Outside light

[Edwardioo]

ok for my girlfriends uncle i was doin an outside light, all it needed was a light and was already wired, he showed me where it was switched from, which was off a 3g switch, so turned it off and test the cable to make sure it was that one anyway, but it was still live, so i took the switch apart test the switch he claimed to be the outside light, and either cabes wern't live from the com and l1 but at the outside point was live, bit confused :/

 

[telectrix]

if both cables in the switch are live, then the switch is ON. it may be faulty and not switching off.

 

[Edwardioo]

if both cables in the switch are live, then the switch is ON. it may be faulty and not switching off.

the cable in the switch is dead :/ but the cable outside is live :/ its a 3g switch, 1 doin wall lights, 1 doing room light and the other for a light outside, test cables that were in the switch that were apparently feeding the light outside and they were dead :/. he was defiantly sure it used to switch the light on outside, but when i got to the cable outside it was all taped and coiled up :/

 

[telectrix]

so how are you testing the cable outside for live?

 

[msec]

If the switch cable is dead and the light cable is live then hes obviously got his facts wrong. Electrical installation is only a mystery to people who don't know what they are doing. Why not just isolate the whole circuit at the cu??? using a standard switch to isolate supply is not accepted practice and dangerous. Are you sure you are competent to carry out this work??

 

[Deleted member 9648]

^^^^^^......agree totally......^^^^^

 

[Edwardioo]

If the switch cable is dead and the light cable is live then hes obviously got his facts wrong. Electrical installation is only a mystery to people who don't know what they are doing. Why not just isolate the whole circuit at the cu??? using a standard switch to isolate supply is not accepted practice and dangerous. Are you sure you are competent to carry out this work??

i wasnt going to isolate with just the switch i was making sure that the switch he showed me was the correct one, obv not because when i connected it up it was still live, and wasnt switching :/

 

[tedy]

..the only thing I can think of (with reference to the fact that you found live cable after switching off the outside light) is that the switch is switching only the neutral part of that circuit.

 

[mark80]

^^^^ Could possibly be what tedy has said! Best way to check is test between line and neutral at outside light and turn switch on and off and go from there! If you have been testing between line and cpc then you would be reading 230v all the time regardless of the switch position.