New pendant light, see through plastic, not coloured,to flex

[jonifife]

Hi,

Recently bought a new pendant ceiling light from a well knwon DIY store to replace an existing standard pendant light with a 'normal' kind of arrangement off the mains lighting circuit.

When it has come to wire it up I have noticed the flex on the pendant has see through plastic to the wires ie they are not brown and blue to identify live and neutrual and can't see anything else to identify them by.

Looked thorough the instructions (which are not the clearest and don't help as they show live and earth)

I am a bit concerned before proceeding. Does it matter?Am i being daft?

Thanks

 

[dannyboi2003]

What sort of lamp does the fitting use and what cap (screw-in or Beynut) ? and do you just have the two wires in the flex? Also have you managed to identify the earth connection if it has one?

Dan

 

[jonifife]

Standard GLS/ES type screw in fitting although up to 150watts.

The flex has just the two wires.

The earth connection is to a grub screw on inside of metal cover plate to the 'rose' that hides all the gubbins. This is held in place by an adjustable plastic collar and screw side fixings so all the weight is transferred to the fixing bracket and not the flex.

Fairly normal I would assume.

Does this mean it doesn't matter to which one is live/neautral?

JF

 

[RF Lighting]

You need to ensure that the center contact of the ES lampholder is connected to live

 

[jonifife]

Thanks for that.

Not sure why this isn't explained really explained on the fitting intrustuctions.

Out of curiosity I did a google on ES lampholder and found stuff stuff about new EU regs and polarity not really mattering on the continent and finger tests?????

I guess i'm being a bit ultra cautious.

The way described is the normal British way

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not sure why this isn't explained really explained on the fitting intrustuctions.

They were written by someone ignorant.

 

[Adam_151]

if the lampholder is an E14 or E27 to BSEN 60238 then strictly speaking the phase to centre contact thing doesn't matter... still good practice to connect it that way round though I shouldn't imagine they'd get away with selling it with unidentified conductors if it was any other kind... but you never know, these things do slip through from time to time!

 

[securespark]

I find light fittings funny in this respect. We all know the brown/blue code, but batten lampholders often have two white conductors attached to the l/h. Fluorescents have odd-coloured conductors inside. And other light fittings have all sorts of odd-coloured wires inside. The rules have gone out of the fenetre...

 

[ColJack]

yes but they are generally terminated into terminals that are marked with L E N.. or the fitting is labled next to the terminals..

 

[Lsea82]

I recently got some coloured NUD lighting flex which comes from Sweden, although I got mine from curiouserandcuriouser.com . Very trendy. This also has clear plastic covered wires inside. How do you know which is blue and which is brown?

 

[Chri5]

Might one of the cores be lipped, like bell wire is?

Failing any id on them, continuity test with a multi meter.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

How do you know which is blue and which is brown?

You said they were clear - i.e. neither is blue or brown.

 

[Chri5]

Might one of the cores be lipped, like bell wire is?

Failing any id on them, continuity test with a multi meter.

 

[333rocky333]

agree with chris, sometimes there is a sort of rib that you can feel on the outer edge of one core, however you still need to verify what each core is connected to at the supply end.