Reply With QuoteSounds like the breaker has gone and a little more information will be needed to try and help.
After 3 hours of what I though would be a very straight forward job, I'm pulling my hair out.
I have a new style light fitting which I want to replace with a standard ceiling rose.
Nice and easy i thought. Oh how wrong could I be.
Scenario is as follow: -
New build house approx. 5 years old.
3 cables, Each have Earth, Neutral & Live. The Switch Live is marked with brown tape.
I simply cannot get the lighting circuit to work. Initially I completed the wiring, the light came on and then 10 seconds later poof, no light.
I now have no lights in the upstairs of my house.
Anyone able to offer any assistance?
Sounds like the breaker has gone and a little more information will be needed to try and help.
You wired it wrong and tripped the MCB.
Normally when people do this they either mix up the switch wire and a neutral and take out the mcb or you’ve created an earth fault and taken out an rcd or an rcbo but either way will need mor information about the circuit and exactly what you have done
You are probably aware you have loop in, out and the switch
I assume you linked the earths, the browns/reds (live) together, the two blacks/blues (neutral) and kept the switch live seperate
Connect light to switch live and neutral block
There is a good argument for paying a proper electrician to have a look, it's better than killing yourself or burning your house down.
Wheres dood when you need him ?
In the ceiling rose you should have some connectors, put all the live cables to one, all the neutrals to the other, all the earths to earth and then the switched live to its own. Then wire the lamp/light to the neutral and the switched live connectors.
Sitting his exams?Originally Posted by itsgotournameonit
Can you post a photo of the ceiling rose ?
I fell for this the first time I replaced one - if you look carefully they will probably have 3 "groups" of wires. If they do the key is that the rose "passes" the electricty on to the next rose although in a new build this could well not be the case.
Post a photo & we can have a look but is likely something in the rose not wired right.
First see if a breaker had tripped out, it probably has but just resetting it won’t necessarily help.
I would then look at the 3 cables, ignore the one with the brown tape on for a moment. Connect the other 2 cables together live to live etc then try and rest the breaker hopefully this will fix the rest of the lights as you have completed the loop.
Let us know if that works then we can talk you through the 3rd cable
If the above doesn’t work post a picture of what you have done so far
Anyone else want to give the exact same advice?
Thanks for the reply's everyone. I have drawn a diagram of how I wired the ceiling rose below.
**EDIT** Diagram corrected below**EDIT**
Does this make sense?
Last edited by johnny778; 12th December 2017 at 21:58.
Number 5 needs to go into the N block/connector. I would also swap the cables in loop with L just for correctness.
Last edited by IAmATeaf; 12th December 2017 at 21:29.
You really need a pro for that
Fas est ab hoste doceri
With 5 in D im surprised it lasted 10 seconds before tripping
Just realised my diagram is wrong. One second, I'll post the correct diagram.
£100 call out charge to the fundraiser...
All looks ok, have you reset the circuit breaker? It could be a dodgy lamp blowing that caused it to trip
This
Cheers, breaker is reset so I’m guessing I’ve blown the fuse in the circuit breaker on the board.
Reset RCD ?
Done and still no luck. I think a call to an electrician is in order tomorrow.
if your circuit is energised and no lights are on then I would advise isolating the circuit until the wiring fault is found/rectified
It looks OK as mentioned.
To explain what is going on - the "Loop" has live feeds from and to the next ceiling rose. And a live feed TO the switch.
The "Live" is taking power FROM the wall switch to the fitting.
The "Neutral" part of the rose is joining neutrals from the other roses to the light fitting.
Are all your other lights with roses working ?
If you have a continuity tester and want to trouble shoot it then with the power off I would test the 2 wires from the wall switch which should be your 3rd cable (7,8,9) your 8 & 9 should both run to the switch & I hope 8 has some red tape on it to mark it as such.
If you have continuity there and it is wired like it is shown it should work - has the switch plate been off recently ?
