bloody lights!

Please can someone tell me why when I turn on my lounge lights my kitchen lights dim by half?When i turn on my kitchen lights my lounge lights come on.This type of thing has been going in this property for some years and i have had enough,can`t afford a sparky so please ,please can someone tell me whats possibly causing this?

You have a neutral and switched live mixed up in the kitchen light.

Describe your kitchen lighting/switching and the lounge.

What is behind each light fitting??

Can you take any photoes and post them here??

Many thanx for your response ,have also been trying for a week to put my daughters bedroom light back up after decorating and i seem to be having similarly disastrous results.The light stays on permanantly will not switch off.I think i need to have the full place rewired as it really has become a nightmare but thankyou for taking the time to help me out.Thanx a lot.

Have you checked the lighting circuits in the 'for reference' section at the top? They may allow you to see what has happened. Assuming it worked properly at some point, it can only be a cable cross-over in the ceiling rose
just a thought.
M.

pigsick said:

This type of thing has been going in this property for some years and i have had enough,can`t afford a sparky

Click to expand...

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you need some training!

You are doing DIY electrics without full knowledge of how electrical circuits are designed, built and operate. Hence, you are having problems. Please see reference section for detailed lighting circuit diagrams and info on books that will help you gain the knowledge you need to confidently do the work you are doing.

The problem with your daughter's light sounds simple. You have connected the light to the wrong pair of terminals in the ceiling rose. Instead of switched live and neutral you have used supply live and neutral. This you can sort out as long as you can correctly identify the earth terminal. If the light needs an earth connect that first, otherwise leave it alone. Only one pair of the other three terminals will work correctly. The one to avoid should have nothing but red wires in it but you'll get there by trial and error eventually. The possible outcomes are: light won't come on, light won't go off and, finally, light works correctly.

WARNING: Do not remove anything other than the light's wires from those terminals. If you get them mixed up you can cause some interesting problems, such as ---

The kitchen/lounge problem is one of those nightmares that arise only too easily when incompetent electricians get their wires crossed - literally in this case. Your lounge and kitchen lights have somehow ended up in series. Since you have other, similar problems around the house I suggest that somebody who understands lighting circuits spends a lot of time with an ohm meter finding out exactly which wires go where.

Agree with all previous posters see this :-
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19977
Get a decent book, study it, then the mass of wires you encounter when removing a ceiling rose make sense. I suspect most people who do this expect to find a live, neutral and earth wire behind the nice plastic cover, not so.

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