Extending lighting cable by about two feet

[snookerace]

My daughter's light fitting in the hallway is approx 1-2 feet off centre and she wants it centred. The problem seems to be that the cables have been cut short and that was the only place to put it. The current fitting is a ceiling rose and pendant light. and the cables are currently coming through a joist.

Is there a way to extend the cables by about 1-2 feet so that I can relocate the ceiling rose in the centre ie by chock-bloc?

Or would it be possible to put in a junction box in the ceiling void and just run an extended length of pendant flex from the junction box and through the ceiling where she wants it?

Thanks
Geoff

 

[rebuke]

If it were me I'd mount a junction box above the ceiling by the original point (if it's under a floor above, then remember you have to use a maintenance free one, i.e. that doesn't have screw terminals) that connects the various wires, then just run a single bit of T&E from the junction box to the new ceiling rose location, and connect that to the pendant cable.

I wouldn't run the pendant cable all the way to the junction box, as it's not the right stuff to put above a ceiling...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In descending order of preference:

1) Replace the cable with a longer one and avoid any joints.

2) Join a new length on by crimping - you'll need a proper crimping tool like this:

not the cheapo "squeeze'n'hope" ones they sell for car wiring.

3) Extend using choc-block (in choc-box), or a JB. Remember that screwed joins should remain accessible for inspection.

 

[snookerace]

If it were me I'd mount a junction box above the ceiling by the original point (if it's under a floor above, then remember you have to use a maintenance free one, i.e. that doesn't have screw terminals) that connects the various wires, then just run a single bit of T&E from the junction box to the new ceiling rose location, and connect that to the pendant cable.

Excuse my ignorance but what is a maintenance free one - the only junction boxes I've seen have screw terminals.

Also, if I run a single T&E from the box to a new rose I assume the brown wire (live) will run from the switch live terminal of the JB to the live terminal in the rose, the blue (neutral) from the neutral in the JB to the neutral terminal of the rose and the earth from one earth terminal to the other. When I was looking at it the other day there is a fourth cable coming into the rose - yellow, blue, red and earth. Yellow is in the live with sw live, blue in neutral, earth with other earth wires and red in a single choc-block on its own. I'm assuming these stay in the same wiring format as I think this feeds a mains smoke alarm.

If I choose the crimping method, how does this work?
sorry for all the q's!

 

[rebuke]

A maintenance free junction box is something like this: http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/ASJ804.html

As for what to connect, yes, basically just wire up the junction box exactly as the ceiling rose is currently, and the wire to the rose gets wired to whatever the ceiling rose pendant cable is currently attached to (plus earth), and then just connected to the pendant cable in the rose.

It seems strange to wire a smoke alarm off a lighting circuit (they should be on their own one so if your lights trip out your smoke alarms still work), but it would make sense to have one terminal on its own (it's probably the interlink wire that lets you link multiple alarms together).

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Do you have 2-way switching on that light?

BTW - I believe that putting smokes on a lighting circuit used to be regarded as good practice - the reasoning was that you'd notice PDQ if the circuit lost power, and you'd do something about it.

 

[paulbanco]

I think not ! Any concealed junction in a cable should be at LEAST soldered, and even then you're gambling.

 

[Chri5]

Paul- Hope the drink has cleared your addled brain.

Crimps are permanent and are an acceptable cable join per the 16th / 17th