Light in hall on all the time

[kcp1903]

Hope someone can help

I have replaced a light in hall controlled by two different switches.

The swith replaced was an exact replacement on the front and I changed one wire at a time.

the light has out of the ceiling, three red wires joined together, one earth and one black. I wired these to the relevant wires in the light and now we have the light on all the time, the switches have become void.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Har_vey]

Don't suppose there are two pairs are there? One pair of reds and one red and black?

Having all the reds together will be your problem I expect. One of the reds will be the return from the switch. I would imagine that you should have two reds together in the centre terminal. ( or connected together separately) and the third red to the brown of your fitting. Black to neutral.

 

[kcp1903]

Tried that, thanks Har_vey.
Still the light stayed on.

I thought that there must be another wire in the recess of the ceiling and have foung another.

So I now have...

Two Com leads for the two light swiches, A complete 3 cable power lead with Live, neutral and earth and now another lead that may be a neutral????

Any further ideas please.

 

[Lectrician]

How many 'sheathed' cables??

A three core sheathed, with what colours?

A two core feed.

A single core black?

Umm..dig around and let us know exactly what is there.

Did you change the light, the switch or both?

 

[kcp1903]

After looking around it seems as though this is the situation.

This is a hall light with the following switches.

By the front door a two way switch, one operates the porch light one operates the hall light (this has not been touched). By the living room door there is a single switch (New) that switches on the hall light.

On the stairs there is a single switch (Old) that operates the light on the landing and then a single switch (old) on the landing that operates the landing light.

With all of the cables from the hall light out loose and the power on, there is one Live feed from a 3 core sheathed with one red, one blue and one earth... red being live, the upstairs light does not work.

Now there are three single core wire sheathed with a red cable inside.

When wired back up with two of the single wire in the original format the upstairs light works fine from both switches, however the downstairs light stays on all the time.

I have also changed the light, this was the start of the problem?

thanks in advance

 

[Lectrician]

A photo posted here would be great!

How many blacks?? You say you have a red and blue, I assume red and black??

When the light stays on all the time, I assume because you are wiring this to all the lives - this will cause the light to be on and stay on.

OK...

The black into the lights N

The red from the T+E needs to go onto two of the single reds. One goes to the first of the two two-way hall switches, the other goes to the first of the two two-way landing switches.

So, you now need to find out which is which.....

put each single red in with the red from the T+E cable one at a time, this will tell you which one feeds the landing light switched (test the landing light each time you connect).

Thw other two wouldn't make much odds which way around they go (USUALLY!) But as you have the porch light, you need to find which one goes to that switch - this one will be connected to the permenant live of the T+E. To find this out, you could again connect each sinle core in turn (except the landing, as you know this one). Then keep trying the porch light - making sure that BOTH HALL SWITCHES DO NOT AFFECT ITS OPERATION. The one that makes the porch light work as normal is the feed, and needs connecting to the T+E's red.

The remaining red is your switched live for the light fitting.





I cant stress enough how dangerous lecky is, and that this method of finding which core is which is not ideal in the slightest - using a multimeter is the best method, on a dead circuit, with the meter used on a continuity range.

If you do do it as above, make sure you keep away from the cables at the light fitting when the power is on - and treble check you have turned the main switch off each time!!!





I also can't guarentee this is the correct method for reconnection - every installation is different, and on older installs such as this, they used to use so many different methods. I have simply taken the closest assumtion possible to the number of cores you have verses lights working/not working.

The remaining red is the switched live coming back from the two way hall switching

 

[kcp1903]

Thanks

Works brilliantly now

thanks for taking the time..

Keith

 

[Lectrician]

Was my prediction correct then....?

Glad it's working!