Any sparkies in the house

[kegnkiwi]

I am just after some advice guys, our sons and wife have just moved into there new house and the wiring in a bad way. They have had an electrician out the make the house safe so I have been over to the house to help them fit a couple of double insulated wall lights. The wiring is already there so it is just a matter of wiring in the lights.

Wall one:

2 x red wires
1 x black wire
2 by earth

Connected the red to brown in the light and black to blue but the light did not light.

Wall two

1 x red
2 x black
1 x earth.

Connect red to brown and 1 x black to blue. light would not light.

Ok I know the live is there at with the multi meter I'm getting 240v red to earth. So to get the lights to light I have to go

Wall two red to brown and blue to 2nd black and the light lights but on the first wall I have had to go red to brown and blue to earth? The lights light and I left it
on for 10 mins and check for any heat in the wires ect. There using low energy bulbs.

I am perticiually worried about the blue wired to earth on wall one. Can any advise what reading I should get across live to neutral on the multimeter.

Thanks

 

[Him Her]

I am just after some advice guys, our sons and wife have just moved into there new house and the wiring in a bad way. They have had an electrician out the make the house safe so I have been over to the house to help them fit a couple of double insulated wall lights. The wiring is already there so it is just a matter of wiring in the lights.

Wall one:

2 x red wires
1 x black wire
2 by earth

Connected the red to brown in the light and black to blue but the light did not light.

Wall two

1 x red
2 x black
1 x earth.

Connect red to brown and 1 x black to blue. light would not light.

Ok I know the live is there at with the multi meter I'm getting 240v red to earth. So to get the lights to light I have to go

Wall two red to brown and blue to 2nd black and the light lights but on the first wall I have had to go red to brown and blue to earth? The lights light and I left it
on for 10 mins and check for any heat in the wires ect. There using low energy bulbs.

I am perticiually worried about the blue wired to earth on wall one. Can any advise what reading I should get across live to neutral on the multimeter.

Thanks

Bad idea M8. Old wiring Red is Live (Brown), Black is Neutral (Blue). Now you have current on the cpc which shouldn't be there. Lucky there's no RCD or it would have tripped. You need to find out where the neutral went and re-instate it.

You should get 230-250 volts on the multimeter between Live and Neutral.

Sounds like the neutral is looped in the second light and the live in the first. Connections should be both blacks connected to blue (on light 2) and both reds connected to brown (on light 1).

 

[kegnkiwi]

Well thanks for that, called our son and told him not to use the lights, I'll head of down there after work tomorrow and do a continuity check from the one spare black wire in the second light to the first then I'll connect it up and that should give back the neutral. Looks like they may have worked backwards on the black to make ensure that there where not that many wires in one wall. Just hoping that they did not use the black as a live as I have seen before where they just use a red band on the black wire.

 

[Him Her]

Check it all out with a meter M8. Marking cables differently to their original colours is within regulations (some conventions excepted). I suspect the original installer figured it was better to limit the number of cables to make connections easier - wall-lights usually have limited space behind for connections.

As always, take care with potentially 'venomous' cables

 

[kegnkiwi]

Cheers mate as always.