This has saved my bacon - perhaps a useful tip: I had difficulty getting a good continuity reading on my wire, possibly because the copper was a bit oxidised (?). In any case, take your time when measuring continuity!
Brilliant video and advise, moved into a new (old) property and replacing light fittings, had a problem with one tripping circuit, watched your video fixed in 10 minutes Thanks very much for your easy to follow advice and schematic video
Brilliant schematics easy to follow and clear voice instructions, you should teach Electrical Engineering if you dont already! lol best regards Phil@@JPElectric
What a video, I'm not an electrician, and had exact this same problem, tripping the light due to the switch wire connecting it to the neutral, I spent about 3 hours on it scratching my head, watched this video, grabbed my multimeter and BOOOOMMM🎉🎉, less than 2 mins, problem solved, amazing video and tutorial, very well displayed and explained,,,, many thanks, you have now gained another subscriber and follower🤝🏴
@@someblokecalleddave1 Please do follow the safe isolation procedure, before any electrical work. If unsure I have some guidance on it or there is plenty on youtube.
Yeah I make sure I turn it off at the main fuse box, the whole house is disconnected - nothing on at all. My Uncles business partner in their electricians firm was killed on the job in the 1960's. He'd been doing it years - always stayed with me that cautionary tale. @@JPElectric
This is really useful, and clearly explained. But I have *four* cables in my ceiling. So once I've identified the switch, can I still connect all the blacks together and all the reds together (old colours!)?
Thank you am doing a first fix in my shed prior to getting a fully qualified electrician to check and certify this has helped immensely couldn’t get my head round switch line bit excellent description thank you
Great video mate, just subscribed, its great when someone like you explains Electricity simply for us DIYers well done mate, an idea for another video i would like to know and im sure it would be of interest to other people is, i have 2 bulkhead lights in my kitchen controlled by a 2 gang switch. 1 switch 1 light, the other switch the other light. If i wanted to change these 2 bulkheads to 8 downlights, 4 lights being controlled by 1 switch and the other 4 lights being controlled by the other switch, or control all 8 downlights with 1 switch, so get rid of the 2 gang switch and replace with 1 gang switch, hope i made myself clear, keep up the good work, PS. Some ideas for future vids, where to take the power from for adding an outside light, (garden) porch, security, etc. Also something that confuses me and im sure others, an outsde light controlled by a stand alone photocell. Sorry if i done your head in.
Hi Kevin, Thanks for watching, and for the ideas for future videos. I do want to do some more on lighting, as it seems people find it useful. Hope to get something out soon.
Thankyou. I replaced a ceiling Rose last week in my hallway and all the upstairs lights stopped working. Now I’ve watched this I’m assuming I’ve wired the switch wire in the wrong terminal. Old house so cables are indeed red and black but none of them have a different colour sleeve on to identify the switch wire so guess I’ll have to do continuity test
Hi Edna, Yes a continuity test is the safe way to find out which conductor is your switch live. If all your upstairs lights are not working it suggests an issue with the looped supply. (Power from one rose to the next). As always please follow the safe isolation procedure, before any electrical work.
Hi just a quick question when you try to find which blue wires i need can i just connect all 3 brown wires together as it is a ceiling rose light so all 3 brown wires will be connected together anyways and than just simply test with the multimeter which blue is the live switch rather than start jumping from one brown cable to an other just to save a headache which combination i tested which not???
