light wiring

mjjohnson79 · 22 Jul 2006

I am trying to wire an external light
it has brown and black wires and also uncovered wire ( i assume is earth)
it also has extra grey wire whch i am not sure what should be done with it

Thanks

mjjohnson79 · 22 Jul 2006

when i connect the wires up ignoring the grey wire, the light is on, but light switch does not work

breezer · 22 Jul 2006

since you have the light and i dont what do the instructions say?

mjjohnson79 · 22 Jul 2006

sorry my post was not clear
the light has normal 3 wies
it is the wires coming from the wall i am not clear on (extra grey one)
it is a new bulid house so has never had light connected before

breezer · 22 Jul 2006

no idea.

you will need to establish what wire does wht using a meter, its a gues that they grey wire is actually a switch wire

Steve · 22 Jul 2006

so you have 3 core and earth. I wonder why. black brown and grey are the new colours for 3 phase wiring - and therefore 3 core wiring.

You need to find which core does what. Trace it back to the switch or junction box it originated from.

RF Lighting · 22 Jul 2006

You have a three core and earth cable at the position you want to put your new light.
This will have been installed so that you can if you wish install a light with a built in PIR or photocell detector, but with a switch inside aswell to override the sensor and have the light on permanantly.

You will find the following:

Brown - Permanent live
Black - Switched Live
Grey - Neutral
Bare wire - Earth.

You should fit a piece of brown sleeving or tape to the black wire, and a piece of blue sleeving or tape to the grey wire, and fully cover the bare wire with earth sleeving.
You should connect the light fitting to the switched live, neutral and earth.
You must put the permanent live into a piece of strip connector.

mjjohnson79 · 22 Jul 2006

got it sorted now thanks for your help

Steve · 23 Jul 2006

RF Lighting said:
Brown - Permanent live
Black - Switched Live
Grey - Neutral
Bare wire - Earth.

are these now accepted colours to use in this situation? I mean, how do you know this is right? how do you know the last person used this colour scheme? I thought the general rule was to check the other end of the cable first, to see what does what.

RF Lighting · 23 Jul 2006

crafty1289 said:
RF Lighting said:

Brown - Permanent live
Black - Switched Live
Grey - Neutral
Bare wire - Earth.

Click to expand...

are these now accepted colours to use in this situation? I mean, how do you know this is right? how do you know the last person used this colour scheme? I thought the general rule was to check the other end of the cable first, to see what does what.

Yes you should check to make sure, but AFAIK, this is the adopted standard that most electricians use. There were occasions where RYB 3 core was connected in a non standard way, which testing quickly reveals.

But it solved the problem for the OP so I guess his sparky used these colours too.

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light wiring

breezer

breezer

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