Connecting wall light fitting to a UK mains plug
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:28 am
Hi All,
I have joined your esteemed company to try to solve what I thought would be a simple enough task which has ended up confusing the hell out of me (admittedly not a difficult feat to achieve!)
I have an under-stairs cupboard with no light inside. There's a mains plug on the wall outside, so I thought it would be easy to place a wall light inside the cupboard and run a short mains cable through the wall to a 3A plug and just plug it in. Hey, what the hell, I'll put a switch between the two to make it even better!
Anyway, let me tell you that I didn't succeed. Connected up the 3A plug (too easy, so no concerns there, and yes, I've checked the fuse). Then connected a cable to a simple, single one-way switch (connected the live wire from the plug to the 'COM' point, and the live wire going to the light to the 'L1' point, and kept the neutral wire sheathed,bypassing it), and connected those (live and neutral) to the two inputs on the light fitting. Nothing. Ever. Tried three different 3A fuses, three different bulbs, switch in both positions, swapping cable ends round, etc. Nothing. Is it really not as simple as I thought it should be?
Looking forward to receiving some advice to stop me pulling my hair out. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a wonderful feastive season and wish you all a great New Year.
Neil
I have joined your esteemed company to try to solve what I thought would be a simple enough task which has ended up confusing the hell out of me (admittedly not a difficult feat to achieve!)
I have an under-stairs cupboard with no light inside. There's a mains plug on the wall outside, so I thought it would be easy to place a wall light inside the cupboard and run a short mains cable through the wall to a 3A plug and just plug it in. Hey, what the hell, I'll put a switch between the two to make it even better!
Anyway, let me tell you that I didn't succeed. Connected up the 3A plug (too easy, so no concerns there, and yes, I've checked the fuse). Then connected a cable to a simple, single one-way switch (connected the live wire from the plug to the 'COM' point, and the live wire going to the light to the 'L1' point, and kept the neutral wire sheathed,bypassing it), and connected those (live and neutral) to the two inputs on the light fitting. Nothing. Ever. Tried three different 3A fuses, three different bulbs, switch in both positions, swapping cable ends round, etc. Nothing. Is it really not as simple as I thought it should be?
Looking forward to receiving some advice to stop me pulling my hair out. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a wonderful feastive season and wish you all a great New Year.
Neil
