1930's House - Old Wiring - Should be a simple lighting problem....

[KingKenny]

... But it's causing me a problem.

First time I've asked a question on here, so thanks in advance for any advice.

The problem is as follows ...

I'm working on quite an old house in Scotland - big thick walls, etc...

I have a light switch which should operate a batten light in a bedroom. The old light was removed, so previous wiring cannot be determined. the switch has two outs - A red wire (presumably live) and a black (presumably neutral). the wiring coming out of the wall has two pairs of red/black - presumably one pair from the switch and one from the mains. The batten light fitting expects two inputs, so I've wired in the two reds together and the two blacks together. The lamp works when switched on, but blows the very old 5A fuse when switched off, killing all upstairs lights, causing me to have to rewire the old 5A fuse with fuse wire (also 5A), quite time consuming.

Now, my understanding is that neutral wires shouldn't be wired into the light fitting unless they're switch live. if so, fine - but does this mean I should terminate one of the neutrals in a block and wire in both lives together?

I would have tried this earlier today, but light faded, so I had to give up for today.

I'm frustrated because I feel I should know how to achieve this, but haven't managed to.

thanks all

 

[Plonker 3]

Too many. " presumably" in there, use your test equipment to check everything as you say it is.

 

[KAS1]

Red to red, black to black blue to bits lol

 

[Fin170]

Well I got a good idea what it is, but doing up a old house and leaving the pretty old wiring in place sounds kind of daft....more so than fiddling with electrics when you're not sure what you're doing

 

[FAA Greenie]

I'll just tell you, the black wire at the switch isn't a neutral, its a switched live. What you have done is created a direct short when the switch is operated.

I'm telling you this just in case you keep trying and eventually succeed in burning your house down.


Seriously, if you are not competant with electrics, get someone who is to come and sort it out for you, it won't cost a great deal and will keep your house insurance valid, which it won't be when they discover you did it yourself


Chris

 

[Silly Sausage]

He'll probably need a new switch now as well! :smilielol5::smilielol5:

 

[telectrix]

use a meter on ohms to determine the switch wire. then the black of this is the switched L and goes to the light L. the 2 reds together in a block terminal and the 1 remaining black to the light N. this is 1st year stuff, even schoolboy learning.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

call an electrician.

 

[sedgy34]

Sounds like you have neutrals at the switch with l & swl

Just a quick guess here
could it be you have permanently fed the light and when you operate the switch you switch the neutral causing it to blow the fuse wire!

 

[VoltzElectrical]

use a meter on ohms to determine the switch wire. then the black of this is the switched L and goes to the light L. the 2 reds together in a block terminal and the 1 remaining black to the light N. this is 1st year stuff, even schoolboy learning.

Tel, stop telling people like this what to do when they are obviously incompetent.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

This is supposed to be an ELECTRICIAN'S FORUM. i.e. a forum for ELECTRICIANS NOT DIYers!

 

[telectrix]

Tel, stop telling people like this what to do when they are obviously incompetent.

slap on wrist accepted. thought the mention of a meter would have put him off.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

i think i`d be IR testing that lighting circuit now as well before putting it into continued service...
i mean god knows how many `faults` its been subjected to before the O/P decided to come in here...

 

[Plonker 3]

This is supposed to be an ELECTRICIAN'S FORUM. i.e. a forum for ELECTRICIANS NOT DIYers!

Not quite, people with any competence can post on here, it just depends on how they take the advice that separates the people who are knowledgeable from them that want a Darwin Award.

 

[sedgy34]

Seems like he's got a big task ahead he should think what he's doing rather than thinking about how he's going to get the whole job done