3 core & earth to 2 core & earth

[diynot]

Hi there. After a bit of advice please. Only reason I am not getting an electrician in is because my son is struggling with Asperger's at the moment, so just not able to let contractors in as he has meltdowns.

I am in the process of simply replacing an old light from underneath a stairwell. I didn't take pictures as I thought it would simply be twin and earth feed. It was only when I disconnected an old circular junction box that i realised it was 3 core. The kitchen strip light was terminated from the circular junction box (which in turn was connected to the 3 core, the cable run then goes to the 2nd floor) as was the old light under the stairwell. Both using twin and earth.

The 3 core is blue/yellow/red. I have used wago connectors to connect up as follows: -

Red on the 3 core to live on the 2 core
Yellow on the 3 core to neutral on the 2 core.
Blue on the 3 core is isolated to a wago connector and is not feeding anything else.
All earthed obviously & sheathed.

Originally I tried the blue on the 3 core to neutral on the 2 core which tripped the MCB.

Now, the pendant light with integral switch under the stairwell works. The kitchen light operated by a wall switch (connected with twin and earth) works. It is only when I switch the kitchen light on that the pendant light will switch off. So whereas before the kitchen light an stairwell light could both be used at the same time.

Any pointers would be gratefully received. The alternative of course is that I will have to wait for quite some time until I can let contractors back into the house.

Thank you.

 

[SparkyAndGeorge]

Can you put some photos up?

 

[buzzlightyear]

welcome ,me thinks the job needs sorting out by a competent spark .

 

[Risteard]

I think you should get an Electrician in. I appreciate the difficulty with your son but surely there must be a way.

 

[diynot]

Hello.

I've attached some pictures. You can see the cable running through the wall horizontally is to the kitchen switch for the kitchen strip light. It looks like the neutral is tagged as a switch live ? The pendant has a switch on the pendant itself. The cable running horizontally that is not terminated to anything is what I used to connect to the pendant. AS you can see from the wago's the 3 core blue is isolated to a wago & not connected to anything. The 3 core and earth is tucked just to the underside of the newel post to the top of the stairwell. From here it continues to the 2nd floor bathroom lights, which are looped to a bedroom light and so on. From what I can ascertain that is.

 

[diynot]

I think you should get an Electrician in. I appreciate the difficulty with your son but surely there must be a way.

Thanks. Extremely difficult. If I can't resolve then I will simply have to make it electrically safe and leave for a few months.

 

[littlespark]

best plan would be to draw out a diagram yourself and post that.
Don't guess which cables go where. Only ones youre sure of visually.
Have you any equipment to trace which cables are which when the power is isolated? A simple multimeter would suffice.
Using the "bang" test will eventually kill your MCB and you'll have another problem on your hands.

 

[telectrix]

it's only a hour's work.could you not take (or get as relati ve/friend to )your son to McDonalds for an hour?

 

[westward10]

I have deleted a couple of posts to stop further help with the diagram you put up. Sorry to say from the other pics you have put up you need an electrician in to fit the light and make those connections safe, we cannot give safe advice from here. Thread closed.