# Electricians Advice - Wiring new lights



## RICHIE40 (Jul 9, 2007)

Hello, just after some electrical advice on installing two new outside porch lights with built in PIR sensors.

The existing connections and wiring to the internal switch is already complete.

Just after some advice on how to wire them up to the new light fittings

1 either side of the front door is the set up.

Left side


Right side


New fitting


The switch inside the house has a red cable to the top and Black at the bottom.

:wall:


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## Kev.O (Dec 10, 2015)

It's clear that the positive conductor hasn't been correctly marked with red tape. Looks like the two red cables stay together, the bare cores go into the green/yellow (ideally adding some earth sleeving), the blue appears to be the negative so connect that to the new blue cable, leaving the yellow and black to connect to the brown cable.


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## RICHIE40 (Jul 9, 2007)

Kev.O said:


> It's clear that the positive conductor hasn't been correctly marked with red tape. Looks like the two red cables stay together, the bare cores go into the green/yellow (ideally adding some earth sleeving), the blue appears to be the negative so connect that to the new blue cable, leaving the yellow and black to connect to the brown cable.


Thanks i have wired up as above and seems to be breaking the circuit breaker.

What i'm unsure about are the 2 cables are black and yellow from the house supply cable- would this possibly be a switch live? Should this not be connected on its own. Any advice appreciated.


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## samwh91 (Dec 14, 2011)

Looks like it should be:

2 Reds - L
Blue - N
Bare conductors - E (with earth sleeving if possible)
Leave black & yellow in the connector block - switch inside will become redundant as the PIR's only need a permanent supply.

Hard to tell exactly without being able to look at it all though :thumb:


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## RICHIE40 (Jul 9, 2007)

samwh91 said:


> Looks like it should be:
> 
> 2 Reds - L
> Blue - N
> ...


I would still like the switch option to have the lights permanently on - these lights have the function to do so

Thanks for the input though. Will try and get hold of a meter to do some tests.


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## Kev.O (Dec 10, 2015)

RICHIE40 said:


> Thanks i have wired up as above and seems to be breaking the circuit breaker.
> 
> What i'm unsure about are the 2 cables are black and yellow from the house supply cable- would this possibly be a switch live? Should this not be connected on its own. Any advice appreciated.


Sorry, had a 50/50 chance with the live pair.


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## dholdi (Oct 1, 2008)

Fortunately, the op lives to tell the tale.


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## John-R- (Feb 4, 2007)

RICHIE40 said:


> I would still like the switch option to have the lights permanently on - these lights have the function to do so
> 
> Thanks for the input though. Will try and get hold of a meter to do some tests.


Only way to be sure is by checking with a meter.

Some of this depends on how your house is wired, it sounds like you've got a through switched set-up. As such I would suggest the following.

Red - Permanent Live & Feed to switch.
Black - Switched live to existing light.
Yellow - Potential feed to secondary light!?!?
Blue - Neutral.

Is the cable at the switch definetly Black? or has it been wrapped/heat shrunk with Black tape etc.

Please check it with a meter, you have the potential of either giving someone a shock or creating a fire hazard.

John

Edit;

Actually, thinking about it as you only have two cores at the switch you will not be able to override the PIR.


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## Kev.O (Dec 10, 2015)

John-R- said:


> Only way to be sure is by checking with a meter.
> 
> Some of this depends on how your house is wired, it sounds like you've got a through switched set-up. As such I would suggest the following.
> 
> ...


This is the what i believe the OP has already tried after my comment but it's tripping the breaker.


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## Kev.O (Dec 10, 2015)

dholdi said:


> Fortunately, the op lives to tell the tale.


The 50/50 I was referring to was whether the red was the perminate live or switched live so would only affect where the light was via the switch or perminately on :thumb:


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## cossack (Mar 9, 2008)

You can't guess this, you need a multimeter or stay away TBH! Any other methods of trying to find out which is permanent live, switched and neutral are just a guess, colours mean nothing esp if someone who has no clue wired it in the first place!


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