Light switch single to double

[EFLImpudence]

I would always tend to run separate cables from the switch to each light, for the very reason the lights could be separately switched in the future.

Or - maybe they are and someone previously wanted them on one switch. Who knows?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Or - maybe they are and someone previously wanted them on one switch. Who knows?

Or there was originally one light, and they added another one.

 

[morqthana]

How do you know the single brown isn't the feed?

I just know

Looking at the photo of the back box and seeing that there's only cable running upwards helps.

 

[morqthana]

Would you be able to replace the cable which runs up from the switch to the lights?

Its a plasterboard box, so the wall is not solid brick.

It is possible that the cable is just loose and dangling inside - certainly worth investigating.

And if it seems to be, maybe worth taking a punt on using it to pull a 3-core cable through. Gotta accept the risk that if it snags and can't be pulled back then you'll have to cut into the wall and then patch and paint. Draw a line on the new cable a known distance from the start so that if it does snag you can measure and work out where to cut.

Make the join of the old & new cables as small and sleek and strong as possible, e.g stagger the individual wires, solder & cover with heat shrink, then coat with liquid soap.

Have a helper push the cable upwards as you pull from above. If it snags, try a bit of up&down jiggling.

All depends on how badly you want individual switching.

 

[securespark]

try a bit of up&down jiggling.

And when you've finished that, see if you can get the cable through.

Fnarr, fnarr!

Seriously, it's always easier with gravity on your side. So if you can work top down (Oooh, Matron!) that would help.

 

[SUNRAY]

And when you've finished that, see if you can get the cable through.

Fnarr, fnarr!

Seriously, it's always easier with gravity on your side. So if you can work top down (Oooh, Matron!) that would help.

Isn't life strange? Personally I'll always opt for attatching the replacement cable at the switch if I have the choice, especially if I'm on my own, as I find it's easier to have the new length of cable hanging fairly free rather than laying around above or pulling the weight off a reel above.

However I'm not in any way decrying others experience

 

[morqthana]

try a bit of up&down jiggling.

And when you've finished that, see if you can get the cable through.

Fnarr, fnarr!

I nearly cracked a joke like that about my own post.

Maybe instead of "liquid soap" I should have said "lube".

 

[morqthana]

Isn't life strange? Personally I'll always opt for attatching the replacement cable at the switch if I have the choice, especially if I'm on my own, as I find it's easier to have the new length of cable hanging fairly free rather than laying around above or pulling the weight off a reel above.

Doesn't matter.

It is a known fact that no matter how carefully, and free of obstructions, you lay out slack cable to be pulled through, by the time you've got to the other end to start pulling it will already have started looping and kinking itself ready to turn into knots.

 

[morqthana]

I swear, sometimes I've looked at what's happened to a cable carefully laid out and thought "that is topologically impossible".

 

[SUNRAY]

I swear, sometimes I've looked at what's happened to a cable carefully laid out and thought "that is topologically impossible".

And there was I thinking it only happened to me as it never happens to those ex-spurts on you tube.

 

[sparkwright]

If you ever lay more than 2 cables out on the floor, and pull them through a void - HOW can they get so tangled?

 

[pete01]

It's a mystery, and then when you come and see why it won't pull it's normally hooked onto something....or is that just me

 

[sparkwright]

It's a mystery, and then when you come and see why it won't pull it's normally hooked onto something....or is that just me

Yes, usually a radiator pipe.