Installing halogen light fitting

[fzzzbucks]

Hi there, I'm not an electrician so please be kind to me!

I bought a new light fitting for my living room which is a halogen 3 arm light fitting to replace my old normal light fitting.

My Dad installed it yesterday and the light worked fine for a few moments, but when it was turned off it tripped all of the lighting in the house and flicked the switch on the fusebox/MCB (I don't know which it is, i've just noticed the term MCB used in this forum).

We thought that this may be because there was a dimmer switch installed so my Dad changed this to a normal light fitting, but the problem is still occuring. The previous light fitting worked fine, so is it possible that the halogen lighting is not compatible for our house? The home is about 50 years old, but the fusebox/MCB looks new.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Anna.

 

[Spark123]

It sounds like the classic of the switch being wired directly across the supply, see if this helps: //wiki.diynot.com/electrics:lighting:problems:blackswlive

 

[breezer]

i would 2nd that opinion

 

[fzzzbucks]

Thanks for that, it seems very helpful I just want to confirm with you what I've read to make sure I understand it if that's OK?

What I understand it as saying is that I keep both red wires together and check the black wires to see which one of the 2 is live with a multimeter and then mark that with some red tape. That wire I put with the reds in the same terminal and keep the remaining black wire seperate in the neutral terminal. The two green/yellow wires I put in the earth terminal.

My Dad has said however that the terminals are very small in the light fitting and he doubts whether three wires would fit in the live terminal...any suggestions?

 

[Spark123]

You need 4 terminals, one will be permanent live i.e. both red wires only, one will be neutral i.e. one black and one blue, one will be switched live i.e. black with red sleeve and brown wire, the other will have all the earths in it. You should be testing on ohms range with the power off to find which is the switch wire.

 

[fzzzbucks]

Hi Spark,

We only have six wires, they are 2 red wires, 2 green/yellow wires and 2 black wires, one of which will be the switch wire I'm presuming, and three terminals on the light fitting, so what would be the wiring for this please?

 

[Spark123]

I have just added a picture to the wiki,
You have the six wires which are on the supply side, on the lamp fitting there should be more coloured wires or terminals marked L, N and Earth. You need to identify which of the cables is a switch cable with a multimeter, sleeve the black wire red to signify it is not a neutral. Put both the red wires into a spare piece of chock block not connected to anything else, black (with red sleeve) from the switch wire to the L terminal, Black from the other wire to the N terminal and all the earths to the earth terminal.

 

[fzzzbucks]

Thanks for your help, that's brilliant.

Anna.