Change a ceiling light fitting Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[ickleal]

I am trying to change a ceiling light! a 10 minute job. I thought that I connect the new one as the old one but I have hit a problem.
I connected the fittings brown wire to the group of 3 red wires, the fittings blue wire to the switched live and earth to earth but no joy!
I have power as I connected the live to the 2 twisted black wires and the light came on but I could not switch it off.
When I put a meter across the ceiling wires I saw a reading of 155 - 165 volts on the switch wire and 235 across the other live wires.
I even tried connecting a single lamp across the pair with no success.
Anyone got a clue

[kuzz]

Earth connects to earth. 1 out of three ain't bad. It works like this. A live & neutral come in. A live & neutral go out to power the next light. The other twin & earth cable is your switch wire. The group of three red wires together is called your loop. one in, one out, one down to your switch. That's it, nothing else needs to be connected to these! Your two black wires together are your neutral. The blue on your fitting connects to these. The brown on your fitting to your switch wire. (should be red or marked red, but often isn't) Think there are diagrams somewhere on this site if that helps.

Projects section, electrical, changing a light fitting etc (Doc)

[sparks]

Hi the group of 3 wires is the loop ,,one comes in ,one goes to next light ,and one drops down to the switch ,disconnect the brown connection to the three reds a connect that to the switched live and connect the blue wire to the two blacks and connect the earth to the earth on fitting ,then it should work

[ickleal]

Sparks - nice one - thanks very much your direction were spot on many thanks