Replacing flush ceiling light with pendant - crazy wires!

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HI! I really hope someone can help with this. It SHOULD have been a really easy job - take off old light, note wire placings, put on new light - ta da! But no. We took off the ugly flush light fitting, and all that is coming out of the ceiling are three wires. Not casings, with smaller wires coming out of them, just wires. One is bare copper (the earth?) and the other two are black and completely identical.

We think that the outlet box is above the ceiling and these wires hanging down (and which were attached directly to the thing that the bulb screws into) are essentially the blue/brown wires that go through the regular pendant.

Is that the case? And if so - now what?!

I never thought it would be easier the more wires there were... :confused:
 
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Surely if the old light worked then the two black wires mst be live & neutral?

Where was the bare conductor connected before?
 
Surely if the old light worked then the two black wires mst be live & neutral?

Where was the bare conductor connected before?

That's what we thought! Just didn't want to let our layman knowledge carry more weight than it should.

The bare conductor was connected to the metal light base plate fitting - it didn't go anywhere, which is why we figured it must be the earth!

Are we safe to give it a go?
 
Yup - sleeve the earth G/Y.

And if the new light has screw-in lamps you should identify the L&N, as the live should be connected to the centre pin, not the screw thread...
 
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Yup - sleeve the earth G/Y.

And if the new light has screw-in lamps you should identify the L&N, as the live should be connected to the centre pin, not the screw thread...

The new light is a single normal bayonet bulb - so if we sleeve the earth, connect it to the earth part of the light fitting we can just screw in the other two whichever way round and it will be ok?

Sorry to sound stupid, just want to be 100% we are doing this right!

Cheers SO much for your help!
 
Yes you can wire in a bayonet fitting either way round. BUT if you want to do it 100% correct as you mentioned, then you need to identify which one is live by using a voltage tester. Once identified you need to mark it as live with some red sleeving. (Assuming your house is all done in red and black wiring.) This way when you come to change the light or if something goes wrong you know which one is live.
 

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