I have changed a light fitting & as its in the bathroom I believe its the end of the loop. I have already removed the wires 3 red 3 blue & 3green/yellow. It works but wont switch off. What do I do?

Graham, April 2008

16th and 17th edition wiring regulations advocate simplistic wiring to include DIY I personally do not. There are two systems that can be found in households, that would be 2 plate or 3 plate of which both can work together however I would deem bad practice. Today 3 plate is the recognised discipline for all to follow making it clear for any electrician to follow after initial installation.

In simple terms an end of line consists of 4 wires; live and neutral feed and a link from the live down to the switch and a return cable. Sometimes cables are not properly identified.

In this case your light remains on; for legal reasons that would be placed on me I am not at liberty to try and expain, in other words you cannot learn to Ski from a book.

Take advice but better still have an electrician sort it out and give a fair assessment on all your household wiring.

Regards

Julian, May 2008

PS
If its got 3 cables its not the end of the run.

If you ARE in the uk you may be breaking partp of the building regs by doing this.

Regards Again

Steve, April 2008

I will assuume you are in the uk.
I dont know what cables you have as they are the wrong colours to be correct uk spec.
You should either have red & Black and earth or if new harmonised colours Brown & Blue and earth.
Is this flex or cable.
Having said all this your problem is a wrongly connected switch line almost certainly.
If and only if the colours anything like conform you should put all the reds together in a connector and tape them up.Your switch line will be one of the blues......has one got a red sleeve on it?

Get an electrician is my final word.
Regards

Steve, April 2008