Installing New Halogen Lights On An Older Lighting Circuit

[TheKLF99]

They don't make a good and reliable connection. I have a feeling that they contravene the wiring regulations, but I could be wrong.

Hmmm... I've just installed one of these halogen lights in the living room that I bought from B&Q. It was quite easy for me as the wiring had all been sorted out, the three main loop wires had been already connected together and pushed up into the ceiling, so I only had a red, going to the brown (live) on the existing fitting, a black going to the blue (neutral) on the existing fitting and a green/yellow going to green/yellow (earth) on existing fitting.

One annoying thing with the B&Q light was how the cheapskates had done the wiring in the light.

They'd took the live and neutral wires from each side of the bar and wrapped all the lives together with a wire nut, and done the same with the neutrals. They'd then took the one neutral and live wire out of the wire nut into a choc block underneath all the mess of wires, and attached the earth cable from one side, and used a nut with a metal prong sticking out of it to connect the other earth.

The major problem with this was that all the connections for live, neutral and earth were all stuck underneath all the other live and neutral wires with the wire nuts on them!!!

I re-arranged it by putting a new choc block on the metal earth prong and connecting the other earth to it and then having one earth, neutral and live wire, and moved the whole choc block they'd installed above the mess of wires so I could get the ceiling wires in!

Anyway I got the ceiling wires in and went to turn on - nothing.

I'm guessing after reading this it is quite possible that when moving stuff around I might have knocked one of those stupid wire nuts that B&Q have put on, I'll probably re-wire it again and fully do away with the wire nuts!

I can't see them being against wiring regulations though as B&Q wouldn't be allowed to use them now if they were (although as 99% of there goods comes from China they probably don't have the same standards over there)

Oh and the person who said they had a black wire with red tape on it, I was warned to watch out for this one by my dad who is an electrician. One of the black wires is in fact a red, sometimes they do tape them up red (as in your case you've been lucky), some don't bother though and you just have to remember where that red is (or add tape onto it before taking the existing fitting down). It is done in the old lighting circuits to save cable, although I guess now it would contradict the 2004 "new" colour wiring scheme!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the forum, and the first to point out, in a welcoming way, that it's generally frowned on to reply to topics which are several years old....

I can't see them being against wiring regulations though as B&Q wouldn't be allowed to use them now if they were (although as 99% of there goods comes from China they probably don't have the same standards over there)

The Wiring Regulations don't apply to appliances.

Oh and the person who said they had a black wire with red tape on it, I was warned to watch out for this one by my dad who is an electrician. One of the black wires is in fact a red,

No - it's still black. It's being used as a phase conductor, but it is still black.

It is done in the old lighting circuits to save cable

It doesn't save any cable at all - whatever colours there are you still need two cores to go to the switch. It does save the electrician having to carry a roll of twin brown (or twin red as was) though.

although I guess now it would contradict the 2004 "new" colour wiring scheme

Yup - now you'd find brown & blue cores, hopefully with the blue sleeved brown....

 

[TheKLF99]

Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the forum, and the first to point out, in a welcoming way, that it's generally frowned on to reply to topics which are several years old

Ok I realised the topic was quite old, but I just thought I'd reply to it just in case someone else came across that topic whilst searching on the internet as I'd noticed nobody had mentioned about the random black wire.

Also thanks for the corrections on the black wire, I presume my dad just told it to me like that to save me getting confused

As for the lights not working, I took them down and found out the live wire had snapped and come out of the choc block, so I've re-wired it back up and it works fine.[/quote]