Replace 3 Gang rocker with 2 Gang dimmer and 1 Gang rocker??

[m477hew]

I am stumped.

As above, I am trying to replace a 3 gang rocker with two new switches, 1x one gang rocker for the outside lighting and 1 x 2 gang dimmer for the dining room. When I had initially removed the three gang none of the neutrals were fitted into the switch unit, instead they were all joined together...


The problem is there are five flex's coming through the wall each of which contain the usual red, black and neutral wires.

Is it time to call a sparky?!

Thanks

Matt

 

[MalcofArabia]

Yes I think you may do

It is not unusual to have the neutrals at a switch, that is if they are neutrals as switch lines could also be black. That is just one of several methods that can be safely utilised to wire a lighting circuit.

Red Black and Neutrals, what colour are these neutrals? is there no earth conductors there ?

Are you just getting terminology wrong because you don't really understand electrics, and if that is the case be best to get a sparks in.

This may help


//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:lighting

 

[m477hew]

Thanks Malc,

There are earth conductors yes, they were connected correctly to the switch. Sorry made error in previous post - there are 5x black neutrals, 5x red and 5x earth cables. I have had a fiddle around with it and not made a huge amount of progress. Assuming the blacks should be kept together then the it is the combination of which live goes where...

Current status is all downstairs lights have tripped from recent attempt and consumer unit is turned off.

If I can sus it out before night time great, otherwise I will call for someone who knows what they're doing.

many thanks again

Matt

 

[ban-all-sheds]

When I had initially removed the three gang none of the neutrals were fitted into the switch unit, instead they were all joined together...

Fair enough - that's a perfectly standard way of wiring lighting circuits.

The problem is there are five flex's coming through the wall each of which contain the usual red, black and neutral wires.

Why is that a problem?

One will be the circuit cable coming from the previous switch.

One will be the circuit cable going to the next switch.

The other three will be the ones going to the 3 lights.

Surely you weren't dumb enough to just remove all the wires from the old switch without making a note of what went where, were you?

Assuming the blacks should be kept together then the it is the combination of which live goes where...

You should be able to easily indentify which is which by using your multimeter.

Current status is all downstairs lights have tripped from recent attempt and consumer unit is turned off.

Did you accidentally touch N & E together?

 

[sparkwright]

It may be that you only have one feed in cable, if the switch is on the end of the circuit.

The 'fifth' cable may be an extra switched cable (neutral and switched live).
For example, if you have more than one outside light, or more than two dining rooms lights, the installer could have jointed the cables at the switch.

 

[sparkwright]

A clue to help you wire this back would be that all the feed (permanent) lives are linked together on one side of each individual switch. Short lengths of wire provide the links.

Now you need to find the cables go to each light fitting. These go on the other sides of the switches.

You will find each switch probably has three terminals on each.

Assuming you have just ordinary one way switching, you only need to use COM and L1. Ignore the L2 terminal.

Usually the feed wires go to COM, though this isn't important.

Your dimmer instructions will tell you which terminals to use.