Hi
Complete novice, I'll get that out of the way first!
I bought a house in the summer, the guy had 2 external security lights fitted one at the front and one at the back. These looked like pretty crappy installs, i.e. the cables weren't tidily pinned to the walls, just a bit of a slapdash job.
So I changed those lights for 2 dusk to dawn wall lights, took his cabling down, and put in new cable, tidily pinned this time.
I took both those cables in through the holes he had to a switch in the entrance area.
The way he had it was, one cable came out of the switch box and went to the first light, and a second cable went out of that light and to the second light, so both were on one switch.
What I'd like is, each of those lights now switched independently, so I've installed a double switch.
When I took the old switch off, it didn't look like a normal lighting circuit. To me, it looks like a mains spur coming in, blue brown and yellow. He has connected the "mains spur" live into the top of one of the switch "blocks" and the lighting live into the bottom of it, L3 I think. Then he has used "in-line" (sorry if these terms are wrong) connectors to directly connect the earths and neutrals on both cables.
As I have no experience on electrics other than what I've picked up off the web, I've tended to just replace like for like, but obviously here I would like the two cables I've run to be connected to each of the switches, not both into a single switch.
Am I right, that if this is a mains spur, then I should actually install first a 30a RCD, and then a switch socket that has it's own 5A fuse in it?
Once that's done, how do I take a single mains spur and split the live across the two "blocks" in the back of a double switch? does connecting the live to one of them make them both live by any chance?
Thanks a lot
Nick
Complete novice, I'll get that out of the way first!
I bought a house in the summer, the guy had 2 external security lights fitted one at the front and one at the back. These looked like pretty crappy installs, i.e. the cables weren't tidily pinned to the walls, just a bit of a slapdash job.
So I changed those lights for 2 dusk to dawn wall lights, took his cabling down, and put in new cable, tidily pinned this time.
I took both those cables in through the holes he had to a switch in the entrance area.
The way he had it was, one cable came out of the switch box and went to the first light, and a second cable went out of that light and to the second light, so both were on one switch.
What I'd like is, each of those lights now switched independently, so I've installed a double switch.
When I took the old switch off, it didn't look like a normal lighting circuit. To me, it looks like a mains spur coming in, blue brown and yellow. He has connected the "mains spur" live into the top of one of the switch "blocks" and the lighting live into the bottom of it, L3 I think. Then he has used "in-line" (sorry if these terms are wrong) connectors to directly connect the earths and neutrals on both cables.
As I have no experience on electrics other than what I've picked up off the web, I've tended to just replace like for like, but obviously here I would like the two cables I've run to be connected to each of the switches, not both into a single switch.
Am I right, that if this is a mains spur, then I should actually install first a 30a RCD, and then a switch socket that has it's own 5A fuse in it?
Once that's done, how do I take a single mains spur and split the live across the two "blocks" in the back of a double switch? does connecting the live to one of them make them both live by any chance?
Thanks a lot
Nick
