Help! Wiring 3 lights on existing loop

[Npenno]

Can someone help me?
I am trying to wire up 3 new light fittings in my lounge,
there are, for each light from the ceiling, 2 earth wires (green/yellow), 2 neutral wires (black) and 4 live wires (red).

I have wired them up so that the earths are together in 1 terminal, the neutrals are together in 1 terminal but I am really struggling with the 4 red wires.

There is a double switch for 2 of the lights and a single switch for the remaining light.

I have wired the 1st light so that it works fine. but the 2nd and third lights work off the same switch!!!!

Please help, I'm sure it's something simple but i can't sus it out.

Cheers

 

[ColJack]

4 red wires at each light?

that'll be live in , live out, live out to the switch and switched live back from the switch...

can you define "double switch" for me please...

if you mean 2 switches on one box then does each switch work one light?

if so then you need 3 reds in the "loop" terminals of the ceiling rose or a terminal block, and the other red to the light terminal that has the brown in the next one..

a black marker pen saves a lot of trouble when replacing light like this..

just put a mark on the switched live wire before disconnect and then you know which is the odd wire out..

 

[Npenno]

Yes there are 4 red wires on each light fitting.

Yes I do mean two switches on one box and they each switch works one light.

I have marked each wire, 1,2,3 & 4 but I don't know which one is the live!

Do the 3 reds and the 1 red need to be next to each other in the terminal block?

I have tried different combinations of 3 and 1 but all I get is all 3 lights on together working by one switch or get nothing at all!

 

[Lectrician]

Some photos would be good.

Explain in better detail what cables you have - describe the outer sheaths to the cables - ie. Light 1 had 4 cables, three cable have a red and a black, the fourth only has a red.

It is difficult for us to help at all with out knowing this sort of info.

 

[Npenno]

On each light fitting, there are 3 cables, one has two red wires and one earth coming from it and the other two have one red, one black and one earth

not sure how to post photos on to this website?!

 

[Lectrician]

Sounds like you have twin red switch drops then.

Earths with earths

Neutrals with neutrals

All reds together in a terminal block of their own (seperate from the lights live), EXCEPT for ONE of the reds from the twin red cable - put this to the live of the light fitting.

 

[Npenno]

As you can probably guess I am hopeless with electrics!!!

Can you just confirm... that the single red wire needs to be connected to the brown wire on the light fitting? and the other 3 red wires need to be in a blank terminal?

 

[ColJack]

absolutely yes, although I am unsure what you mean by "blanked" terminal

in a ceiling rose there are 2 terminals together at one end, then 2 banks of 3 terminals together in the middle and the other end..

the blue from the light goes to one terminal of the 3 at one end, along with the 2 blacks.

the one red from each wire goes to the 3 terminals in the middle

the remaining red from the twin red goes to one of the 2 terminals together with the brown from the light to the other...

in the following diagram, brown and blue replace red and black respectively.. these are the new colours..
also, the blue wire at the switch that is sleeved with brown would be the second red in the twin red you have..

if you don't have a ceiling rose then here is a method with terminal blocks.

these images and more are available on the WIKI

 

[Npenno]

ok thanks for that I think I have a good idea of what I need to do.

Mnay thanks for your help

 

[Npenno]

A huge big thank you

Success all 3 lights are working correctly, couldn't of done it without your help and diagram.

I'd been on this since 3pm yesterday once had diagram it only took 5 mins!!!

Thanks once again

 

[ColJack]

just goes to show that looking in the wiki helps..

you could have been done in 5 mins if you looked there first...