Lighting problems Help, advice and problem solutions on all aspects of home appliances from washing machines to TV's

[denzil]

Hi,
I have recently fitted 4 hallogen lights to a bedroom and included a dimmer switch. the hallogen lights are 50W each so I used a 500W dimmer switch. The lights work fine, however, the bathroom light is not as bright as it was.
At the old centre light for the bedroom there were three cables going into the connection, have I maybe mixed up the wiring to cause this fault?
Many thanks for any info.

[ericmark]

You may have mixed up the neutral and the switch wire. This will mean instead of the bathroom light being connected to neutral it is connected to live of bedroom lights. If this is the case when you switch on the bedroom light the bathroom light will go out.

[General sharaz]

yes u have definitly mixed the wired up ,u can locate the switch wires by using a contiuity tester,but u will need to open the ceiling rose and the switch to do this ,with the power off,connect the wires at the switch together ,then with the continuity tester probe the wires,when it makes a noise then that is the switch wire,u can switch on and off the switch to make sure ,the noise will sound when on and will not when off.the other way to identify the switch wire is just to look at the cable and see which one has a brown sleeve on ,then carry out this test to double check,as sometimes sleeving can be put on for a number of reasons.

[TheDoctor5]

Last year 64% of the questions asked in our forum were answered within our DIY project pages at www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects.htm The project pages are now separated alphabetically and your answers are accompanied by diagrams and the ability to see, and buy, the tools and/or required to complete your project. Use our search box to look for your answer and save a great deal of time and money!