Easy Question - but I'm crap at wiring!

[jbanks]

Hi

I want to put a new ceiling light up but I have the brown and blue cables coming through the ceiling rose but the light fitting I want to fit them to has got two sets of two clear/white wires going into 2 of the 4 holes in the plastic block provided.

The question is how do I know which set of two wires connects to the blue neutral wire and which connect to the brown live wire or does it actually matter or do I put them into the two free slots in the block?

Any advice would be great - just don't really want to kill myself!

Thanks everyone!

Jim

 

[Spark123]

If it is a bayonet cap fitting it does not matter which way around these wires go. iirc some of the newer edison screw lamp holders also do not require polarity. Another point is if the fitting is mains voltage, metal and not double insulated it must be earthed.

 

[jbanks]

Thanks for the reply.

The fitting is metal and the bulbs are halogen ones with a bayonet fitting. I should have said there are two sets of three wires for the (I assume) three spotlights on the fitting.

I assume then that as it is a bayonet fitting I can connect them up any way.

BUT do they go into the same hole as the Live and Neutral or into the empty holes in the block?

Thanks!

 

[bobhob]

Hola, if it's metal, you may find that one of the empty holes isn't. With thin sheet steel, they often press out a short pointy tag to give an earth connection, and fix it into a hole in the conn block at the factory. This is where your earth wire goes. (If they are both empty, and you screw the wires into them, you'll sit in darkness for a very long time.)
Light manufacturers often don't distinguish between live and neutral entering bulbs, but they should, particularly where the bulbs screw in. If you get the live at the screw-side of the bulb, you can get a belt screwing a bulb in by touching the bulb's thread. And, switches that pass the incorrectly connected neutral don't cut the live, so everything remains live when the switch is open/off. Use a multimeter on continuity to check which wire goes to the bulbholder's centre contact, and make that your live connection. (I know you said it's bayonet, but you may buy a different type at a later date.)