Wiring a light with two 'neutral' wires

Fishing4Tips · Post by **Fishing4Tips** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:58 pm

Hello handymen (and specifically those handier than I am - which wouldn't be hard).

I'm trying to wire a light I bought in a DIY store, that has three ports: Live (brown), neutral (blue) and earth (yellow). Seemed simple - Picture 1

: Pic 1 - new light fitting; IMG_20200216_142416~2.jpg (84.05 KiB) Viewed 10013 times

Anyway, I took the cover off the old light and there were what seemed to be two neutral wires.
Picture 2

: Pic 2 - original wiring; IMG-20200216-WA0005~2.jpg (124.72 KiB) Viewed 10013 times

So how do I make this work? I've attempted the set-up below in Pic 3, bringing a tail out and feeding live and neutral into the fitting, which worked for a day or two then the bulb went...could it be due to wires not being tight or have I made a mistake? All help appreciated...feel free to dumb it down. :dunno:

: Pic 3; IMG-20200216-WA0011~2.jpeg (141.73 KiB) Viewed 10013 times

Someone-Else · Post by **Someone-Else** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:57 pm

You have overlooked the obvious.

Cheap lamp.

If you had wired it wrong, it would have either gone bang or not worked. And yes it really is two neutrals.

Fishing4Tips · Post by **Fishing4Tips** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 10:38 pm

Cheers. I put a new bulb in and it works again...but it's likely to go again you reckon because it's a cheap light? Anyone else see an issue with how I went about this?

LadySpark · Post by **LadySpark** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 1:38 am

Without knowing more about your wiring, I have no idea why you have two neutrals and one live. Two of each would be a loop circuit rather than a line.

The tape markings on those wires are unusual. Two black bands? Is that a secret code I don't know? Is it possible that you actually have a live, a neutral and a switch live? That would be more usual. I would normally use a little brown sheath on the blue wire from the light switch to mark the switch live but maybe two black bands are somebody's way of marking a switch live??? Do you have a multimeter to test it?

Someone-Else · Post by **Someone-Else** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:51 pm

It is wired as it is because that is how who ever wired it chose to wire it.
Sadly, despite what you may think there is no specific rule that say that says "Though shalt wire it this way"

Unless they got a load of double insulated singles for free.

ericmark · Post by **ericmark** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:34 pm

Yes standard ceiling rose wiring is line, neutral and earth in, then line, neutral and earth out to next ceiling rose, then line out, line in and earth to switch, and line and neutral to lamp.
So 2 switched line, 3 always line, and 3 neutrals is standard in a ceiling rose. Ceiling rose doubles as a junction box.
End of run ceiling rose one cable less.
ceiling rose where two lights in one room one cable extra, and other ceiling rose of pair may have two cables less.
With bathroom also a cable to the fan.
Often one blue is line, it should be over sleeved but often is not.

I would guess other side of plaster board there is another junction.