bathroom light; double-insulated or junction box rqd in wall

[abe2]

My sister had 2 bathroom lights from 12 years ago which she is removing after a redecoration.

5A lighting wire emerges from the wall, which is hardboard. All connections were made inside the old lights.

It looks like all lights nowadays are rather tiny and double insulated. There is neither room for this big 5A wiring nor earth tags in them.

If switching to smaller, delicate double-insulated ones, it seems to me that the existing wiring will have to be moved into junction boxes, which will have to be sunk into the wall and from which just small L+N wires wll emerge.

Otherwise more substantial lights must be needed, with earth tags and room for the old 5A wires to go into them.

Any suggestions, or experience?

Thanks

Abe

 

[abe2]

anyone?

 

[bongos]

If switching to smaller, delicate double-insulated ones, it seems to me that the existing wiring will have to be moved into junction boxes, which will have to be sunk into the wall and from which just small L+N wires wll emerge.

I'm a bit confused by your overall description. But you are not allowed to sink junction boxes into walls - they must be accessible for inspection. If you had problems later on how would you (or the next owner of the house) find them?

I can't see why the feed from your lighting circuit couldn't be connected to your new lights - it shouldn't be too big for the terminals.

Any chance of posting a pic?

 

[Adam_151]

Circular dry lining box (for stud walls)/pvc conduit endbox(for brick/block plastered walls), wall light brackets should line up eith the lid fixing holes

?

 

[abe2]

Ah - I should have taken a picture at my sister's house when I was there yesterday.

I'll try and describe better.

Wires emerge from the wall - they are the standard 5A lighting type, where each conductor s a single copper core perhaps a mm across.

One light has a lot of wires (I should have made notes) going to the connecter blocks (which must be the lighting ring and the wires off to the switch and the other light) and the other just has the 3: L, N and E.

My sis had some new lights. They were metal but were double-insulated with these new little connectors in, push fit ones. These big wires and connector block would never go into the new lights' bases, and in any case would that be allowed even if they did - they are metal, without an earth tag, because the lights are double-insulated?

I get the impression that such lights could only work where just a single L and a single N emerged from the wall, so that they could be neatly pushed into these connectors (according to my logic then I suppose all wiring to the ring and runs to switches would have to be in boxes in the ceiling.)

It sounds like if no wiring change is to happen the lights will have to be earthable or plastic bodied, and quite BIG, suitable for housing these substantial connections.



[wiki][/wiki][/b]

 

[bongos]

Just trying to make a bit more sense of this!

You would usually have a 2c+e cable bringing power into the fitting, 2 c+e taking the feed on to the next room (ie bedroom) and a 2c+e running between the fitting and the switch. This makes three separate 2c+e cables.

Your bathroom could be at the end of the lighting radial. There would still be three 2c+e cables in the situation you describe but one would be the feed for the first light, then the feed onto the second light from the first light, with another cable between the first light and the light switch. Does this sound like your setup?

Have a look at this link. Should help to explain things a little easier. There's lots more useful information in the wiki about lighting circuits.

If the new lights are double insulated they should not be earthed. There is usually a terminal provided to 'park' the earth so it is still available to be used in the future. Alot of new continental light fittings don't have room for all the terminals to fit in, providing a small choc block for the feed cables.

There are some suggestions on getting around this problem in this
recent post.

5A lighting wire emerges from the wall

Just to clarify, it's usually called 1.5mm twin and earth (or 1.0mm twin and earth).

 

[abe2]

Thanks so much everybody for your answers.

Click-flow looks like it should be able to solve the problem.

Thanks again everyone for you expertise and time - very much appreciated -

Best regards,

Abe