Second: switched live wire
Third: 2 black neutrals
Switch wire. 2 of 3 are live!
- Thread starter Riki
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- switched wire
Third: 2 black neutrals
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Now look at the colours on the flex going to the lamp.
Do you know the brown/blue/green-yellow colour scheme?
Yes but aren't the brown/blue interchangeable?
Brown is live and blue neutral. Changed from red live and black neutral, green of course is earth.
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Yes, you can normally swap live and neutral and disconnect the earth and things will function normally.
But that doesn't mean that you should do that!
The point is that this does not explain why your lights aren't working, but it's an error that should be corrected.
Red/black is old and brown/blue is new.
But that doesn't mean that you should do that!
The point is that this does not explain why your lights aren't working, but it's an error that should be corrected.
Red/black is old and brown/blue is new.
The photo in #28 is no longer valid. I changed the wiring: brown to switched live and blue to neutral.
Of course I got that the other way round! Old age creeping in...
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Latest. A voltage test in Room 2 shows only 35 volts on the multimeter. In Room 1 248 volts.
Tested between what and what.
Note that the low voltage reading is often due to induced voltages on the wiring.
It often fools people who don't understand what they are doing…
Note that the low voltage reading is often due to induced voltages on the wiring.
It often fools people who don't understand what they are doing…
There are at least a couple of possible reasons for that sort of reading:
- It's the result of capacitive coupling or resistive leakage in the cables. A tiny current is leaking from one wire in a cable to a neighbouring wire; you only see a reading on your meter because the meter is very sensitive. This is normal. You'll probably see that the voltage fluctuates quite a lot as e.g. you move the wires around. One way of making it go away is to connect a load, i.e. a lamp.
- It's because you have got things connected in series, and the 240 volts mains is divided across those things, with this one seeing 35 V and the others seeing (about) 205 V.
Tell us exactly what you're measuring. A photo might help.
My measurement is from the reds to the switched live wire with the wall switch ON. Here is the photo.
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Tested between the reds and the switched live wire with the wall switch ON. I know I don't fully understand but I am trying to the best of my ability.Tested between what and what.
Note that the low voltage reading is often due to induced voltages on the wiring.
It often fools people who don't understand what they are doing…
That's wrong - you should always use the neutral as the reference to test from.
Test from neutral to live etc.
Test from neutral to live etc.
Sorry, (can't think straight) I gave you the wrong answer! I did measure bteween the reds and the neutral: 35 V.
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