I've had a go at this, I went out and bough the voltage indicator to figure out which of the wires gave me the continuity and everything seemingly went OK. Once I'd seemingly followed your instructions, I turned the mains back on and it worked for a short period of time and then it seemed like other lights on the circuit went off and eventually, the ceiling light that I'd replaced which was the problem went back to the situation where it was on and unable to be switched off. My initial thoughts were that maybe one of the wires had come loose from the connectors, but I've just looked and it all looks connected and OK. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
Difficult to say. I don't really understand how something could work. then gradually not work, and return to the original fault. To work you must have identified the switch live, permanent live and loop(If there is one, and the neutrals. Have you got two way switching on this light, because if that is wired incorrectly, you can get strange switching patterns. Fault finding is just following a logical sequence. Find the permanent power supply to the rose is my first task, then identify the other cables, switch and loop. Always working safely
Thanks for answering so quick. I've just checked everything again using your vid and others and I'm 100% I've followed your instructions OK and I can't figure out what's wrong. All my connections are sound. I might put the old light up and see if that works - the only reason I'm replacing it is my wife don't like it. That might suggest there's something wrong with the new light? I may have to get an electrician in by the looks of it. I'll look at the switch first as you've suggested. @@JPElectric
I have this situation but with recessed lights. I was able to fit 7 of the 8 as straight forward neutrals and lives were like for like. However on the 8th and last light to be wired, I now had what you described with around 9 wires. I isolated the 3 ground wires as recessed light didnt have a section for those. Im then left with 2 blue (assume 1 is the switch wire) and 3 brown live wires. My question is, if my light fixture has only a neutral and live section on the light itself, do I hook up the fake blue switch wire, the live and the real Neutral wire and isolate/ignore the rest? Or do I place all in sections grouping all live wires with switch live wire and the neutral wire by itself hooked up? I hope this question makes sense
Hi Gary22223. It sounds like the last light you altered, was in-fact the start of the power to the lights. Not sure what you mean by fake blue switch wire. I presume you mean the switch live from the switch. This is the conductor that causes problems, because if connected to neutral you will get a short. You will have the live feed in, the live feed out, and the feed to the switch. The live feeds are connected together, as are the neutrals (Making sure you do not use the connections to the switch). The switch live from the switch will go to the live to the lights, and the neutral to the light will complete the circuit
Hi Gary, I don't do email sorry. I would suggest you try looking at Diynot .com and go to electrics UK. You can post pictures and people are friendly. I do post on there sometimes.
Your a life saver. Have exactly this, only thing now is I replaced the 1 way switch for a touch switch. Which only works with power, so this make it impossible to trouble shoot with out. Any ideas ?
Hi Web duck. Dimmers and electronic switches can cause issue. So, With the power isolated - (never work live) Remove the switch (L and L1), link out the two conductors at the switch (Live and switch live) and test at the ceiling rose.
Thank you, well explained but i'm still a bit confused about my wiring! I want to replace an old light in the bathroom with a led bulkhead that has Live and Neutral wago connectors. When I removed the old pendant there was no rose but a connector block with three connectors. all wires into the connector block are brown. the left connector has two brown wires with black tape and this was connected to the old pendant, the right connector had a single brown wire connected to the pendant and the middle connector has three brown wires connected but not to the consumer side. The old pendant has two brown wires from the fitting and neither marked neutral. I don't know if i can or should connect the led light that is marked live and neutral to which connector in the block. I hope this makes sense and any help appreciated!
Sound like a ceiling rose wiring but with connector blocks. You will need a tester to know for sure but the left sounds like the neutrals, the right sounds like the switch live and the middle sounds like the lives commoned together. With the power off you can test between the right connector and the middle connector, to see if you get continuity when you operate the switch. But its impossible to know without testing. But if it all worked OK before hand, reconnecting as is should be OK. Just remember what went where. ( Always follow safe isolation ...) You do not mention any CPCs usually in green and yellow sleeving. These are very important and need to be connected together, and to the light fitting if required. A good website for help with this kind of issue is diynot.com. In the electric UK section you can post pictures, and people on the forum are generally really helpful..
Thank you for this video is this the same for a two switch light or do you have a video for that. I have bought a new light for the stairs and it only has a 3 terminal block supplied.
