What outdoor switch

Suggest you log out of google to check if your links work as Joe Public before posting them, none have so far :-(

I'm obliged to create an account and login to Google to see these.

Can you post somewhere where we can see simply them?

Ok try this:

Perhaps they're ok in a garage, but they made my CFLs glow in the dark.

That worked. The wiring is effective, though you don't want any stray strands outside the terminal of the brown wire. And it should according to regs have an earth wire from the plug to the light fitting. It may be reasonably safe, albeit not correct, if your light fitting does not need earthing because it has no or double insulated metalwork. And you do need to stop the cables pullng out of the box, either with special glands that screw into the switch box holes (? 20mm) or by clipping them to the wall.

Therein lies the problem.

All I get is error 404

The wiring looks right, if it doesn't work, check the fuse in your plug, there are a few gotchas though ....

Looks like where you cut the outer insulation of the orange cable, you nicked the inner blue insulation.

You've got stray strands poking out of the live of the black cable.

You've chopped off the earth on the outgoing black cable, and have no incoming earth on the orange cable.

The wire from the neon is getting trapped under the case screw.

They might sound minor, but should be put right if you don't want it to scream "bodge job" ...

Is the switch actually outdoors or inside the garage?

Thanks, and I'll correct the gotchas. I know about them, but was just concerned with getting it working at the time.

The switch is just inside the garage door.

Interestingly, and electrician whom I showed the picture to, said I had to many wires, and only needed 2. That confused me even more.

The actual physical situation is:

Light on a roof beam with cable running to switch Power source, ie plug into 1 of the double socket, on a wall with cable running to switch. Switch has 2 lives and 2 neutrals from the light and the plug.

At the moment it doesn't work, and I showed the picture to an electrician who told me I had to many wires.

if you just wire the L and N of the black wire into a 13A plug, and plug it straight in to socket (use extension reel if necessary) does LED batten work?

He will be assuming it's wired "conventionally" via a ceiling rose, in which case there would be no neutral at the switch, did you explain that the orange cable was plugged in to 13A socket?

Since it appears you only have a double socket permanently wired into the garage, then if you want to make the lighting circuit into a permanent and proper installation, then I would do the following;

Switch off power to garage

Fit a Fused Spur Unit (FSU) next to the socket and using a short length of T&E cable connect the SUPPLY terminals to the L, N & E in the socket. If your sockets are near the door you can get a switched FSU and you will have no need for a further switch. Make sure you sleeve any earth wires with green/yellow sleeving.

Run 1mm2 T&E from the LOAD terminals of the FSU to your switch if needs be and from there to your light fitting.

Wire the switch as in your photo remember to sleeve the Earths and connect them together.

Wire your light fitting again sleeving the Earth ensure you have correctly wired the L, N & E.

Replace the 13A fuse in the FSU with a 3A.

You should now be able to switch the power back on and your lighting circuit should work leaving both sockets free.

You say that your current switch is not working even though it appears correctly connected L & N wise. I would check you have L, N & E connected properly at both the socket end and light fitting. If you think it is the switch still faulty try swapping the wire in 1way to 2 way. Internally the switch is just a changeover switch that flicks from one terminal to the other. The only reason they are marked thus is to ensure when the switch plate is correctly orientated on its back box it is a downward press of the rocker that performs the switching. If it still does not work return it to B&Q, aithough i might be tempted to test it with a multimeter or a low voltage lamp and battery first.

Richard

You can always use groups.google.com if needs be...

Its probably a neon rather than a LED...

No.

The neon is usually connected such that it is wired across the terminals you are using. That way when the light is off, the neon will "see" some load through the lamp[1], and light. When you turn the light on, the neon is now shunted out by the switch and goes out.

If you drop me an email, I can setup an account for you on the wiki. You can then post pictures there...

That is because he is assuming the classic cases where this is just one wire connected to a ceiling rose or similar. Then the lice is live, and the "neutral" is actually used as a switched live back to the light fitting.

For what you have the wiring looks correct.

As a test, if you place both brown wires into the com terminal (i.e. just joining them together, does the lamp now light?

If the answer is "no", then you have a problem either at the lamp end, or the plug and socket end, and will need to find that first.

That would be the best long-term (though I suppose there's nothing 'wrong' with plugging the light in)

But I think simpler tests could be done first

I'm glad you asked, because it doesn't light up. I'm now going to take it back