Voltage drop question

[Scott_L]

Hiya

I have a question about my outdoor lighting. When we moved in we had 3 outdoor lights connected live to live neutral to neutral from the back door to our kitchen window and then round to our side access path

Call them A B and C. Through time they all aged and B and C were in the worst condition so during lockdown I replaced B with a new combined floodlight/security camera and disconnected C as it had given up and didn’t want to connect it to the camera terminal block

Fast forward to now, and I replaced light “A” with a new light and bought a new light for “C” down our side path.

Given that I had disconnected the feed to C when I fitted the camera/light, I reconnected the feed to the camera terminal block (with the camera removed for access) and power appeared at the C location and the new light there lit up fine.

But, when I reconnected the camera/floodlight at B position, C Did not light and looking in the open mains wires at light C position I measured 190v AC

Why is this voltage drop happening?

My next step is to disconnect the camera mains connection from the camera terminal block into see if the follow on feed then lights the light at position C

Here attached is a circuit diagram. The original circuit is marked 1 and then we moved to configuration 2

Any opinions would be very welcome

 

[securespark]

Pictures may help.

It sounds as if there may be a misconnection somewhere.

Have you made changes in other places, or at junction boxes, or at light switches?

 

[Scott_L]

Hello thanks for your quick reply.
No changes, there is one light switch at our back door and that switched feed goes to the first lamp then to the camera/floodlight then to the side access light, all live to live, neutral to neutral.

I will take some pictures as you request

 

[flameport]

Neutral is not connected somewhere and the voltage displayed is due to capacitance between the cables.

 

[FrodoOne]

Why is this voltage drop happening?

Because there is a high resistance (faulty) connection in either the Line or Neutral (or both).
Integrity of the Neutral is just as important as that of the (switched) Line.

 

[Scott_L]

Guys thanks for your answers it was indeed a slightly iffy neutral connection because of the solid core wire not quite being “bitten” by the terminal block. All lights and camera working perfectly. This is a great and helpful community so thanks to all