Wiring switch for wall lights

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Hi there,

In the process of fitting new lights in my house and have just got the wall lights left to do, however these are proving a little tricky.

I currently have two different kinds of wall lights fitted (one is candle bulb type and the other is a GU10 halogen type).

Anyway, both of these seem to have a mini pull cord switch fitted, but it looks like whoever installed them previously may have retrofitted these switches in the lamps by drilling a hole at the bottom of each so that it flush fits.

The new wall lights do not have an inbuilt switch. As these match the design of the other lights I've already fitted and as the wiring is setup to have the switch behind the light itself, I was going to just buy ones like these...

http://www.qvsdirect.com/QA-2A-Mini-Pullcord-Switch-pr-16160.html

...drill a hole at the bottom of the new lamps, fit / screw these on as they are designed to and wire it up as the existing ones currently are.

My question is would it be safe to do this? The new lights I have are just a single G9 bulb so much lower power draw then the others.

Appreciate if someone can clarify/help me on this.
 
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You haven't said what poer the lamps are, but as 2amps is nearly 500watts I'm guessing that your wall lights won't be quite that powwerful.
On that basis it is safe to assume that the switches are designed to do what you are trying to achieve.

Whether it is safe or not depends on your competence to do the job!

I'd have thought that buying wall lights with a pullcord already fitted would be the better option.
 
fit / screw these on as they are designed to
They are designed to be fixed in place with screws through the 2 holes in the corners - if you think you can fix them inside the lights they they'll be OK. They are rated for 2A, so no problem on that front.

But wouldn't it be easier to buy lights which already have a switch?
 
fit / screw these on as they are designed to
They are designed to be fixed in place with screws through the 2 holes in the corners

They are designed so you unscrew the central screwed sleeve, insert into suitable hole in wall lamp (10mm dia IIRC) and then replace the screwed sleeve.

The 2 holes in the corners are rivets that hold the thing together.
 
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Thanks for the replies. The lights are 40w I beleive as they only use a single G9 bulb.

The supplier cannot supply them with switches on (it seems that nearly all wall lights are now without them) and that is why I am reluctant to fit these but just want to make sure they can be used safely for this purpose.

The switches screw on or the white plastic cap screws off, allowing you to slot the switch in from the inner side, then you screw the cap at the bottom to lock it in, so it will look flush once in place.
 
Right, well i bought the switches today and decided to retrofit them onto the lamps. I then was about to wire up the lamps and so removed my old ones first, but I found myself puzzled by the way the old ones are wired.

The existing lamp has the same switch I have fitted to the new ones but it has a blue wire from the lamp on one terminal of the switch and the live (red) from the wall on the other terminal.

Then there is a black wire from the wall connected directly to the black wire in the lamp via a connector block.

Correct me If I'm wrong, but in a switch wouldn't you have the live wire and lamps live wire to create a switched live. Then you would connect up the neutrals directly together and earths together?

The thing I'm not sure on is why is a blue wire from the lamp and a red live wire from the wall switched?
 
Neutral and live respectively.

Use your multimeter to confirm that the red in the supply cable is the live, and switch that.
 
Blue and black is a foreign colour code.

I had a cassette recorder (years ago!!) that was imported from somewhere like Saudi that had this code in the mains lead.
 
Ok, think I've found the issue.

The old lights that I want to remove are definetely UK ones as they have a B&Q sticker on them. However, the lights seem to have a inbuilt transformer and the connector block is physically attached to it (i.e. no wire coming from the transformer and attached to the connector block). Therefore, I assume the person who installed these has simply stuck in any bit of wire they had between the connection block and the switch to create the connection.

The black wire from the supply is going directly to the transformers connector block. I've drawn a diagram of all the wiring in there below so it makes sense (probably easier to show this).



I guess it now shows that the blue is indeed the live wire now or am I missing something?
 

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