Hall light with a mind of it's own

[Dor1111]

Hi I had an Electrician come round to replace two light switches
in my hall,a double downstairs & a triple upstairs it was just a
straight swap,however ever since he done this there has been
problems with the downstairs light & I cannot get him to come
back as he has MH problems & I do not want to cause him any
more stress.

So the triple controls upstairs landing light(working fine)
loft light (working fine) & the downstairs hall light which is
where the problem is.The downstairs controls outside light
(working fine) & the downstairs light.when the upstairs switch
is in the on position the light is off & when it is in the off position
it is on,if you turn the light on from upstairs you cannot turn it off
downstairs & vice versa the downstairs switch is off in the off position
& on in the on position.I tried swapping L1 & L2 in each switch separately
light stayed on permanently.

Wiring for downstairs light to switch is L1 Red wire L2 Blue Wire
L3 Yellow wire blue & yellow wire also have small red sheath on over
wire colours. There is also a bridging wire connected to the outside
light switch.

Wiring for upstairs light to switch is L1 Red wire L2 Blue wire
L3 Yellow wire,again yellow & blue have small red sheath over
wire colours.

I am at a complete loss as to he has done I did wonder if it could
be something at the light itself but I cannot remember if he touched
that.Thank you for taking the time to read my question,hopefully I did
not ramble too much.

The first picture is the upstairs switch with the right hand switch
the one that controls the downstairs light.The second picture is the
downstairs switch with the right hand switch the one that controls the
downstairs light.

 

[Mottie]

Obviously something he has done. You either need to get him back or another electrician to work out where the problem lies. Sounds like you should have done it yourself in the first place!

 

[John D v2.0]

Your formatting is making this very hard to read. If you copy and paste from elsewhere try to remove the extra line breaks. You could have replaced the whole post with a diagram and Truth table.

Sounds like the switched live is mixed up with one of the strappers, you need to swap them back. But exactly how is hard to tell.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Post photos of the wiring of both switches. May be able to decipher from that.

 

[Dor1111]

Hi I have added pictures hope this helps

 

[EFLImpudence]

Could you remove the link wire in the downstairs switch and tell us what happens.

I can see no reason why it should be there.

 

[John D v2.0]

Agreed with efli.
Presumably the live goes to yellow and the switch live goes to the blue in the light fitting, or vice versa. So red should be a strapper only and not pulled live by the link.i agree that it explains the strange behaviour, if either switch is switched to the blue (or vice versa), then it will be on.
Alternatively if removing stop the light working completely, the red could be supposed to link to either the blue or yellow in that switch and not the red.

 

[Blueflash]

When you've sorted the problem, you need to tidy up the connections, too much copper showing and earth the switch using the terminal provided.

Dave

 

[securespark]

No grommets and no earth links to switch plates: looks like a DIY fork-up, not an electrician's job.

 

[sparkwright]

No grommets and no earth links to switch plates: looks like a DIY fork-up, not an electrician's job.

Yes, this so-called electrician is U/S.

 

[Dor1111]

He was a qualified Electrician,mind you I agree the work is not that professional.

 

[securespark]

I'm sure he was a qualified electrician, just not qualified to do electrical work!

 

[Dor1111]

O

 

[Dor1111]

The link wire was in fact 1 wire with a bit of the sheath removed folded over &
placed into the switch for the outside light,it then carried on to the downstairs
light switch.I removed it from outside switch & the light did not work I then
removed from both switches outdoor & downstairs switch & neither worked.

 

[EFLImpudence]

But you have not removed the link.

You have just disconnected it from the outside light switch.

Take it out of the downstairs switch and put it back in the outside light switch L3.