Hi Pat . Thanks for the comment. With stair way switching you have to be careful, as you can have two feeds. One for downstairs lighting, and one for upstairs. So safe isolation is important. The light sound like it only has a connection for the Switch live , the neutral and the CPC (Earth) It can be difficult to connect the existing wiring to this small terminal block. I usually terminate the existing connections in suitable wago connectors, and connect a cable to the switch live, neutral and CPC. to the light fitting. As with all electrical work safe isolation is essential. And also the ability to test that the earth is effectively connected to the earthing system, is very important, especially if you are installing metal fittings. This is a test that really needs an electrician though.
Thanks for the comment, You can get twin and earth with brown conductors only, which can in it self cause some issue as you need to test to see which in permanent live and switch live , but at least you know they are not neutral. ! But i would still test
What happens if the beeping doesn't stop regardless of if you flick the switch on or off? I have 2 flex in which I assume to be fuse board and switch (lights yet to be added). Continuity check one set dead so must be from board or power in from previous light circuit. Second set continuity but when flick light switch it keeps beeping which confuses me....
Dimmers , other lights connected to the same switch live, (Does the switch power more than one light... i .e. reading across another lamp element. But you say no lamps installed) sensitivity of the tester, can all cause issue.. Could be an actual fault, Getting an Ohm value, rather than a beep can help. If a new install has it been correctly done? Please work safe.and if in doubt, get local help.
@@JPElectric thanks. I've isolated them for now. Awaiting electrician once lockdown eases. The switch is not connected to any other light. Only 1 switch for that set of lights (it's a set of new spotlights) Could be the switch. I will check that but it worked before. I regrettably didn't take picture of connections... As it was all tapped Up with insulation tape... Yes, that technical!
My dad installed two new light fittings in the hallway and landing but the other lights stopped working I had a look at the m and seen he mixed up the live and neutral in the landing light but when I swapped them around the other lights still were not working any ideas what the cause could be?
Hi Callum, really difficult to say exactly, but it sounds like the loop in to the next light has not been wired correctly., so no live feed to the light. Do check obvious things like light bulbs as well, as this can catch you out, try the fitting with a lamp you know works.
BriLliant I have been looking for this for 6 months as I cannot get hold of an electrician to put in a new light fitting. You are a super star. Thank you, thank you, thank you.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Wow! This is video very informative and the best tutorial on the topic for me so far. I really appreciate it. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I've been staring at a bundle of wires all day wondering how to work out which goes where...problem solved. Thank you very much!
Thanks Julian. Please it helped.
This has saved my bacon - perhaps a useful tip: I had difficulty getting a good continuity reading on my wire, possibly because the copper was a bit oxidised (?). In any case, take your time when measuring continuity!
Spent hours trying to sort this. Thank you so much best video on the subject.
Thank you Alex
@@JPElectricd
Very useful. Clear, concise and easy to follow. Thank you. 😊 🙏
Brilliant video and advise, moved into a new (old) property and replacing light fittings, had a problem with one tripping circuit, watched your video fixed in 10 minutes Thanks very much for your easy to follow advice and schematic video
Thank you, appreciate you watching and commenting
Brilliant schematics easy to follow and clear voice instructions, you should teach Electrical Engineering if you dont already! lol best regards Phil@@JPElectric
What a video, I'm not an electrician, and had exact this same problem, tripping the light due to the switch wire connecting it to the neutral, I spent about 3 hours on it scratching my head, watched this video, grabbed my multimeter and BOOOOMMM🎉🎉, less than 2 mins, problem solved, amazing video and tutorial, very well displayed and explained,,,, many thanks, you have now gained another subscriber and follower🤝🏴
Thanks officialtaffylad. Got a bit concerned when I read BOOOOMMM. No electrician wants to hear that 😬 😊. Please you got it sorted.
@@JPElectric hahaha 🤣🤣🤣👍🏻
Thank you..You have just made ‘continuity’ in my brain💡 Great diagrams
Thanks for your comment Patriot's Dad. Really please you found it helpful.
