Which Switch

[Justified_]

Im currently fitting a new ceiling rose at the top of the stairs. My problem is not the actual wiring of it as such - I have a diagram that matches my wiring and it makes sence to me. However when I was locating the switch cable with a test meter I discovered that one of the cables registered positive for a circuit no matter what the switch positions.

The light is operated by 2 switches - one up and one downstaits.
Both the switches operate both the light at the top of the stairs and the light at the bottom, which is on the upstairs circuit.

I have 3 T+E cables coming from the ceiling, one registers no circuit at all (the cable going to the next light?) and one I can switch the circuit on off depending on switch positions (switch cable). The third one confused me as i initially expected it also to be a switch cable, or maybe to the previous light in the circuit (which I think would be the downstairs light), the fact that it seemed to have permanent circuit threw me a bit and thought I should find out why this was and if this was normal before I wired things back up.

Appologies if this is a stupid question, but I'm always ultra carefull when it comes to things like this, I'm not a 'see what happens' kind of person

I know I should have paid more attention to what came out of the fitting before, I did look, but it was a chandelere type fitting and the wiring went via a chocbloc and so in a moment of stupidity thought it was going to be a bit different to what I had in the new rose.

If I remember rightly I had all earths in one terminal, 2 reds in another, two blacks in another and the remainng black and red in another (this red and black were from different cables).

Any enlightenment would be much appreciated (NO pun intended)

 

[Har_vey]

Could be that you will have one that is the live pair into the fitting. (1) One pair that is the switch wire. (2) The third pair would probably be the pair that feeds the downstairs light. (3)

With that in mind are you able to use your meter to confirm?

 

[securespark]

Simple.

The earths are the bare wires with sleeving.

The live loop are the reds/ browns that are either live with the circuit on or those that are not going to the switch.

The switchwire can be dead-tested with continuity setting - when the switch is on, the meter buzzes, when off, the buzzing stops. Connect the meter across the pair suspected to be the switch wires.

Neutrals are all blacks/ blues that are not switch returns.

 

[Justified_]

Okay, I think this helps me out, simply in comfirming what I already suspected. But let me recap.

The switch cable I had already established with the meter so I’ll take that out of the equation. Basically what I’m left with is 2 neutrals and 2 lives which simply go into their respective terminals in the rose fitting. If this is the case then it is all as straight forward as I would have expected. The only thing that threw me at the time was the pair that were giving me a permanent circuit. If I had known which cable was the switch from the outset I would not have tested the cables and would simply have wired up according to the diagram and all (i think) would have been fine.

Like I said, initially it wasn’t the wiring of the fitting I wasn’t sure about (God knows there are plenty of diagrams on here), I just wondered why there was a set of wires with a complete circuit, and if I should be treating it any differently. But if Im understanding you right I don’t.

So the pair with the permanant circuit is the pair going to the downstairs light (as mentioned) with the downstair light fitting being what is completing the circuit? (which I guess in a very long winded way is what I was asking, and if this is the case seems obvious now)

If you’ve got to the end of this post, thank you for your patience