Hello, please see attached image. I am in the process of wiring a single light switch to some external lights. As you can see there are 3 x brown wires and 3 x blue wires. The earth wires have already been secured in the back plate switch housing. My question is do I place the 3 brown wires into the Common socket and if so then where should I place the 3 blue wires? Should they go to L1 or L2? I'm hoping it should be straight forward as it's just the one switch to operate the multiple outside lights. Thanks, Mark.
Wiring of light switch
- Thread starter Marky.M
- Start date
are you replacing a light switch - did yo take a photo , or is this a new installation??
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Wires don't care what colour they are, twin and earth is a standard cable used in domestic, and just because a wire is blue does not mean it is neutral, and just because brown does not mean it is line. Both are called live.
It seems likely you have a feed in, feed out to next switch and feed to lamp, and that all blues go together, and two browns go to com and one to L1, but this is a guess, and guessing is no good, so unless you have before photos, now down to testing, so what do you have to test with?
It seems likely you have a feed in, feed out to next switch and feed to lamp, and that all blues go together, and two browns go to com and one to L1, but this is a guess, and guessing is no good, so unless you have before photos, now down to testing, so what do you have to test with?
Hi, this is a new installation.
ok, so how did you wire the lights up ....
do you have 3 T&E cables , what does each one do ????
Live/neutral IN
switched Live / Neutral to one light
switched Live / Neutral to second light
if its a new installtion can you draw a diagram of how its all setup ?
do you have 3 T&E cables , what does each one do ????
Live/neutral IN
switched Live / Neutral to one light
switched Live / Neutral to second light
if its a new installtion can you draw a diagram of how its all setup ?
As there is no mention of other lights not working I don't think any cable is a feed out.
I'm going to guess (and it's only a guess based on how I think sparkys would think) that the 2 x L&N cables that have been terminated in Wago's have been done so because at the time the lights hadn't been fitted.
The supply live is already connected to the switch and the neutral in it's own Wago.
So (at your own peril) move the single blue to the spare termial on the wago that has 2 blue wires.
Move the 2 live (brown) wires out of the wago's they are in and put them both together in the switch L1
Don't put anything in L2 and don't put any blue wires in the switch.
I'm going to guess (and it's only a guess based on how I think sparkys would think) that the 2 x L&N cables that have been terminated in Wago's have been done so because at the time the lights hadn't been fitted.
The supply live is already connected to the switch and the neutral in it's own Wago.
So (at your own peril) move the single blue to the spare termial on the wago that has 2 blue wires.
Move the 2 live (brown) wires out of the wago's they are in and put them both together in the switch L1
Don't put anything in L2 and don't put any blue wires in the switch.
Hi Mikey, I tried the above but sadly the light isn't working. You are right about the lights not being fitted yet. I fitted one today so I was hoping to test the switch on the one light first but no show as yet.
If it’s a new install , who wired it ?
That's ok. I can put back to how it was before. Thanks anyhow
An electrician wired it for our extension but I was trying to save a bit of cash by installing the lights and wiring the switch myself as I thought it' be a straight forward one but it appears maybe not to be the case. With the lights I'm just placing the blues together in one hole and the browns together in the other hole, and earth to earth of course. Its the switch that's got me puzzled though.
It seems as though you are trying to connect two "external lights" in parallel, controlled by one switch.
That which mykeyd suggested in Post #7 seems to be quite correct.
One would hope that you do also have a suitable (preferably) Low Impedance [£10] Volt Meter,
to test the various connections
and
to know how to use it!
That which mykeyd suggested in Post #7 seems to be quite correct.
One would hope that you do also have a suitable (preferably) Low Impedance [£10] Volt Meter,
to test the various connections
and
to know how to use it!
Why don't you do that and take a photo. Then we have something known to start from. There's no way anyone can guess what the wires do except that they are blue and brown.
Do you have an electrical test meter (not a no contact magic wand thing)?
From my understanding of this situation it appears that you have broken the "Clint Eastwood" rule - Each man should know his limitations.
You have attempted something without sufficient understanding.
If safe to do so, disconnect your new connections to put things back as they were before you meddled and then ask someone who is suitably competent to complete it, example an Electrician.
For future works you might find an electrician who is happy for you to do such as laying cables (under their reasonable control) or not.
You have attempted something without sufficient understanding.
If safe to do so, disconnect your new connections to put things back as they were before you meddled and then ask someone who is suitably competent to complete it, example an Electrician.
For future works you might find an electrician who is happy for you to do such as laying cables (under their reasonable control) or not.