The diagram is text book so if all MCBs, RCBOs, RCDs etc are reset you have a problem. I would ‘assume’ you have either broken the conductor in the live or neutral feed cable and the fitting is the first one in the circuit, but it really is difficult to diagnose remotely.
There are no fuses inside circuit breakers, you could however have a faulty one, if so then it is most likely caused by your recent activities.
Testing is required at this stage.
I’m a qualified spark by the way.
My thoughts exactly, op play it safe.
Thanks again for your help everyone. The lighting circuits have been isolated to be safe.
What part of the country are you in Johnny? If your local I’ll come out
How about an update for the people who took the effort to try and help?
There isn’t one at the moment unfortunately. Got called to Leeds on work so had to leave it isolated. Will be hopefully having an electrician round tonight to sort.
Yeah I’m interested to hear the results.
Mini update - Electrician cancelled on me so I thought I would double check that I haven’t made any stupid mistakes. I bought a new switch and ceiling rose and wired everything up by the book. Re-energised the circuits and my light came on and also the landing light which was on the same loop. Amazing I thought, but I when I tried a third light, all the lights went out but the mcb didn’t trip. I’ll await the electrician to arrive but I’m really scratching my head over what is going on. The only thing I can think of is that the mcb for the circuit needs replacing. We’ll see what the official verdict is tomorrow.
Will any two work but three is too much, or will the third you tried always trip the MCB?
are you sure that you haven't got a two way switch wired incorrectly, or on the assumption it worked before you touched it, was wired incorrectly but you've corrected it and now the other end is wired wrong.
On the assumption that it is wired normal 3 plate, the diagram in post 18 is wrong, it should be l/N in out and then switch away and back, earths are irrelevant to operation unless there is a short.
Last edited by adrianw; 14th December 2017 at 16:53.
For an electrical novice what does your last paragraph mean?
Do you not have a note or pic of how it was wired before you changed it?
Either that or you have the rose mis wired hence some of the roses further down are not working / working at the wrong time.
That is exactly what I did when I first swapped out a rose before I worked out they are actually little junction boxes in effect. Now I join up the in/out loops and put in the ceiling and connect the switch circuit to the new fitting.
Is it a two way circuit? I missed that part in the original post.
it means that you have more than one switch operating the same light,
if I were you I would disconnect all of the wires and start again.
Identify the switch line.............Blue or black
connect all of the lives together, so live in/live away/switch line.......... Brown or Red
connect the two neutrals together................... Blue or Black
then connect the lamp across the switch return and the two neutrals......... Blue or Black
Last edited by adrianw; 14th December 2017 at 17:45.
It was wired into a chandelier which didn’t use the same setup as the cable were wired into connector blocks.
Father's advice:-
Don't mess with other folks wives/girlfriends ............................ or electrics. They can both end up killing somebody! Good advice. Thanks Dad!
I agree with the above. Im not pointing any fingers in this case, but the number of times I’ve visited houses after a simple pendant change to find fault only to discover it’s something dangerous is shocking (pun intended. It’s always something simple,... for a qualified and experienced electrician.
Electrician has been. Are we ready for the grand reveal.........
Loose incoming wire into the MCB.
2 minutes work and 50 quid lighter.
I’m not messing with electrics ever again.
Were you messing around with the consumer unit ?
I know it’s now sorted but the ceiling rose is nothing more than a glorified connector block encased in hard plastic.
Nope, didn’t touch the consumer unit at all. As unbelievable as it sounds, just pure coincidence.
At least it’s sorted now.
Yeah it’s just a junction box with an extra cable entry. It’s still easy to make a mistake in there. But you didn’t by the sounds of it. Good result anyway.
Could be that the MCB tripping - provided the shock/vibration to release the conductor from it's loose grip. Could be worthwhile rechecking all MCB terminals, and also socket plates in the house - for slackening.
Al
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