Ceiling light fitting advice

[martyj]

Hi all,

It’s my first time trying this so I don’t want to wing it. I have searched for ages on Youtube and the videos do not show fittings that are the same as my new light. I dont know how to attach a picture of the ceiling and the fitting, but it has 2 rows of 3, and the live and neutral of the new light are fitted to one side. I am ok removing the pendant, it is just how i get all of the live, neutral and switch cables from the ceiling into the new block as there is only 3 terminals, one of which is for the earth?

thank you,

martin.

 

[ProDave]

Firstly well done for asking BEFORE you remove the old fitting.

It is important to mark some of the cables in some way before you remove them.

You will have 3 or possibly more red wires that connect into the middle block on the ceiling rose. These all join together and don't connect to the light fitting. It is important that all these same red wires remain joined together. If your light fitting does not make provision for this, use a connector block.

You will likely have 2 or possibly more black wires that connect to the blue wire of the pendant. These must end up in the light fitting;s N terminal.

And the one that usually causes a problem is you will likely have a black wire connected to the light fittings. brown wire. This should be sleeved with red sleeving but very often is not and when you loose track of which black wire this is, is when the problems start. You need to clearly identify this with red sleeving or red tape and connect it to the light fittings L terminal

 

[martyj]

Hi Dave, thank you for your response.

the existing fitting in the ceiling has a connector block of 3,3,2.

From the ceiling, there are 2 blue, 3 brown, switch live (blue with brown cover) and earth.

the new fitting has 3 empty terminals with a blue and brown connected to 2 on the other side.

thanks,

martin.

 

[Andy™]

you will need a terminal block to connect the permanent lives

 

[martyj]

Ok. Can i buy this in a basic DIY shop? Where do I connect the switch live to?

thanks,

martin

 

[Andy™]

id expect the light to come with a spare terminal block. they dont get connected to anything on the light, just each other

 

[ProDave]

Hi Dave, thank you for your response.

the existing fitting in the ceiling has a connector block of 3,3,2.

From the ceiling, there are 2 blue, 3 brown, switch live (blue with brown cover) and earth.

the new fitting has 3 empty terminals with a blue and brown connected to 2 on the other side.

thanks,

martin.

Follow my instructions substituting blue for black, and brown for red (I wrongly assumed it was an older house wired to old colours)

 

[martyj]

Follow my instructions substituting blue for black, and brown for red (I wrongly assumed it was an older house wired to old colours)

Thanks Dave. So i can put more than one wire from the ceiling into the new light terminal block? E.g  With 3 empty terminals, each with 1 screw, i will have:

2 blue wires

1 earth cable

3 live (brown) + switch live

each connected to one screw point? Thats very different to existing so wanted to check.

thanks,

martin.

 

[Sharpend]

No 

sw live to light fitting brown 

blues together in light fitting blue

earths to light fitting earth

3brown in separate connector NOT connected to any light fitting cables. 

 

[ProDave]

No 

sw live to light fitting brown 

blues together in light fitting blue

earths to light fitting earth

3brown in separate connector NOT connected to any light fitting cables. 

Thanks Sharpend. I obviously did not explain it very well.

 

[martyj]

Thank you both, im an idiot with this stuff and don’t want to blow things up, but also want to learn something new!

thanks for your time

martin