Stairs switches

[EFLImpudence]

not totally conclusive (because of the two 'exceptions') but all but two of the 1-way switches in this house appear to be 'that way up' - so I imagine it was essentially 'on purpose'. The house was rewired a bit over 20 years ago.

Fair enough - maybe an American person.

 

[JohnW2]

Fair enough - maybe an American person.

Yes, maybe. Needless to say, I haven';t got a clue as to who did it, and why.

I think it was re-wired around 2000 - certainly all in 'old colours'. For some reason, although all of the sockets (of which there is a pretty generous number) have been properly 'mounted flush' (sunk in), nearly all of the light switches are on surface-mounted pattresses.

 

[SUNRAY]

,

 

[ebee]

Not very long ago the isolators on consumer units and the like was up for off and down for on.
Wylex had brown DP switches quite often.
Then the change in convention to down for off and up for on,
One popular belief that it was to algin with the continent and also in a panic then your arm throwing the switch down was easier/
Wylex introduced those new conventions with a red rocker switch.
I remember one chap returning a consumer unit (with Red Rocker) and the isolator was in bits, he`d found it "wrong" and opened it up in an attempt to fix it, all the bits flew out and he couldn`t get them back in! LOL.
But, as said, the old convention for lighting switches remained as was.

Speaking of conventions, using three core and e cable (I am a bit unusual in some things - If no one has noticed) many use the old red/new brown for com and the other two being blue/yellow or black grey , preferably oversleeved.
I am a bit odd, Red for L1, Yellow for L2 and Blue for Com, in new money substitute Brown, Black, Grey. Again all oversleeved ) leaving a small band as a witness of the original colour for easy reference.
I think logically it becomes Red (Brown) for perm L on three or twin and E cables. So a bit easier to follow at a glance but I do note that the other way of doing is more common and I can`t say it`s wrong. I just have my little quirks.

I did a house rewire for one lady who wanted all of the lightswitches in the up position for on and down for off but trying to explain to her that with two longish hallways and a couple of big bedrooms with multiple doors, that inevitably it could not be achieved because of some two, three and four way switching arrangements, so I did not quite win on that one.

 

[SUNRAY]

Not very long ago the isolators on consumer units and the like was up for off and down for on.

A lot of old cast iron isotators/fused box were up on interlocked with the cover

Wylex had brown DP switches quite often.
Then the change in convention to down for off and up for on,
One popular belief that it was to algin with the continent and also in a panic then your arm throwing the switch down was easier/
Wylex introduced those new conventions with a red rocker switch.

Except of course for Firemans switch

Speaking of conventions, using three core and e cable (I am a bit unusual in some things - If no one has noticed) many use the old red/new brown for com and the other two being blue/yellow or black grey , preferably oversleeved.
I am a bit odd, Red for L1, Yellow for L2 and Blue for Com, in new money substitute Brown, Black, Grey. Again all oversleeved ) leaving a small band as a witness of the original colour for easy reference.
I think logically it becomes Red (Brown) for perm L on three or twin and E cables. So a bit easier to follow at a glance but I do note that the other way of doing is more common and I can`t say it`s wrong. I just have my little quirks.

The origin of red on COM was for conventional method of wiring 2 way switching: With Line (Live) on com at one end and Switched Line at t'other end.
I for a second will always follow your convention of maintaining the red or brown as a line as opposed to a switched strapper.

 

[ebee]

The origin of red on COM was for conventional method of wiring 2 way switching: With Line (Live) on com at one end and Switched Line at t'other end

The old traditional two way switching including conduit would indeed in my experience consist as Com on one switch be the Perm L (feed) and Com on the other switch be L (switched) so the old Red in both cases and the strappers would also both be Red too and was done basically with all L to switches and all N to ceiling rose with only the switch return (L) also going to the rose , looping in at L was therefore only done in switches and looping in at N in roses.

I have not mentioned the E to either if present just for clarity. Single and Earth became available too, usually Red and E but you could get Black and E .
With the advent of T & E cable and lack of conduit this really caught the trend and Loop in to each rose and out to the next one until the last one on the run, A T & E as feed and return from switch to rose therefore became the fashion.
Ideally twin red but Red and Black was often used, sometimes (actually too often methinks) without sleeving or flagging with tape.
The advent of Three Core and E made it easy to convert an existing one way switch position be converted to two way but the wiring arrangement for five L conductors for three terminals did seem odd to some who had difficulty following it. Indeed it would have seemed counter intuitive to some folks it did cause concern to some.

Once again with Three Core and Earth you had a Red, a Yellow and a Blue and this was not always sleeved for clarity and different folk had different ways of the correct colour code base for the different terminals .
It appears that Sunray agrees with my thinking about the Reds in 3 core and E - it`s unusual, most folk disagree with me. LOL,
That said you could buy Triple Red (and E) but would cost a fortune, Twin Red cost a couple of quid a roll more than Red and Black for Twin and E, folks tend to go for the cheapest option, not surprisingly.


I did come across one installation by a contractor who had used both Red and Black rolls and Twin Red rolls and he had transposed the usage, probably just a careless accident I suppose. But he did not even correct it with sleeving or insulation tape either, what a nightmare to follow, he was not a contractor I respected for multiple other reasons either but this one particular incident did stick out in my mind.

Sometimes in life I think (not just with regards to Electrics) we look at things and how they`ve evolved and first thought is they don`t seem logical but if you follow the different steps it does sometimes make some sense.