replacing switch 2-way and a 1way double

[thepoolman]

I have just bought a house. It has a double light switch in the hallway. One of the switches lights the porch, the other one does nothing except cause the light in the living room to momentarily flicker. The lights in the living room have their own switch but this is controlled from the switch at the far end of the room. This is very odd! My problem is that I have opened up the double light switch to find that the configuration looks a little odd with 3 wires into the bottom and two into the top. I have assumed that this was meant to be a two way switch but the switch appears to be faulty as all that happens is the light flickers as I said. I have purchase a two way double switch which contains two separate units inside with the standard 1/2 2/1 and common terminals. The existing socket doesnt seem to have these however it simply has a single block with 5 terminals. Any ideas?

 

[Spark123]

Do you have a 3c+earth and a 2c+earth cable behind the switch?

 

[Carloss]

Hello,

Check the switch in the living room... check how many cables are coming out of the switch and is a 3core t&e is present..?

Regarding the switch in the hall way also check how many cables are going into it...

My guess would be there is a perminant feed... for outside lights and another cable going to the outside lights, and a 3 core may also be there? On your old switch is there no indication of C, L1 or L2?

 

[thepoolman]

Wow - Thanks for quick replies - I will take a look in the morning when I go back to the house. My initial thoughts were that the double switch controlled some other circuit like outside lights or something but I cannot find any. I will get back in the afternoon.

 

[Carloss]

Hello,

if your not sure what the switches do... my thoughts would be downstairs hall lights, 2way to upstairs lighting, or as you say porch light/outside lights.

i wouldnt have though a switch would control the living room however all depends on the monkey who done the installation.

if you have a voltage indicator handy you can bell out the cables to identify what/where they go. i will go into more detail if u require.

carlos

 

[thepoolman]

Thanks Carlos - I should have said that the living room is off the porch with the upstairs landing being accessed from the back of the house as they have turned the stairecase around. It may well be that they did not alter the switch and therefore the switch goes to the upstairs lights - I will check this out.

 

[thepoolman]

Thanks to everyone who has helped on this. The problem was solved when I took the cover off the light switch in the living room. One of the wires had worked loose from the two way switch in there. I will be checking all the light switches now as a precaution.