly to your advantage.

Make note of the brown that's in with the flex for the lamp holder, connect this to your new ceiling light, connector block for the cables in loop and connect the neutrals (and earths if required, if not another connector block) to your new light fitting.

Worst case scenario and you forget which brown it was, the cable with two browns is to and from the switch

 

[Spatel90]

Doesn't need to be marked as they seem to have used twin brown cable - this is greatly to your advantage.

Make note of the brown that's in with the flex for the lamp holder, connect this to your new ceiling light, connector block for the cables in loop and connect the neutrals (and earths if required, if not another connector block) to your new light fitting.

Worst case scenario and you forget which brown it was, the cable with two browns is to and from the switch

Thanks, I’m not sure which neutral and brown cables were connected to the old lamp, is there any way to tell? Since they used twin browns does that mean these are the ones which need connecting to a connector block for loop?

As you can probably tell I’ve not dealt with loop cables before, only changed lights with 3 cables so it was pretty straightforward!

 

[EFLImpudence]

All the blues are neutrals, they all connect to the lamp neutral.

One of the twin browns connects to the lamp live. Doesn't matter which.

The other three browns connect together and to nothing else.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

am having a bit of trouble understanding which wires .. are loop

Umm...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Thanks, I’m not sure which neutral and brown cables were connected to the old lamp

Umm...

 

[Spatel90]

Managed to connect everything up as described but the light’s not working and now the second room light also doesn’t work

 

[333rocky333]

Post a photo of your connections

 

[Doggit]

Then you've swapped over two cables. The essence of a lighting circuit, is that you have a feed from the previous light, a cable going from live down to the switch and then coming back to the live side of the pendant (that's the brown one that EFL told you to mark) and then a 3rd cable going to the next light fitting. Do you have a tester to check the cables and the continuity. The cable coming from the previous light pendant will be live, and you then need to sort out which of the other two cable is the switch feed, and the last cable will then go to the light that isn't working.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Managed to connect everything up as described but the light’s not working and now the second room light also doesn’t work

Did you fit the new light in such a way that all the conductors from the rose were still connected together in exactly the way they were before?

If not, why did you think that everything would work exactly the way it did before?

 

[LawnMower]

The blue wire on this diagram (switch return) is in fact brown on yours.


Check that each cable is properly connected into terminals, I had one that had broke just above the bare copper and had to skin it back, then check your bulbs. A tester would be an advantage if still fails after.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

{A drawing done by someone who wasn't actually trying to help}

 

[John D v2.0]

Further to efli, don't forget your earth/CPC cables. Really they should be sleeved separately not all together, it's bad practice to wrap them together.

Post a photo of your current situation.

 

[ericmark]

Well finish the job

It would seem browns have got mixed up from report.