Replacing Halogen Lights - whats Live and whats neutral

[maderic]

Hi, please help if you can. I've bought some replacement halogens from B&Q which has a little junction box showing where to connect the live and the neutral wires. Trouble is when I look at the existing lights there is no indication of whats live or neutral on either the wires themselves or the connectors in the existing lights.

Whats my best way around this to find out which is which

Many thanks

 

[mo2]

piccy?


Take a picture so we can see what you are talking about.

 

[maderic]

Dont have the camera with me at the moment but essentially I just need to know which wire is live and which is neutral. ON the existing set up both wires are white sheathed with no indication of their status. Neither is there any indication on the little joiner box of the fitting as to whats live or neutral. Do I need some sort of tester to establish whats what?

 

[securespark]

How do we know which is live and which is neutral if you can't post a piccy?? GMS.

Yes, you need a multimeter.

 

[maderic]

There is absolutely no point in poisting a piccy anyway becasuse as Ive already said there is absolutely no differentiation between the two white sheathed wires.

please could you tell me how to use the multimeter on these two wires to find out whiich is which

Thank you

 

[Belle427]

are they mains voltage or do they include transformers?

 

[maderic]

I dont know what do say other than what I've already said. I pulled out the light fitting from the ceiling this afternoon which revealed two wires both white sheathed to the fitting but there were no indicators as to which of these wires was live or neutral. On the new lights I've bought also from B&Q it states that I have to connect live to live. Maybe it doesnt make any difference but I'm conscerned about it. I dont have a camera but I could sent a picture mobile message if someone is willing to give me their number. I dont think it'll help at all though I just need to know the method of determining which wire is which

 

[bernardgreen]

There is absolutely no point in poisting a piccy anyway becasuse as Ive already said there is absolutely no differentiation between the two white sheathed wires.

please could you tell me how to use the multimeter on these two wires to find out whiich is which

Thank you

If there is no differention between the wire then maybe you do not have live and neutral there. You may have two wires from a transformer or or device out of sight above the ceiling.

If the previous lamp was a properly installed mains lamp then there would a red (or brown) wire for Live, a black (or blue) wire for Neutral and a bare wire with yellow/green sleeving for Earth.

Without knowing what you had before and what you have now it is impossible to give accurate advice.

 

[maderic]

Bernard, thanks for the reply. I think you are right because I have these same halogen spotlights in my bathroom. On closer inspection in my roof I noticed that these wires trace back into some sought of little black connector box which looks about 2inches long but quite thin. Is this the transformer that you are talking about. I think each of the halogen spots has this black device but I cant see them for obvious reasons in the space above my kitchen

Does this mean that it doesn't matter which of these wires go into which connector on my my new lights or does it mean something else?

 

[RF Lighting]

Are your new fittings mains or SELV?

 

[maderic]

Bernard, just looked at the packaging. There is nothing about SELV on it but it does say transformer free on it

 

[casinojoe1]

are they flush fitting spotlights in a ceiling? if so take out a bulb and read what it says on the bulb. i suspect they are 12v downlights, but we need to clarify this?

 

[maderic]

Yes they are flush fitting ceiling spotlights but are 240v 50W bulbs. It says I must not use anything else

 

[securespark]

If the wires hanging out of your ceiling are indeed identical, then as others have suggested, they may be the secondary output of an SELV transformer. In which case you will need to access the ceiling void to find the LV supply.

Which goes back to what I said earlier. You need a multimeter. There is little chance of you completing this task successfully without one.

 

[maderic]

Does it sound like the lights i have recently bought will be suitable to replace these existing ones?