IKEA light fitting has 2 wires. White and blue. Which is live and which is neutral?

[Swophia]

Hi there.
I’m trying to put a new ceiling light in that’s from IKEA but it has a blue wire and a white wire. How do I know which is live and which is neutral please?

Also can I check that I am going to do this correctly. The current ceiling rose has like maybe 6 wires all connected to a black plastic bit (technical talk ?) and the light wire has 1 brown wire and 1 blue wire that are are screwed into that. My plan is to disconnect the blue and brown wires and replace them with these wires on my IKEA light, live into where the brown was and neutral into where I remove the blue wire from. Is that correct?

Just need to know which is which out of these white and blue wires on the IKEA light are which.

What will happen if I do them the wrong way? Will it just not work or is it very dangerous?

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[brianmoooore]

The problem is that most of these "fashion" lights are not designed to be compatible with what was, until very recently. the most common way in the UK of wiring lighting circuits.
If your light has a blue wire and a white wire, with no other markings, there's a possibility it's not even strictly legal for use in the UK.
If your light is of such a design that it will fit completely over the existing ceiling rose, with its cover in place and the flex coming out of it, and the new fitting is double insulated (a symbol on it somewhere consisting of one square inside another square) then you can remove the lampholder from the existing flex and connect that to your blue and white wires. Blue to blue and white to brown, although it probably doesn't matter which way around.
If it won't fit over the complete existing rose, then this is beyond DIY capabilities, and you should employ an electrician to fit it.

 

[Swophia]

Thank you so much. I inspected the light really closely and there was a really faint N and L!! N where the blue wire was and L where the white one was. I felt very stupid once I’d found this, I’ve been hunting the internet for about an hour! I’ve rigged it all up and it seems to be working. It is an IKEA light bought from this country. Annoyingly I didn’t pay attention to the colouring when I took it off the previous ceiling, I was expecting it to be like for like. Anyway. All sorted now I think. If it works it’s all good right?

Thanks for your swift reply.

 

[brianmoooore]

If it works it’s all good right?

Most definitely not! If it doesn't work, then it's not good, but the converse does not apply.
The art of being an electrician is to install electrics, not so much as to work, but to fail. Getting it to work is easy, but the skill comes in considering every possible thing and combination of things that could go wrong during the lifetime of the installation, and making sure it presents no danger of fire or electrocution, whatever happens.
Is this a double insulated fitting? Did you leave the existing ceiling rose in place? Is the fitting made of metal?

 

[Swophia]

Thank you so much. I inspected the light really closely and there was a really faint N and L!! N where the blue wire was and L where the white one was. I felt very stupid once I’d found this, I’ve been hunting the internet for about an hour! I’ve rigged it all up and it seems to be working. It is an IKEA light bought from this country. Annoyingly I didn’t pay attention to the colouring when I took it off the previous ceiling, I was expecting it to be like for like. Anyway. All sorted now I think. Is it works it’s all good right?

Thanks for your swift reply.

Most definitely not! If it doesn't work, then it's not good, but the converse does not apply.
The art of being an electrician is to install electrics, not so much as to work, but to fail. Getting it to work is easy, but the skill comes in considering every possible thing and combination of things that could go wrong during the lifetime of the installation, and making sure it presents no danger of fire or electrocution, whatever happens.
Is this a double insulated fitting? Did you leave the existing ceiling rose in place? Is the fitting made of metal?

I left the existing rose as it was. The old light had brown and blue wires going into that rose. I unscrewed these two wires and put my new wires where I took those from. Live to live, neutral to neutral. I left all the other wires in the rose as they were. The new light is plastic on outside, it has a metal rod that hangs from a metal hook in the ceiling. All of this in hidden. It is a ceiling light so not anything that will be handled. Thanks for your help by the way, really appreciated.

 

[brianmoooore]

What you've done seems fine. There looks to be plenty of room for the existing ceiling rose inside that fitting.
We get plenty of posts similar to yours on here, where the bit of the light that screws to the ceiling is too shallow to accommodate the rose, so the joints to the existing wires have to be remade elsewhere, and thiis is where it gets complicated.