wiring for lighting help!!

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Help!!! Tryed to change my light fixture and took the old one off which has now left me with 5 black wires,4 red and 2 yellow and green.I haven't got a clue!!! Panicking now
 
1. Take photo of fitting before you disconnect it. You didn't? :roll: Take picture of the wires and post it on here. Here how http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129539

2. Check the colours of the wires. Doesnt sound right. Are some blue wires?
How many cables are there. What are the colours in each cable. What sort of room is it? Does the rooms have a fan? Does the room have another light(s) that work from the same switch?

3. Read about lighting wiring before you try and do something that you know NOTHING about. Its all in the WIKI. http://www.diynot.com/wiki/Electrics:Lighting
 
2. Check the colours of the wires. Doesnt sound right. Are some blue wires?
It certainly doesn't sound right - but some of them being blue wouldn't really make it sound any more right unless some were also brown.

For someone to disconnect so many wires without noting how they had been connected is certainly very unfortunate!

Kind Regards, John
 
IF you have access from above (e.g. if this is upstairs and your loft is unboarded) finding out where each cable goes is also likely to help a lot in working out what is going on.
 
Help!!! Tryed to change my light fixture and took the old one off which has now left me with 5 black wires,4 red and 2 yellow and green.I haven't got a clue!!! Panicking now

Are these individual wires in conduit?

If not, re-count wires.
 
It certainly doesn't sound right - but some of them being blue wouldn't really make it sound any more right unless some were also brown.

Maybe, but my thoughts were that there was at least one old colour 3C&E cable. Red yellow & blue.

Anyways, it sounds like problem solved. Partner returns from the pub after many pints of Old Scroat to fiddle with the electrics….perfect.
 
It certainly doesn't sound right - but some of them being blue wouldn't really make it sound any more right unless some were also brown.

Maybe, but my thoughts were that there was at least one old colour 3C&E cable. Red yellow & blue.

Anyways, it sounds like problem solved. Partner returns from the pub after many pints of Old Scroat to fiddle with the electrics….perfect.

Why a 3 core and e?

I take the 2 yellow and green to be two earths - which may very well have been many bare earths sharing two sleeves.

Who said he's been to a pub?
 
Help!!! Tryed to change my light fixture and took the old one off which has now left me with 5 black wires,4 red and 2 yellow and green.I haven't got a clue!!! Panicking now
That sounds like a very odd combination of colours. What are the cables - twin & earth? Singles?

Anyway - if you didn't make a note of what was connected to what before you took the old fitting down you're going to have problems. Really there are two options open to you.

There really is only Plan A or Plan B:

PLAN A:PLAN B:
  • Get an electrician.
The thing is you must, you absolutely MUST, understand what you are doing. You must not, under any circumstances, start following instructions to 'insert this wire in that hole' without a full and genuine understanding of why.

Please take some time and learn how lighting circuits and switches work before diving in and trying to do things.
 
It certainly doesn't sound right - but some of them being blue wouldn't really make it sound any more right unless some were also brown.
Maybe, but my thoughts were that there was at least one old colour 3C&E cable. Red yellow & blue.
Does that mean that you took "2 yellow and green" to mean that there were two yellows and two greens (or maybe two yellows and one green), rather than two G/Ys?

Kind Regards, John
 
Indeed - and it's not his first attempt. His first copy of that post in this thread (albeit before the problem was 'sorted') got very speedily removed!
As it was removed I have had to re-instate it.
"Thin ice" comes to mind. Please think carefully. Despite a lot of things, many of us would not like to loose you.

Kind Regards, John
 

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