Ceiling light Three twisted black wires

CantonasCollar76 · 26 Mar 2015

Hello all,

Just moving into a new house and have taken two rather imposing fan lights down to replace them with ikea lighting and shades. In one of the rooms there is a red a green and 3 black wires coming from the ceiling. The three black wires twisted together? Is this fan related or a bit of a bodge job? Or both?
Now in the Ikea we have a brown and a blue, no earth.
So, in theory red goes to brown and black to the blue and pass on the earth.
All very well if true but there is no way that I can fit all three twisted in the connection.

Any help with this would be much appreciated, will be attempting to rectify the lighting situation this afternoon.

Many thanks in advance!

Nick

Taylortwocities · 26 Mar 2015

Were the twisted blacks connected to the fan?

Using your multimeter, do you get 230V AC between the blacks and the red when the light switch comes on??

Hard to know otherwise.

If all three blacks need to go to the light, terminate them all together in a bit of insulated terminal block and run a short bit of wore top the light.

CantonasCollar76 · 26 Mar 2015

Many thanks for the reply ttc!

Yes all three were twisted together and connected to the fan along with the other two wires mentioned above.

I haven't checked the voltage coming from them.

RF Lighting · 26 Mar 2015

The three blacks are your neutrals. Connect all three to the neutral terminal of your new light, red to live and green and yellow to earth.

Ensure you turn the electricity off at the main switch on your fuse box. Pulling the fuse or switching off the circuit breaker may not be sufficient to ensure safe working with a lighting circuit wired in this particular way.

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 26 Mar 2015

They are neutrals that are twisted together, they will form a loop around your lighting circuit, if they are not connected together (don't need to be twisted), something will not work!
So as above all three neutrals to neutral terminal on light and red to live and earth to earth terminal. If no earth terminal present, then earth in to a separate connector.

JohnW2 · 26 Mar 2015

RF Lighting said:
The three blacks are your neutrals. Connect all three to the neutral terminal of your new light, red to live and green and yellow to earth.

As TTC has said, the OP will probably have to put the three blacks into a connector block and take a single wire from there to the new light fitting (the OP says that all three blacks will not fit into the fitting), and he will also presumably have to put the green into a bit of connector block (since the new light apparently has no earth facility).

Kind Regards, John

CantonasCollar76 · 26 Mar 2015

Thank you all very much for your help! It's much appreciated.

So I'll just leave the green/yellow in the current connector. Connect the blacks to another connector and from here I'll run a wire to the lights connector. And directly connect the red to the light.

So I'll need to buy a connectors and some wire.

Off to homebase tomorrow, would you be able to point me in the direction of which connectors and which wire?

Many thanks again.

Nick

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 27 Mar 2015

CantonasCollar76 said:
Thank you all very much for your help! It's much appreciated.

No problems, we are happy to help.

CantonasCollar76 said:
So I'll just leave the green/yellow in the current connector. Connect the blacks to another connector and from here I'll run a wire to the lights connector. And directly connect the red to the light.

Yes

CantonasCollar76 said:
So I'll need to buy a connectors and some wire.

Off to homebase tomorrow, would you be able to point me in the direction of which connectors and which wire?

Homebase not the cheapest of places, I would try an electrical wholesalers they may have an off-cut of cable to give you or at very little charge.
But failing that as you have three conductors to terminate I would opt for a 10A-15A connector block and the shortest length of cable/flex available that can handle the current.

The connector type, you only need the one way, they can be cut.
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/diy/sockets-and-fittings/15-amp-6-way-strip-connector-816359

Cheapest option of cable, you will require to strip out a short length of the blue core.
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/twin-and-earth-cable-15-sq-mm-6242yh-grey-5m-046012

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 27 Mar 2015

delete duplicated

Taylortwocities · 27 Mar 2015

Do you not have a bit of wire and connector anywhere.??

You may be able to salvage what you need from the inside of the fan/light that you have taken down.

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Ceiling light *Three twisted black wires*

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Ceiling light Three twisted black wires