HELP this wire arent right??

[Jude]

please can someone help I've read all the posts on lights but I have not come across one like mine ........I am trying to replace a ceiling light it has one neutral two live(red) and one black with red tape is this the loop? I tried to make a mental note of where the wires went but its not good when I removed the old fitting the wires moved. now I'm lost the connection box to the light has two wires neutral and live which and where do I put the earth and the loop HELP!! I've done this before but never came across this confusion

[Christian McArdle]

You've probably got two cables. One is red+black and is the mains supply. The other is red+black(with red tape applied). This is probably your switch cable. If you can't work out what to do with them, or how to safely test this hypothesis, you may need to call an electrician.

This is normal for modern fittings, as they don't provide you with a junction box to make all the connections. Either install to a separate junction box pushed into the ceiling box, or replace the 2 way terminal block with a 4 way one, if it will fit.

Christian.

[Andy Cap]

The neutral goes to one side of the light. The red-banded black to the other side. The commoned reds should go into a separate connector, usually part of the fitting provided expressly for the purpose. The earth is an entirely separate connection, wired to any metal parts of the fitting.

HTH Andy

[Jude]

[Christian McArdle]

You know wrong. If the light is double insulated (VERY common), there might not be an earth connection on it. The earths should be tied together in a terminal block, just like the permanent lives.

This is quite normal. Indeed, apart from standard pendant fittings, I can't remember the last time a light fitting came with enough terminals. They are designed once, for the entire planet, and other countries do not normally use a loop in type system.

Christian.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Mental notes are not a good thing to do when messing about with electricty monsieur,all ways write it down. tsk!

[F]

A couple of minutes with a digital camera is useful with a lot of jobs like this where you're taking things apart and then hoping to get them back together again.