DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Thanks to Stevenc firstly for the help with my last problem, I went to replace the old kitchen lights with spotlights, One has two sets of cables, 2 blacks, 2 red and 2 earths, I wired them the way the came off, Two reds to the loop and one black to the neutral and one to live, The lights stayed on all the time without being switched on, any help in laymans terms would be great

What you recount seems to be correct.
Reds = One line feed in and other line feed out to switch no connection to local lamp.
Blacks = One neutral which will connect to local lamp blue and other line from switch normally with red sleeve and connects to brown wire on local lamp.
Earths just connect together most lamps are double insulated and have one square inside another to indicate this some metal fitting do require earth wire connecting.
Is that the way you have it? i.e. The reds do not connect to local lamp.

Neutral is considered as Live as well as the red Line wire so we use word Line to refer to red cables. Seems L N E stands for Line Neutral Earth. Does not really matter but just so you know what Line means.

[quote="ericmark"]What you recount seems to be correct.
Reds = One line feed in and other line feed out to switch no connection to local lamp.
Blacks = One neutral which will connect to local lamp blue and other line from switch normally with red sleeve and connects to brown wire on local lamp.
Earths just connect together most lamps are double insulated and have one square inside another to indicate this some metal fitting do require earth wire connecting.
Is that the way you have it? i.e. The reds do not connect to local lamp.

Neutral is considered as Live as well as the red Line wire so we use word Line to refer to red cables. Seems L N E stands for Line Neutral Earth. Does not really matter but just so you know what Line means.[/quote][quote] Yes this is the way it is set up, what is wrong as the lights are on all the time, is it possible i could have the blck wires in the wrong place[/quote]

I wonder if you have faulty switch then?
It is common mistake for people to connect the reds direct to the local lamp which would cause this problem but if you have not made this mistake then looks like faulty switch.

[quote="ericmark"]I wonder if you have faulty switch then?
It is common mistake for people to connect the reds direct to the local lamp which would cause this problem but if you have not made this mistake then looks like faulty switch.[/quote], Thanks a lot ericmark, I will put on a new switch, As the house is so old i will no doubt have problems with this also

[quote="danny boy"][quote="ericmark"]I wonder if you have faulty switch then?
It is common mistake for people to connect the reds direct to the local lamp which would cause this problem but if you have not made this mistake then looks like faulty switch.[/quote], Thanks a lot ericmark, I will put on a new switch, As the house is so old i will no doubt have problems with this also[/quote]

Put on a new swith and lights still stayed on, I replaced two old switches with new ones,Two gang two way, There are 4 lights in the kitchen, two have one set of wires to the ceiling rose and the others two have two sets of wires, I take it these are conected to the lights with one set of wires, Also, when i switch one light on the other light goes dim and vice versa, Would i be better off replacing the old cables from the switch to the lights

There is a point where you have to bit the bullet and get some one in.

How many grey cables have you got at each ceiling rose and how many at each switch. It could be they are wired differently.

I tend to agree with Eric here, I think yo have hit the point where you need someone on-site to see what's going on.