Excellent video, tried to fix my light today and it's on permanently - the wire didn't have the sleeve on - now I know what to do!
Thank you, please you got it sorted.
The tools you've suggested are coming tomorrow, I'm confident that using your vid I'll be able to do it. I'll let you know. Ta.
@@JPElectric
@@someblokecalleddave1 Please do follow the safe isolation procedure, before any electrical work. If unsure I have some guidance on it or there is plenty on youtube.
Yeah I make sure I turn it off at the main fuse box, the whole house is disconnected - nothing on at all. My Uncles business partner in their electricians firm was killed on the job in the 1960's. He'd been doing it years - always stayed with me that cautionary tale. @@JPElectric
This is really useful, and clearly explained. But I have *four* cables in my ceiling. So once I've identified the switch, can I still connect all the blacks together and all the reds together (old colours!)?
Thank you so much. Really full and thorough explanation.
Thank you Henrylongstop.
Thank you am doing a first fix in my shed prior to getting a fully qualified electrician to check and certify this has helped immensely couldn’t get my head round switch line bit excellent description thank you
Really please it was useful Mark. Thanks for the comment
Great visual aid 👏🏻
That’s spot on, thank you… One question though, could the next ceiling rose be connected in that arrangement even if it has its own switch?
Excellent video.. very well explained… thank you!
Thanks vey much simba2860 please you found it useful
Great video mate, just subscribed, its great when someone like you explains Electricity simply for us DIYers well done mate, an idea for another video i would like to know and im sure it would be of interest to other people is, i have 2 bulkhead lights in my kitchen controlled by a 2 gang switch. 1 switch 1 light, the other switch the other light. If i wanted to change these 2 bulkheads to 8 downlights, 4 lights being controlled by 1 switch and the other 4 lights being controlled by the other switch, or control all 8 downlights with 1 switch, so get rid of the 2 gang switch and replace with 1 gang switch, hope i made myself clear, keep up the good work, PS. Some ideas for future vids, where to take the power from for adding an outside light, (garden) porch, security, etc.
Also something that confuses me and im sure others, an outsde light controlled by a stand alone photocell.
Sorry if i done your head in.
Hi Kevin, Thanks for watching, and for the ideas for future videos. I do want to do some more on lighting, as it seems people find it useful. Hope to get something out soon.
I found this helpful beyond words... Thank you :)
Thank you Mac the man
Thankyou. I replaced a ceiling Rose last week in my hallway and all the upstairs lights stopped working. Now I’ve watched this I’m assuming I’ve wired the switch wire in the wrong terminal. Old house so cables are indeed red and black but none of them have a different colour sleeve on to identify the switch wire so guess I’ll have to do continuity test
Hi Edna, Yes a continuity test is the safe way to find out which conductor is your switch live. If all your upstairs lights are not working it suggests an issue with the looped supply. (Power from one rose to the next). As always please follow the safe isolation procedure, before any electrical work.
Awesome massive Respect the best example I've seen on the net...
Thanks Nigel, really appreciate it.
I was so confused when i saw so many wire'ls in one light socket.😂
Hi Steph, thanks for watching I hope it helped.
Kept simple no confusion.. I'm gun go try it now.
Please carry out the safe isolation procedure before any electrical work. If in any doubt call an electrician.
Hi just a quick question when you try to find which blue wires i need can i just connect all 3 brown wires together as it is a ceiling rose light so all 3 brown wires will be connected together anyways and than just simply test with the multimeter which blue is the live switch rather than start jumping from one brown cable to an other just to save a headache which combination i tested which not???
Thank you very much for posting this. It was very helpful.
