Replacing ceiling light and dimmer switch (novice!)

[Twincam1986]

I don't see how though, because I took the old light fitting down before the old ceiling came down and it was attched to the same cables dangling down now, there was no other wire as the previous ceiling light only had 3 terminals anyway.

God stuff like this bloody annoys me, how hard can it be to fit a light and dimmer switch when they were there and working before!? *rant over*

 

[sherlockholmes]

I hope there's access from above, if there's no live anywhere and all the old wires are there then one is probably damaged or pulled out of a connection somewhere behind your nice new plaster.

 

[MrTinker]

At the ceiling fitting;

Sleaved earth wire -> earth

Black -> N

Red -> S

At the dimmer s/w

Sleaved earth -> earth on face plate

Red -> ~

Red -> L1

If that don't work swap the two reds over at the dimmer s/w

 

[sherlockholmes]

At the ceiling fitting;

Sleaved earth wire -> earth

Black -> N

Red -> S

At the dimmer s/w

Sleaved earth -> earth on face plate

Red -> ~

Red -> L1

If that don't work swap the two reds over at the dimmer s/w

Unless I'm misunderstanding him, none of the lives are testing as live.

 

[MrTinker]

I read it as he wasn't getting a switched live at the fitting, but i may have read it wrong.

 

[Twincam1986]

One of the wires at the switch is live. But if I put the 2 wires at the switch into the same terminal on the dimmer switch as suggested to test, the ceiling wires do not become live.

Mr. Tinker - I've had it set up like that but it won't play unfortunately.

 

[sherlockholmes]

I read it as he wasn't getting a switched live at the fitting, but i may have read it wrong.

I've been self-medicating a cold with hot toddies since mid afternoon, so it's entirely possible i'm reading it wrong instead.

 

[Twincam1986]

Sorry, to clarify, as I've probably not made this very clear:

At the switch, there are 2 red wires and an earth. One of these is live. Due to my difficulties, it was suggested to bridge these 2 wires and test the ceiling wires. When I bridge the two wires at the switch (one of which is live), the ceiling does not become live.

At the ceileing I have black (N), red (L) and earth, all from the same grey cable. I've had the live connected to both the live terminal on the ceiling light and the switch terminal on the ceiling light and neither has worked.

 

[sherlockholmes]

So the switch line has power, but bypassing the switch doesn't send the power anywhere you can find.
I'm back to suggesting lost connection at a junction box as a result of all the upheaval pulling ceilings down. I'll mix another hot toddy and muse upon it, but I think it's electrician time unless you want to start lifting floors. No point trying different terminals if there's no power getting to the ceiling wire, when the switch is closed (or bypassed) the ceiling wire should be live. Did you check the neutral wasn't?

 

[MrTinker]

In that case you will need to find the junction box, that the fitting and switch wires goto, and check the connections there.

sorry holmes you where right, i must of missed a bit of the info there.

 

[sherlockholmes]

I'd initially missed the switch being powered, but together we have solved the crime. Whoever pulled the ceiling down probably disturbed/damaged it, though who's to say it wasn't loose, or knocked out when the light fitting was taken down. If the job was done through a reputable builder with a sparky on call he might have it looked at as a goodwill gesture, but I expect it'll just have to be put down as one of those things.

 

[Twincam1986]

I seem to have sorted it after an awful lot of faffing! I just bridged the 2 switch wires again and re-tested the wire at the ceiling and it was live (I musn't have had a good connection with them before).

I gave up with the new dimmer switch and put the old one back on and lo and behold I now have light. So I have a faulty dimmer switch

Oh well, at least it's working. Thanks for all the help!

 

[sherlockholmes]

Hurrah!
Some dimmers rotate to switch on, others the turny button (technical term) pushes in, then just rotates to dim. But i'm sure you know how to operate a light switch.