external ceiling light

kimbara · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:54 am Post Subject: external ceiling light

I would be grateful for your advice. I want to connect an external ceiling light to my porch canopy. The electrical wiring coming from the house through the canopy consists of live, neutral and earth wires, together with a second and thicker earth wire. The connector box on the ceiling light has the following: labeled 'Mains Supply In': consisting of Earth, Neutral and Live connector boxes; and 'Switched Load Out': consisting of two live boxes labeled 'L' and 'L1'. The 'Mains Supply In' 'Live' connector box is already connected to the Switched Load Out 'L' connector box by a Factory fitted bridge wire. I should be grateful if you could advise me to which connection points in the ceiling light housing I should connect the live wire and the two 'earth' wires from my porch ceiling.

sparkyspike · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:08 pm Post Subject:

It sounds like this is a light with a built in movement sensor. Do you want to use it as a fully automatic light? If so, wire the live into MAIN SUPPLY IN, the neutral into NEUTRAL and the earths into EARTH. Make sure you've identified the wires correctly and they are as you say. Was there a light there before? The L and L1 out are for additional lights if you need them.

kimbara · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:19 pm Post Subject:

sparkyspike wrote:

It sounds like this is a light with a built in movement sensor. Do you want to use it as a fully automatic light? If so, wire the live into MAIN SUPPLY IN, the neutral into NEUTRAL and the earths into EARTH. Make sure you've identified the wires correctly and they are as you say. Was there a light there before? The L and L1 out are for additional lights if you need them.

Hi Sparky, I am most grateful for your reply. There was a light in place before, and I am now replacing it. You are right that it has a built in movement sensor, which has confused me a little because I would be quite happy with one controlled on/off by the internal wall switch in my hall. I was confused by the 'Switched Load Out' side of the connector housing, not having come across this before, and thought that perhaps I needed to connect the live wire to connector point L1 on this side. But I thank you for you advice to connect the live wire to the Main Supply In, and ignore the 'Switched Load Out' connectors. This is a single outside light and I do not intend adding any more additional outside lights through the connector housing. Thanks again.

sparkyspike · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:40 pm Post Subject:

You may still be able to use it as a manual light by using the lightswitch. Check the instructions.