Wiring Fluro Lights

[Jezinio]

Hi

Bit of a strange one this...

I have an outbuilding that previously had a mains power supply from an adjoining property. I no longer have access to that property or power supply - the wires have been cut (and hopefully removed from the board).

I have two fluorescent lights in the outbuilding that I want to re-connect. They have a switch wired to the lights at one end and at the other end three cables (the ones that have been cut) coming from the original power supply and to the first fluro. These cables look exactly the same - a red sheathed wire and a brass unsheathed wire. How do these wires correspond to the live neutral and earth I am bringing in to the building?

Any help gratefully received.

Jez

 

[Evans Electric]

They sound like rubber cables Jezinio ,   I'd recommend you rewire that bit .  What you call the "brass" one  is likely to be a bare earth  wire .   If the other two are both red , the one that goes to the switch is the live ...the one straight to the light fitting is the neutral . 

Also I suggest you make sure those cut cables are dead .

 

[Manator]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

from your brief description it would appear that your lights have been wired in singles.(Single core cables with an earth). It also looks like whoever did the job used the same colour cable.

In old colours you should have a black cable for neutral a red cable for live and your red cable will carry the earth(the brass colour unsheathed cable you describe).

The best way to do what you want to achieve is to just rewire the lights with new cable from your power source. You could leave the switch wire in place.

They sound like rubber cables Jezinio ,   I'd recommend you rewire that bit .  What you call the "brass" one  is likely to be a bare earth  wire .   If the other two are both red , the one that goes to the switch is the live ...the one straight to the light fitting is the neutral . 

Also I suggest you make sure those cut cables are dead .

I never thought of them being rubber Evans, well pointed out.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi

Bit of a strange one this...

I have an outbuilding that previously had a mains power supply from an adjoining property. I no longer have access to that property or power supply - the wires have been cut (and hopefully removed from the board).

I have two fluorescent lights in the outbuilding that I want to re-connect. They have a switch wired to the lights at one end and at the other end three cables (the ones that have been cut) coming from the original power supply and to the first fluro. These cables look exactly the same - a red sheathed wire and a brass unsheathed wire. How do these wires correspond to the live neutral and earth I am bringing in to the building?

Any help gratefully received.

Jez

Have you got access to any test equipment, meters etc??

You could try wiring it up onto a length of flex connected to a standard plug top, but with a 3A fuse (Not 13A)....

See if the lights work... worse case  it will blow the 3A fuse in the plug and possibly an RCD at the fuse box or a 6A MCB....

.