Help - Had some work done

[sarah_1991]

Hi, not sure if this is the correct place for this. My hubby and I had a rewire done and realise now that the landing and hall light are both on the downstairs lighting circuit. Is this right?

We had the lights set up so you can switch on/off both hall and landing lights independently.

Upstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)
Downstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)

 

[Spoon]

Hi, not sure if this is the correct place for this. My hubby and I had a rewire done and realise now that the landing and hall light are both on the downstairs lighting circuit. Is this right?

We had the lights set up so you can switch on/off both hall and landing lights independently.

Upstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)
Downstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)

Welcome to the forum.
Unless the electrician has be told different, I would have thought the operation of all light switches should have stayed the same after the re-wire was complete.

Are you saying that you now have some light switches that switch nothing?
If so, then I would point this out to the electrician and ask him to correct the mistake.

 

[sarah_1991]

All the lights work ok, its just that when we switched off the upstairs light circuit to change a light bulb the hall light went off as well. It looks like that is on the wrong circuit?

 

[SparkyChick]

Personally I would have put the landing light on the upstairs lighting circuit and the hall on the downstairs circuit. Both ways slightly increase the risk to anyone working on the circuit in the future as they may make an assumption that something is dead based on it's location.

For example, with the landing light on the downstairs circuit, someone assumes the landing light is on the upstairs circuit, turns that off, doesn't check for dead and gets a nasty surprise when they work on the landing light fitting. Likewise with it on the upstairs circuit, someone assumes it's on the downstairs circuit, turns that off, doesn't check for dead and gets a nasty surprise when they work on one of the switches.

Both ways are acceptable (i.e. on one circuit or split across two), if you are at all concerned put a little sticker on the consumer unit to remind anyone in the future.

 

[davesparks]

Hi, not sure if this is the correct place for this. My hubby and I had a rewire done and realise now that the landing and hall light are both on the downstairs lighting circuit. Is this right?

We had the lights set up so you can switch on/off both hall and landing lights independently.

Upstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)
Downstairs: can control both lights (socket with two switches)

Are you saying that the lights operate correctly but the upstairs light is connected to the circuit breaker labelled as being downstairs?

 

[Risteard]

It's a perfectly normal way of wiring it to prevent a borrowed neutral, which is prohibited. There's nothing concerning about what's been done.

 

[sarah_1991]

Are you saying that the lights operate correctly but the upstairs light is connected to the circuit breaker labelled as being downstairs?

Yes, sorry, I'm probably not using the correct terms. When we switched the circuit breaker labelled "upstairs lights" they all went off upstairs and the hall light went off too. The other lights in the living room etc were still on. We did laugh and think it was a cowboy move but it seems that its actually ok. I would ask what a borrowed neutral is but I think that's above my changing a light bulb skill set.

 

[davesparks]

All the lights work ok, its just that when we switched off the upstairs light circuit to change a light bulb the hall light went off as well. It looks like that is on the wrong circuit?

No, not on the wrong circuit, each circuit can have whichever lights the electrician chooses on it. There is no rule requiring a circuit to do upstairs and downstairs. You could have a seperate circuit for every room or split the circuit front and back of the house.

Having the hall light on the upstairs circuit has probably allowed them to keep only one circuit present at the switches thus making it slightly safer for an unsuspecting filter trying to change the switch.

 

[sarah_1991]

No, not on the wrong circuit, each circuit can have whichever lights the electrician chooses on it. There is no rule requiring a circuit to do upstairs and downstairs. You could have a seperate circuit for every room or split the circuit front and back of the house.

Having the hall light on the upstairs circuit has probably allowed them to keep only one circuit present at the switches thus making it slightly safer for an unsuspecting filter trying to change the switch.

So long as its not going to burn down the house. We did hope that it was some cowboy quirk we could laugh about but looks like it is a legitimate way to do things.

 

[telectrix]

it's basically because the landing light will have one of the 2 way switches downstairs, probably within a 2 gang switch which also switches the hall light. he's done it that way so as to have only 1 circuit in the switch/es, so you can have it either way. hall light with upstairs, or landing light with downstairs.

 

[Strima]

Ideally there should be a circuit schedule on the distribution board explaining what protective device covers which accessories.

Always worth practising safe isolation when working on any electrical circuit within your home: Safe Isolation | -----------.co.uk - http://www.-----------.co.uk/Safe_Isolation_procedure_for_dead_working.html

 

[Fitzy]

You could always just add a note to the upstairs circuit breaker description ‘inc downstairs hall light’ so that the next electrician knows it’s on the upstairs circuit.

 

[MJPD29]

Theres nothing wrong with it nothing to be worried about

 

[Des 56]

If you think about it functionally,when or if a fault developed on your downstairs lights or a lamp blew and took out the downstairs breaker,you would have the benefit of light in the hallway instead of all lights down being lost
Possibly its a well thought out split of the light points

 

[sarah_1991]

Thank you all for your help. Very kind of you.