Thank you Peter
great video,sorted my mistake in 5 mins.many many thanks
Thanks Paul, Pleased it helped
Brilliant instruction
Thank you very much
Well explained video ty 👏 its helped me loads
I've had a go at this, I went out and bough the voltage indicator to figure out which of the wires gave me the continuity and everything seemingly went OK. Once I'd seemingly followed your instructions, I turned the mains back on and it worked for a short period of time and then it seemed like other lights on the circuit went off and eventually, the ceiling light that I'd replaced which was the problem went back to the situation where it was on and unable to be switched off. My initial thoughts were that maybe one of the wires had come loose from the connectors, but I've just looked and it all looks connected and OK. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
Difficult to say. I don't really understand how something could work. then gradually not work, and return to the original fault.
To work you must have identified the switch live, permanent live and loop(If there is one, and the neutrals.
Have you got two way switching on this light, because if that is wired incorrectly, you can get strange switching patterns.
Fault finding is just following a logical sequence.
Find the permanent power supply to the rose is my first task, then identify the other cables, switch and loop.
Always working safely
Thanks for answering so quick. I've just checked everything again using your vid and others and I'm 100% I've followed your instructions OK and I can't figure out what's wrong. All my connections are sound. I might put the old light up and see if that works - the only reason I'm replacing it is my wife don't like it. That might suggest there's something wrong with the new light? I may have to get an electrician in by the looks of it. I'll look at the switch first as you've suggested. @@JPElectric
Superb, thank you
Please you found it useful, thanks for watching
Thank you but what do you do with the rest of the wires once you found the cont/switch wires.
I have this situation but with recessed lights.
I was able to fit 7 of the 8 as straight forward neutrals and lives were like for like.
However on the 8th and last light to be wired, I now had what you described with around 9 wires. I isolated the 3 ground wires as recessed light didnt have a section for those. Im then left with 2 blue (assume 1 is the switch wire) and 3 brown live wires.
My question is, if my light fixture has only a neutral and live section on the light itself, do I hook up the fake blue switch wire, the live and the real Neutral wire and isolate/ignore the rest? Or do I place all in sections grouping all live wires with switch live wire and the neutral wire by itself hooked up?
I hope this question makes sense
Hi Gary22223. It sounds like the last light you altered, was in-fact the start of the power to the lights. Not sure what you mean by fake blue switch wire.
I presume you mean the switch live from the switch. This is the conductor that causes problems, because if connected to neutral you will get a short.
You will have the live feed in, the live feed out, and the feed to the switch.
The live feeds are connected together, as are the neutrals (Making sure you do not use the connections to the switch). The switch live from the switch will go to the live to the lights, and the neutral to the light will complete the circuit
@@JPElectricyes, I meant the switch live
I've still had no luck, do you have an email address I can send pictures to?
I feel I'm so close
Hi Gary, I don't do email sorry. I would suggest you try looking at Diynot .com and go to electrics UK.
You can post pictures and people are friendly.
I do post on there sometimes.
@@JPElectric thanks!
Brilliant, thank you this video has identified my problem.
Thank you, pleased you found it useful.
great video cheers mate
Thanks for watching DnBnetwork
Very nice..Thanks.
What software did you use to actually build and color code the conductors and the wiring.
Hi Kama, thanks for watching. I use Adobe Illustrator for all my drawings
Thank you Sir. Appreciate your help.
Such a life saver, thank you 👌
Thanks Pete, glad it helped
Your a life saver. Have exactly this, only thing now is I replaced the 1 way switch for a touch switch. Which only works with power, so this make it impossible to trouble shoot with out. Any ideas ?
Hi Web duck. Dimmers and electronic switches can cause issue. So, With the power isolated - (never work live) Remove the switch (L and L1), link out the two conductors at the switch (Live and switch live) and test at the ceiling rose.
Thank you, well explained but i'm still a bit confused about my wiring! I want to replace an old light in the bathroom with a led bulkhead that has Live and Neutral wago connectors. When I removed the old pendant there was no rose but a connector block with three connectors. all wires into the connector block are brown. the left connector has two brown wires with black tape and this was connected to the old pendant, the right connector had a single brown wire connected to the pendant and the middle connector has three brown wires connected but not to the consumer side. The old pendant has two brown wires from the fitting and neither marked neutral. I don't know if i can or should connect the led light that is marked live and neutral to which connector in the block. I hope this makes sense and any help appreciated!
