www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi
I just bought a house and am not sure what the guy before me had done, but I have inherited his problems.

I installed some downlights, wired them up and was about to connect them all up to a two-way switch. The existing wires aren't connected to the switch, but the ones I have are Red, Blue , Yellow and Green. The ones going to the lights are standard Red and Black.
The point at which they are to connect in the loft is where one light's wiring is going to another.

As I am not an expert, could anyone let me know which wires should go where? I'm not too great on all the terminology, either.

hi Jeffh to the forum.

sorry about this but could you re-read your post because i honestly don't know what you are trying to ask. you have stated the existing wires "arn't" connected to the switch, what do you mean by that?

how have you wired these wall lights?
when you say 2-way switch do you mean 2-way or 2-gang?

looking at that picture, apart from it being terminated badly they are correct wires so what are you trying to show us?

The blue, yellow and red will be going to the other switch, I normally wire blue with (black 2 core), yellow with (red 2 core), red on its own in com or c. Check other switch if you wire my way red in c or com, blue and yellow any way round in the other two. In the picture it looks like the yellow is used as common.

Thanks for the replies.

Basically the switch is also connected to another switch, but both control the same lights.

When I said that I wired the lights up, I meant that I have connected wire to them and that is ready to be connected to the circuit.

The switch in the picture has only one normal switch on it. The wires in the pic are connected but the switch isn't live. It's an old picture

The switch down stairs has the red and blue together and the yellow on its own. The black does not connect to this switch.

I hope this helps.

You cannot connect your new lights to the switch because you need to connect the black wire to the neutral. There's no neutral in the switch.

Trace the cable with the black and res wires. It will go to either a joint box or a ceiling rose. When you look at the connections there, you will probably see the red wire connected to other red wires and the black wire to a single red or brown wire. This is the switch wire terminal. If it's not like that, tell us what you find.

If it is like I've described, you'll see a terminal with two or more black (or black and blue) wires in it. This is the neutral. Connect your lights to this neutral and to the switch wire terminal. Red or brown to the switch wire terminal, black or blue to the neutral.

Just looked in the loft and all the reds are connected together, the blacks together and the Earths together.

I can distinguish which are the ones going to lights and the ones to switches as they are visible.

Should I just call a sparky?

ahh that is why i asked what you had done. i wasn't sure how much knowledge you had and if little, then i needed to know where you had actually wired too.

like Stoday said, it's a common mistake for people to think they just need to wire to a switch.

now you have established a junction box all you need to do is: -

take a wire from that L/N/Earth to your new light fitting.
from the light fitting to the switch
make sure you mark which wire goes to the switch
in the new light, put both brown wires together, the blue from the junction box to the neutral of the light and the blue (sleeve it with brown)from the switch to the other side of the light fitting (it will depend on which light you are using as to which we say connect to)

at the switch, connect the brown to "C"
the blue (sleeve it with brown) to the "L1"

job done.