Need Help Wiring Ceiling Light

[Les Fielding]

Send some pictures of the switch so we can be more certain.

Too tight to the wall to get a decent picture of connections. As I said, two red wires, one to the L1, one to L2 and the yellow SL going into COM on one L1 side with a crossover wire from that COM to COM on L2. The blue and black neutral wires are going to an old style connector block.

 

[sparkwright]

Too tight to the wall to get a decent picture of connections. As I said, two red wires, one to the L1, one to L2 and the yellow SL going into COM on one L1 side with a crossover wire from that COM to COM on L2. The blue and black neutral wires are going to an old style connector block.

That description is confusing me.

Can you say which WIRE comes from each CABLE, and which SWITCH is for which room or light.

 

[EFLImpudence]

two red wires, one going to the L1 and L2 on each side and the yellow SL going into COM on one side with a crossover wire to the other COM.

two red wires, one to the L1, one to L2 and the yellow SL going into COM on one L1 side with a crossover wire from that COM to COM on L2.

Your descriptions are careless and confusing and the wiring more so.

Is this what you mean?

 

[sparkwright]

Your descriptions are careless and confusing and the wiring more so.

Is this what you mean?

View attachment 174910

That's more or less what I ASSUMED he meant, BUT I would have expected the two looped commons to have been the red wire, rather than yellow.

I just thought a photograph would have been extra confirmation.

 

[Les Fielding]

Your descriptions are careless and confusing and the wiring more so.

Is this what you mean?

View attachment 174910

Thats it.

 

[sparkwright]

Assuming the reds at the light were together in a block, and that black and blue are neutral, and yellow is the switched live,
THEN
if the switch is wired like that, then the outside light would only work when the hall light is turned on.

Was that the case??

 

[Les Fielding]

The light isn't wired. Thats the problem I'm trying to resolve. The switch wiring (as depicted by EFLImpudence) is original and untouched. The light wiring in blocks (photo below) is how the plasterer left the wiring to the light when he disconnected the light for plastering. I'm trying to find out how the light should be wired again (ie out of the blocks and reattached to the light).

When I tried Taylortwocities suggestion - "try putting the new light on the blue and black wires. Leave the reds as they are" - the outside light would only work when the hall light was turned on as you said.

 

[sparkwright]

Yes, I realise the light isn't wired.

It's just at the light, I think we decided that the reds and the earths were untouched, and that the black, blue and yellow probably had been disturbed.

I'm just trying to work out how this should be without resorting to guesswork.

The way you have described the switch to be wired doesn't, in my mind, match what we know about the light, and we can only go by your written descriptions of how the switch is wired.

So, back to my question, did the hall light have to be switched on in order for the outside light to function BEFORE the building work?

 

[sparkwright]

When I tried Taylortwocities suggestion - "try putting the new light on the blue and black wires. Leave the reds as they are" - the outside light would only work when the hall light was turned on as you said.

When you wired it this way, how exactly did you do it?

Where did you put the black?
Where did you put the blue?
Where did you put the yellow?

 

[Les Fielding]

When you wired it this way, how exactly did you do it?

Where did you put the black?
Where did you put the blue?
Where did you put the yellow?

Blue into L, black into N, E into E, yellow was left where it was. You questioned the yellow not going anywhere at the time. EFLImpudence's sketch matches the switch box wiring exactly. I don't know how the lights functioned previously as we had the plastering gone on purchasing the house, before moving in.

 

[sparkwright]

Blue into L, black into N, E into E, yellow was left where it was. You questioned the yellow not going anywhere at the time. EFLImpudence's sketch matches the switch box wiring exactly. I don't know how the lights functioned previously as we had the plastering gone on purchasing the house, before moving in.

Ok, it was never made clear if you used the black as the neutral or switched live when you tried it.

When you did this, did the light appear to be dimmer than expected?

Also, I think the switch may be wired incorrectly too, I can't think of a good reason why the yellow has been wired as a permanent live.
A photograph of this MAY have indicated if someone before had meddled with it or done it badly. (Often we can tell a shoddy job just by it's general appearance.)

Since you have indicated you've not seen it working properly before, I suspect both light and switch will need re-connecting.

If you can answer the question about if the light appeared to be dim (which means a light wrongly wired in series rather than parallel), we can than tell you where the wires need to go at the light and switch.

 

[Les Fielding]

The light did not appear dimmer. Just a quick thanks for all the time you've taken on this. I appreciate your patience with an obvious uninformed novice.

 

[EFLImpudence]

This is all I can make of it - from what you say - sort of.

You really ought to test that the wires are as I think.
That is that the L and N really are L and N, and the cable to outside actually is.

If you want the outside light only to come on if the hall light is on then leave the switch wiring as it is.
If you want it to work independently then move the link wire as shown.

 

[sparkwright]

This is all I can make of it - from what you say - sort of.

You really ought to test that the wires are as I think.
That is that the L and N really are L and N, and the cable to outside actually is.

If you want the outside light only to come on if the hall light is on then leave the switch wiring as it is.
If you want it to work independently then move the link wire as shown.

View attachment 174934

Yes, that's how I would have expected it to be as well.

 

[Les Fielding]

Yes, that's how I would have expected it to be as well.

This is all I can make of it - from what you say - sort of.

You really ought to test that the wires are as I think.
That is that the L and N really are L and N, and the cable to outside actually is.

If you want the outside light only to come on if the hall light is on then leave the switch wiring as it is.
If you want it to work independently then move the link wire as shown.

View attachment 174934

That works great. Thank you for all your time and effort.