Sound like a ceiling rose wiring but with connector blocks. You will need a tester to know for sure but the left sounds like the neutrals, the right sounds like the switch live and the middle sounds like the lives commoned together. With the power off you can test between the right connector and the middle connector, to see if you get continuity when you operate the switch. But its impossible to know without testing. But if it all worked OK before hand, reconnecting as is should be OK. Just remember what went where. ( Always follow safe isolation ...) You do not mention any CPCs usually in green and yellow sleeving. These are very important and need to be connected together, and to the light fitting if required. A good website for help with this kind of issue is diynot.com. In the electric UK section you can post pictures, and people on the forum are generally really helpful..
A brilliant video. Perct answer.
Perfect
Thank you very much
Absolute brilliant thank you so much😊👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks Andrew appreciate it.
Thank you for this video is this the same for a two switch light or do you have a video for that. I have bought a new light for the stairs and it only has a 3 terminal block supplied.
Hi Pat . Thanks for the comment. With stair way switching you have to be careful, as you can have two feeds. One for downstairs lighting, and one for upstairs. So safe isolation is important. The light sound like it only has a connection for the Switch live , the neutral and the CPC (Earth) It can be difficult to connect the existing wiring to this small terminal block. I usually terminate the existing connections in suitable wago connectors, and connect a cable to the switch live, neutral and CPC. to the light fitting. As with all electrical work safe isolation is essential. And also the ability to test that the earth is effectively connected to the earthing system, is very important, especially if you are installing metal fittings. This is a test that really needs an electrician though.
@@JPElectric Thanks for your help I have now got it sorted
Very well explained.
Q: 5:40 wondering why we simply don't use live color (brown here) for the blue in switch to avoid the confusion?
Thanks for the comment, You can get twin and earth with brown conductors only, which can in it self cause some issue as you need to test to see which in permanent live and switch live , but at least you know they are not neutral. ! But i would still test
What happens if the beeping doesn't stop regardless of if you flick the switch on or off?
I have 2 flex in which I assume to be fuse board and switch (lights yet to be added). Continuity check one set dead so must be from board or power in from previous light circuit. Second set continuity but when flick light switch it keeps beeping which confuses me....
Dimmers , other lights connected to the same switch live, (Does the switch power more than one light... i .e. reading across another lamp element. But you say no lamps installed) sensitivity of the tester, can all cause issue..
Could be an actual fault, Getting an Ohm value, rather than a beep can help. If a new install has it been correctly done?
Please work safe.and if in doubt, get local help.
@@JPElectric thanks. I've isolated them for now. Awaiting electrician once lockdown eases.
The switch is not connected to any other light. Only 1 switch for that set of lights (it's a set of new spotlights)
Could be the switch. I will check that but it worked before.
I regrettably didn't take picture of connections... As it was all tapped Up with insulation tape... Yes, that technical!
My dad installed two new light fittings in the hallway and landing but the other lights stopped working I had a look at the m and seen he mixed up the live and neutral in the landing light but when I swapped them around the other lights still were not working any ideas what the cause could be?
Hi Callum, really difficult to say exactly, but it sounds like the loop in to the next light has not been wired correctly., so no live feed to the light. Do check obvious things like light bulbs as well, as this can catch you out, try the fitting with a lamp you know works.
Thanks for the video
Thank you for watching
Thanks for this
Thanks for the comment John
My problem is now my switch won't work after wiring new light in
thankyouverymuch
Thanks for watching
BriLliant I have been looking for this for 6 months as I cannot get hold of an electrician to put in a new light fitting. You are a super star. Thank you, thank you, thank you.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks zebraskindiva. really please it was helpful
Help 😢
Good
Thanks Liaqat ali