Is this right ?

[skiking]

I was looking at my light switch that should operate 3 seperate wall lights. Currently have wires coming out of the wall for two but a normal pendant light is taped to the wall (don't ask!) for the third.

When I took the light switch of this is what I found


Is this the correct way to wire up i.e all the brown wires ? I'm assuming that these cables go up to a junction box where the 'proper' TandE goes to the lights

The reason I was investigating was to understand where I need to cable up from for adding some soffit lights - I just want to work out how much cable to put into the soffit before I make it inaccessible

[ultimatehandyman]

That looks like a cable saving method

The brown wire at the bottom right is the permanent live wire, this is then taken to the next com and the next com.

The three wires at the top are all in L1 terminals and are all switched lives.

The new soffit lights- where will the switch be, or do they not require a switch?

If you just need a supply for the new soffit lights then you will have to take it from the light that has the permanent live (which is probably the normal pendant light)- but you will have to check!

[skiking]

There will be another switch installed (missus really impressed I'm going to be hacking at the new plaster BEFORE I've even painted it) at the other side of the room.

There is no pendant light in the room so I assume that there will be a junction box somewhere above the wall light light switch. Am I correct in thinking that I need to find this junction box and take the live feed from there to the soffit lights and to the switch ?

Am I breaking any rules in feeding soffit lights direct from the lighting main.

BTW - I aint doing the electrics I just need to account for the wiring needs before I seal up the soffit.

[ultimatehandyman]

I was looking at my light switch that should operate 3 seperate wall lights. Currently have wires coming out of the wall for two but a normal pendant light is taped to the wall (don't ask!) for the third.

There is no pendant light in the room so I assume that there will be a junction box somewhere above the wall light light switch. Am I correct in thinking that I need to find this junction box and take the live feed from there to the soffit lights and to the switch ?

Yes, you need to find it as you need a neutral wire and a permanent live.

Am I breaking any rules in feeding soffit lights direct from the lighting main.

As far as I am aware you are not breaking any rules, but they keep changing and I hardly ever read up on them, I'm sure one of the sparks will correct me if I am wrong

[skiking]

Sorry - there is no 'real' pendant light as the cabling is for wall lights. Sparky made a temp fix whereby he attached a pendant light to the wall light cable which is why its taped to the wall

I hope that makes things clearer

[ultimatehandyman]

Ah right,

I hope the junction box is easy to find

[skiking]

Cheers for the replies UHM

[ultimatehandyman]

You are welcome

[Rich-Ando]

the cable you see in the switch is simply twin brown. they used to sell twin red. it's was mainly used by people such as the council. the idea being you use it solely for switch wires.

personally, i always hated the stuff because the traditional way of doing it, you always know which the live feed is.

the wires definitely go to a JB so i hope you can find it.

two tips: -

when putting the new light switch in, make sure you use the same depth box as the one in the picture. don't use a light switch metal box because you struggle to put dimmer switches in them if you decide to in the future.

it takes a bit longer but if you mark the wall around the box, carefully drill it as in perforate the wall, it will come out neatly and the chances are, you won't need ot plaster around the switch.

[Hoovie]

two tips: -

when putting the new light switch in, make sure you use the same depth box as the one in the picture. don't use a light switch metal box because you struggle to put dimmer switches in them if you decide to in the future.

it takes a bit longer but if you mark the wall around the box, carefully drill it as in perforate the wall, it will come out neatly and the chances are, you won't need ot plaster around the switch.

I would go along with this 100% - my last house and my current house are both fitted with the shallow light back boxes and they are VERY annoying - virtually impossible to find a dimmer switch to fit in them