I am changing the light fitting in the bathroom and its wiring is on a loop system, the new fitting is not. I have had to call it a day and insultated the wires by taping like for like together and now none of my upstairs lights work. I take it this is because the loop wire system now is incomplete and so electicity is not reaching the other lights, please can someone confirm this. Also if i am replacing this light with a light fitting with a standard wiring system (terminal blocks) will this effect the rest of the lights or will they still work?

Tammey, April 2009

Yes, Tammey this is exactly what you have done - the loop in system goes from one light fitting to the next so the wiring that you see is in fact live even if the light is switched off. The wiring is like this...live and neutral come to the loop in rose on the ceiling and continue to the next one - so thats 4 in total. One of the negatives is tapped off directly to the bulb, but one live is tapped off to the wall switch and then returns to the bulb - only being live when the switch is on - so now thats 6 wires, not including the earths! Please take care here, and call a sparky in if you're not sure.

John, April 2009