Loop-in wiring and Ikea lights (safe?)

[Matthew Clement]

I recently purchased a number of lights from Ikea which I'm trying to wire up. My electrical system is loop-in, and I'm wondering whether I've done the job correctly (it all seems to work), and more importantly, safely. Here's what I've done:

Three red wires (live): connected to each other via a connector block Two black wires (neutral): connected to N Black/red wire (switched live): connected to L Yellow/green wire (earth): connected to earth

I suspect the connector block doesn't meet electrical code, but is it safe? I don't want to burn my house down!

Thanks in advance for any help offered!

[stefek.zaba]

If the list of wires had as its last line "Three yellow/green wires: connected to earth", I'd have said "good enough"; a connector block is acceptable if it fits nicely in the back box of the fitting, which then acts as the required non-flammable enclosure. Are you sure there's only one green-yellow wire? Maybe (this is quite common) it's got all three earth wires, I mean Circuit Protective Conductors, twisted together in one piece of green-and-yellow sleeving? If so, you're basically in OK shape (he says, hoping, and opining sight unseen, any impression that this posting is anything other than random line noise is in the fevered imagination of the reader, disclaim, disclaim, etc. etc. ;-). If you can secure the connector block (maybe with a small cable tie, say) to prevent it flapping about and risking the screws touching any other bit of metalwork, so much the better.

If, on the other hand, there's only a single strand of earth wire, you're in unsafe territory, as there's then no way for two of the three cables to carry the earth onwards. B-a-a-a-a-d news...

HTH, Stefek

[stefek.zaba]

I forgot to add at this point, "provided that all three conductors carry on to the end and are all clamped together under the screw in your fitting": it's *not* remotely safe practice for them to be just twisted together and to have just one extending into the fitting.

[Bob Eager]

Just replaced all the ceiling wiring in our lounge (four fittings dangling from various parts of the ceiling). Did the last one on Saturday (the most difficult as it's under the bath 'upstairs'.

Also the most horrific. An amazing pink aluminium 'shade' with a plastic concentric ring thing at the bottom. Thin two core black flex with a black plasticky cone covering the ceiling rose, and black plastic grubscrew holding it in place on the flex....not quite at the top. Peered underneath to find a a mass of wiring. FOUR T+E cables, one with red outer sheath. Loads of ceiling paint splattered over a choc block, three Screwits (!) and a load of earth wires twisted together. And some insulation tape sticking the flex to the L and N.

Bad enough. After I'd removed it all, I remembered what I *hadn't* removed. Securing screws. Because there weren't any. Weight of fitting taken on those two taped joints, and the cables. No wonder the plastic cover didn't reach the ceiling - the cables had pulled through the hole.

[stefek.zaba]

Eee-uch!! It's the proven existence of this kind of stuff which makes offering half-guessed "opinions" on people's electrical queries a bit fraught: there's every difference between adding on to a reasonably competent fairly recent standard install, and one of these House Of Horrors jobs! Nevertheless, the Panel here usually manages to infer the competence of both inquirer and previous installer(s) by careful attention to subtle clues ;-)

[Matthew Clement]

You can sleep easy. As you rightly point out, there are three earth wires which have been joined together and covered in a single yellow-and-green sleeve.

Thanks for the help!