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Hello, new member here with little elec knowledge and a mystery regarding our outside light. Our house is quite old and the wiring is, shall we say, non-standard. We replaced the old light a few weeks ago. It worked fine but was old. There was an indoor switch for it just inside the back door.
When I removed the old light it had 2 live red wires and 2 neutral blue wires going into an old 2-part wiring block in the light. So, unless I'm mistaken, there were two red wires going into the same hole in the wiring block and a single red one coming out into the bulb fitting. Same for neutral. I think the two yellow earth were unconnected.
I tried connecting both live, both neutral and both earth into the new light. When I turned the mains back on the bulb lit up but it would not go off when I switched the indoor switch on and off. The switch had worked fine on the previous light. So we had the bulb permanently on unless we just unscrewed the bulb.
Thinking the two wires meant there were two switches, we tried all the other indoor switches but with no success.
Then, thinking that perhaps 3 of the wires came straight from the mains with no switch, we tried detaching one of the live and one of the neutrals in different combinations. We found that the light only went one with one of the pairs of live and neutral - let's call them Live A and Neutral A. Both B wires, or either A/B combos failed to light the bulb.
On paper it seems the switch is the problem but it worked fine with the old light and we haven't touched it.
Any suggestions? Many thanks!
When I removed the old light it had 2 live red wires and 2 neutral blue wires going into an old 2-part wiring block in the light. So, unless I'm mistaken, there were two red wires going into the same hole in the wiring block and a single red one coming out into the bulb fitting. Same for neutral. I think the two yellow earth were unconnected.
I tried connecting both live, both neutral and both earth into the new light. When I turned the mains back on the bulb lit up but it would not go off when I switched the indoor switch on and off. The switch had worked fine on the previous light. So we had the bulb permanently on unless we just unscrewed the bulb.
Thinking the two wires meant there were two switches, we tried all the other indoor switches but with no success.
Then, thinking that perhaps 3 of the wires came straight from the mains with no switch, we tried detaching one of the live and one of the neutrals in different combinations. We found that the light only went one with one of the pairs of live and neutral - let's call them Live A and Neutral A. Both B wires, or either A/B combos failed to light the bulb.
On paper it seems the switch is the problem but it worked fine with the old light and we haven't touched it.
Any suggestions? Many thanks!