New member - made a complete mess of installing light fitting!

[Pringy]

Hi I’m Paul I always thought I was reasonably competent at doing the easy stuff until yesterday when I tried to put a new light up, this is the first fitting I’ve tried since the house was rewired (by professionals, not me lol) and the wiring at the fitting seems to be some sort of loop. As you can see in the picture I have four brown (although two of them seem darker brown) two blue and two earths coming out of the ceiling. I twisted the two earths together and wired to the (metal) light fitting. I wired the two blue to my junction and took a blue to the light fitting. I wired the four brown to a junction but had to twist two together then took a brown to the light fitting. When I put the fuse back on the light is permanently on (light switch has no effect) but rest of lights on that floor are ok. Any ideas where I’m going wrong? It’s my sons room so I need to get it sorted sharpish! Thanks in advance. (Btw in the pic I’m aware the earth wire has come out the junction box!!)

 

[casperLennon]

Holy moly. That is horrible.

 

[casperLennon]

Keep the power off until you call an electrician to come and sort it for you

 

[SJD]

Firstly you cannot energize the circuit with the connections per the photo in exposed brass terminal blocks, which are dangerous. The connections need to be in insulated connector blocks (or Wago or similar connectors).

Nor can you energise the circuit with an earth disconnected, as you may leave another fitting in a dangerous state.

One of the cables appears to be twin brown, for the switch drop - one of these will be the switched live for the fitting in question.

 

[snowhead]

Yes, have to agree it looks a complete mess.
You need something better than the brass connectors to safely join the cables.

There's a cable with 2 browns, 1 goes to the the light the remaining 3 browns join together

 

[telectrix]

and we all thought the Titanic was a disaster.

 

[Simonslimline]

Literally a potential death trap! Turn off the power and call an electrician. ( Is this a wind up BTW?)

 

[telectrix]

Hi I’m Paul I always thought I was reasonably competent at doing the easy stuff until yesterday when I tried to put a new light up, this is the first fitting I’ve tried since the house was rewired (by professionals, not me lol) and the wiring at the fitting seems to be some sort of loop. As you can see in the picture I have four brown (although two of them seem darker brown) two blue and two earths coming out of the ceiling. I twisted the two earths together and wired to the (metal) light fitting. I wired the two blue to my junction and took a blue to the light fitting. I wired the four brown to a junction but had to twist two together then took a brown to the light fitting. When I put the fuse back on the light is permanently on (light switch has no effect) but rest of lights on that floor are ok. Any ideas where I’m going wrong? It’s my sons room so I need to get it sorted sharpish! Thanks in advance. (Btw in the pic I’m aware the earth wire has come out the junction box!!)
View attachment 46783

gave you a dislike. not for the post, but for that -----'s abortion in the pic.

 

[westward10]

Welcome to the forum Pringy. I am afraid there is only one course of action and that is to seek the services of an electrician. Assuming the mounting plate is correctly fixed it will not take long to connect and test.

 

[Strima]

OMFG...

 

[littlespark]

Yeh I know.... light fitting from Ikea.... what were you thinking?

Seriously though, that is dangerous, I’m surprised it hasn’t gone bang yet.

Turn all the power off, remove the light and connectors and replace with insulated ones. Leave it alone until a professional can come and sort it.

 

[Pringy]

Hi all thanks. You’ve scared me enough to get my electrician back in. Those brass blocks were in the old fitting. Will disconnect it all now and wait for my electrician to be free.

By the way I didn’t choose that picture it just put it on automatically!

Cheers
Pringy

 

[Darkwood]

It seems our obvious shock to this very dangerous mess has raised your concerns enough to bring a competent person in to resolve this which is the best and safest course of action.

I do not understand what you mean when you say 'you didn't choose this photo' ... Can we clarify this is a picture of your light fitting under discussion here?
If that is the case then you must have accidentally tagged or uploaded it as there is no other way we could view this picture unless you had done so.

 

[solarsavings]

I can't believe no one has asked what scheme you're registered with.

 

[Andy78]

That could have been a very nasty situation when energised. I have seen the exact same situation before where uninsulated brass blocks were used inside an unearthed metal fitting.
Gave a certain electrician I know a bit of a wake up call when taking the fitting down with the circuit still energised.

Thank god you couldn't get it to work !

 

[rsgaz]

you didn't choose this photo

I think he means the avatar pic.

 

[ipf]

That could have been a very nasty situation when energised. I have seen the exact same situation before where uninsulated brass blocks were used inside an unearthed metal fitting.
Gave a certain electrician I know a bit of a wake up call when taking the fitting down with the circuit still energised.

Thank god you couldn't get it to work !

He couldn't get it to switch off......Gawd knows what would have happened if the light hadn't been on!...sticky fingers with that lot?

 

[Aline78]

Hi, as a newbie to the forum (been a lurker for a while) this was literally my first thread I looked at and have to say it’s made me feel a whole lot better about my own competence, think the best advice on that one is already up there☝

 

[Rpa07]

Welcome Aline78 - it all gets reset at midnight 31st Please look into this light!
Enjoy the 18th edition forum

 

[Aline78]

Thanks rpa07, think I’ll dive into the trainee forum before I get beat up in the 18th edition forum