Radial lighting not used in new build home

[paul foggon]

Hi,

My son had a water leak last night in his upstairs bathroom which resulted in the water pouring through a couple of the downstairs ceiling roses. In order to rectify the situation we turned off the power to the downstairs lighting circuit and removed the covers and pendants in order to fully dry them out.

The ceiling roses are now perfectly dry and we have reinstalled the pendants and covers and all is fine but when the covers were off we noticed that only two wires were being fed into the ceiling roses and therefore the lighting does not appear to be using a radial circuit.

While the power was off we checked all the other lights downstairs and the same thing was noticed. Is this normal for a house built in 2013 or should a radial circuit have been used?

 

[Silly Sausage]

Probably wired up using this method: Surewire - Pre-wired Maintenance Free Lighting Junction Boxes - https://www.surewire.co.uk/
or similar.

 

[Pete999]

Most likely wired as a radial, looping in and out at the switches instead of at the lights.

 

[FatAlan]

Have a look at some diagrams of lighting circuits and what a radial circuit is. What do you mean by only two wires? Is it just one T&E to each ceiling rose with a live and neutral? As Pete above.

 

[paul foggon]

Have a look at some diagrams of lighting circuits and what a radial circuit is. What do you mean by only two wires? Is it just one T&E to each ceiling rose with a live and neutral? As Pete above.

Yes just a single T+E entering the ceiling rose controlled from the switch.

 

[telectrix]

if you look in back of a switch, you'll probablty fin 2 blue cores connected in a choc block or wago, not connected to the switch. some switches, notably hager, have a terminal for the N's.

 

[Pete999]

if you look in back of a switch, you'll probablty fin 2 blue cores connected in a choc block or wago, not connected to the switch. some switches, notably hager, have a terminal for the N's.

Agree with Tel, it's as I said looped in and out at the switch to provide a Neutral at switch position, to enable possible smart switches that require a Neutral connection.

 

[FatAlan]

if you look in back of a switch, you'll probablty fin 2 blue cores connected in a choc block or wago, not connected to the switch. some switches, notably hager, have a terminal for the N's.

And if you do .... if you look at previous threads on here about smart switching you can consider yourself very fortunate to have the neutrals available at your switches

 

[telectrix]

down side being no perm.L at the light. e'g . if quinetic switches are considered. my solution as from 3 months ago, is to loop at either lights or switches, but install 3C/E between switch and light. spare conductor wago'd until/if required.

 

[Toneyz]

Most likely wired as a radial, looping in and out at the switches instead of at the lights.

I think Pete has summed it up the circuit has been fed in and out of the switches with a feed out to each light. This way of wiring has become very popular with electricians as it makes it easier to connect up decorative light fittings.

 

[Toneyz]

down side being no perm.L at the light. e'g . if quinetic switches are considered. my solution as from 3 months ago, is to loop at either lights or switches, but install 3C/E between switch and light. spare conductor wago'd until/if required.

I would go for feeding switches and a 3 core+e to light.

 

[chris gray]

Tbh this is how I generally 1st fix as a rule. Makes 2nd fix miles easier