Ceiling light wiring - how to extend (hypothetical)

[Mentalguy2k8]

Just fixed a ceiling light that had stopped working because one of the earths had come out of the terminal inside the ceiling fitting.

Started me thinking, what if one of the wires had snapped off? There's only just enough cabling to (just) reach the terminals inside the ceiling rose, so what would the (sensible) option be? A chocolate block small enough to fit inside the rose, or would you have to replace the whole cabling from there to where it comes from?

Why are some sparkies so obsessed with leaving so little cable that it's almost under tension when fitted? I put up a ceiling fan in my last house and whatever wire I connected first, it left me with about an inch of gap to put all the other wires in the right holes and screw up the fittings, while balancing a heavy motor on my head. Ridiculous.

[Frank Erskine]

Hmm - does it rely on an earth to work?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You really need to have it checked over professionally if an earth coming adrift stopped it working. Could be a very dangerous fault.

[Archibald]

If it stopped working because one of the earths came off, I would humbly suggest you rethink your faultfinding approach, and maybe take another look.

Personally I would stick another JB in the ceiling, although you can get small boxes containing a bit of barrier strip now.

AB

[Rob Morley]

An earth coming adrift won't stop a light from working unless it's wired incorrectly. Wonder why an unexposed cable would come loose.

[bert]

In message , Rob Morley writes

Probably because it was installed by one of Adam's ace apprentices? That's what happened with our extension - on 3 separate light fittings.

[Mentalguy2k8]

I should have said that I tightened all of the wires up while I had it open and the electricity off, I didn't think any of the others were noticably loose but maybe one was, a couple of them (and the obviously misplaced earth one) had been put into the fitting without (it looked to me) having had the insulation stripped back properly first. I stripped them back a bit "just in case" and refitted them nice and tightly.

If it makes any difference, it is a simple on/off switch that used to be a metal dimmer switch and it controls 2 ceiling lights about 12 feet apart. No idea why it stopped working when it did, it was OK one day and the next day the lights were dead.

[charles]

some fluorescent needed the body earthed to get the tube to strike.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's going back a bit. ;-)

[ARW]

Is this "earth sleeving" or "proper insulation" covering the earth cable?

[charles]

but some are still inservice ;-(

[Mentalguy2k8]

On the earth cable was a loose-fitting green and yellow striped sleeve, could be just pulled off with the fingers. It was this that was held by the screw in the fitting, either the earth cable was never put in there or it popped out at some point.

[spuorgelgoog]

I have a bathroom light where the choc block is already wedged up to the ceiling with the wire ends just about poking out of the ceiling far enough to be caught by the terminals.

Some form of crimp might do if I could find crimp tool that will do 'end on' crimp instead of requiring sideways access to the cable.

I shall require similar if I am to repuropse the obsolete underfloor heating thermostat wires into 2 amp sockets for the 'tannoy' system. The wires have all been cut short in the BESA boxes.

Owain

[Graham.]

Well a man needs something to summon SWMBO with pipe & slippers.

[The Natural Philosopher]

this is where I break out the soldering iron and the heatshrink....

[spuorgelgoog]

It's so I can have classic FM in the bathroom.

There are a variety of PBXen for telephonically summoning the domestics.

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

Could have looked good on You bin framed though. No idea as to why its done, but its nothing new. My house wired in the 70s is just the same.

Brian

[Mentalguy2k8]

Maybe they're different now, but I remember wondering at the time why they didn't make the terminal block removable so you could wire it all up and

*then* plug the main motor unit into it instead of having to hold the whole thing up with one hand and try to push wires into terminals and screw them up with the other.

[John Rumm]

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