Hi,
Wondering if anyone could help at all with this. We are replacing some flush ceiling lights in our home as the current ones haven't been changed probably since the house was built in the 70's.
When taking off the exsisting light, we have discovered that is was wired up in a very strange way and we're not sure what to do with the replacement light.
The old light was connected up in the following way:
Two mains cables from the ceiling, each with an earth (bare), live (red)and neutral (black).
The two earths are wound together, twisting round each other but were not connected to the light.
The two red live wires were together, bound together with insulating tape but again, NOT connected to the light.
The old light was connected to the two black wires, one in each of the L and N connecting sockets, although there is no indication on the light which is which.
We can't even work out how the old light worked but it did!
We're now faced with this dilemma- what's the best thing to do with the new light?
Can we:
a) Try and isolate one of the mains cables and wire the light up correctly, using the L, N and Earth from only one of the mains cables? (Is it safe to tape the other cable up inside the light?)
b) Try and wire the new light up in the same way as the old, although we have no way of knowing Which of the two black wires went into the L and N sockets in the old light.
C) No idea!!
Any help/ideas why it's been set up like that would be much appreciated.
We can't really afford an expensive bill from an electrician so if we can possibly sort out ourselves, that would be ideal.
Thanks in advance!!
Wondering if anyone could help at all with this. We are replacing some flush ceiling lights in our home as the current ones haven't been changed probably since the house was built in the 70's.
When taking off the exsisting light, we have discovered that is was wired up in a very strange way and we're not sure what to do with the replacement light.
The old light was connected up in the following way:
Two mains cables from the ceiling, each with an earth (bare), live (red)and neutral (black).
The two earths are wound together, twisting round each other but were not connected to the light.
The two red live wires were together, bound together with insulating tape but again, NOT connected to the light.
The old light was connected to the two black wires, one in each of the L and N connecting sockets, although there is no indication on the light which is which.
We can't even work out how the old light worked but it did!
We're now faced with this dilemma- what's the best thing to do with the new light?
Can we:
a) Try and isolate one of the mains cables and wire the light up correctly, using the L, N and Earth from only one of the mains cables? (Is it safe to tape the other cable up inside the light?)
b) Try and wire the new light up in the same way as the old, although we have no way of knowing Which of the two black wires went into the L and N sockets in the old light.
C) No idea!!
Any help/ideas why it's been set up like that would be much appreciated.
We can't really afford an expensive bill from an electrician so if we can possibly sort out ourselves, that would be ideal.
Thanks in advance!!