How do i finf my live feed ???

[staningrimsby]

Guys i have recently moved into an old house and slowly going round room by room.

My problems is i have made it to the utility room and the 2 lights do not work properly,

one of them is nice and bright the other is very dim, they both work off the same switch when i had a look, it looks like they have used the switch wire from the first ceiling rose as the source to supply the second.

There are 2 other pairs of twin and earth going into the first ceiling rose how can i tell which is a live feed so i can sort the problem out ???

 

[wingcoax]

Buy a multi-meter, fairly cheap at your local shed. In your first ceiling rose you should have live and neutral, switch wire (L and switch L) and link to second fitting.

 

[Johnmelad502]

Guys i have recently moved into an old house and slowly going round room by room.

My problems is i have made it to the utility room and the 2 lights do not work properly,

one of them is nice and bright the other is very dim, they both work off the same switch when i had a look, it looks like they have used the switch wire from the first ceiling rose as the source to supply the second.

There are 2 other pairs of twin and earth going into the first ceiling rose how can i tell which is a live feed so i can sort the problem out ???

A picture paints a thousand words...

 

[ColJack]

the simple way without a meter is to turn off the mains, wire the light directly across the red and black of ONE of the cables and put the other cable into 3 terminal blocks..

turn the power back on..
if the light lights and won't go off then it's a permanent feed..

if i light but goes off when you switch the switch on ( or goes dim ) then it's a switched feed

 

[conny]

Here is an amended answer I posted to another post recently with a similar problem.

Try this;
Isolate all the electrics.
Join all the reds together in the first rose.
Seperate all the blacks, (spread them out in a fan shape).
With your test meter set the scale to ohms Ω and touch one of the probes to the group of reds.
Now with the other probe touch each black in turn, with the light switch in the off position you will get at least one where you get no reading.
When you find a black with no reading get someone to flick the light switch on. (Still with no power on!)
If the meter registers then that black is your switch wire.
This needs to be put into a connector block on its own.
The other blacks need to be put together in another connector block, these are your neutrals.

So what you now have is the following;
3 cables coming into the first rose with all the reds joined together.
2 blacks joined together.
1 black on its own.
The black on its own and the red from the same cable is your switch wire.
The wires from your light fitting now need to be connected between this single black, (which should now have a brown sleeve on it), and the other 2 blacks.
At the second rose you should only have one cable with a black and a red lead, (plus earth of course).
Your second light fitting is connected to the red and black leads and the earths in both roses should be connected to the earth terminal.

Hope this makes sense, let us know how you get on.

But remember,

Isolate first!