Not sure what is going on with the below mess

[breaking_the_dream]

I recently tried to change a light. When I pulled out the old light fitting there were 3 cables.

The light point had 2 neutral (black coloured wires) 1 going to the neutral terminal and 1 going to the live terminal
green cable was ok.

Now for the other the remain wires in those 3 cords.
There are 2 active wires joined by a cable connectors
A active and neutral wire joined by a cable connector


Feels like this shouldnt work bvut the light turns on just fine. Any advice would be welcome.

Feels like one of the cables has been rigged up the wrong way.

 

[littlespark]

Any chance of a photograph?

What you’re describing seems straight forward.
Just because a wire is black, doesn’t instantly mean it’s a neutral.

I’m assuming it’s like what we have in the UK.
One wire goes down to a switch, which is a live/hot/ active depending on your country…. And the switched live that comes back up from the switch.

In UK, we had red and black wires within the cable, (now brown and blue) with an uninsulated earth wire which is covered with green and yellow striped sleeving at the terminals.
The black would normally be taped or sleeved with red to denote it as a switched, or sometimes-live.

There was a time that cables were made with 2 red cores and no black… just for these switch drops. Possibly still is.

The switchwire black then is connected to a live going into the light fitting.

Generally, a light bulb or lamp doesn’t need to know which way is live and which is neutral, so it doesn’t need different coloured wires.