Any sparkies out there?

Good afternoon all, I have a double light switch controling the ceiling light and two wall lights. I have disconnected and removed the live feed to the wall lights and now want to use a single switch for the ceiling light. My issue is where to put the all the cables from the double. 3 red at bottom left, one red at bottom right when looked at from above, there is also a red crossover from left to top right. All the neutrals are tied together in a seperate block.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

You'd probably get better responses here http://www.diynot.com/forums/ (although I completely re-wired my house before the Building Regs were changed to stop people from doing everything themselves), and suggest you include a pic of the wiring inside the switch. Were the wall lights part of the original electrical installation, or a later addition? Are the wall lights being removed and what about all the cabling associated with them that's, in addition to being buried in the walls, either in the first floor void or roofspace? (is that where you've removed the live feed to, back to a junction box?).

 

Hi @pip

When you say a double light switch, do you mean you have two light switches (in separate parts of the same room) which allows the lights to be switched on or off from any one of the switches?
Two way switching in essence.

 

Thanks for your replies, Scrungee, the lights were put in when the house was built and wired from the switch, all cables cut and left in wall, Dave, sorry about the wording,the switch plate has two gangs and the light is only operated from there

 

I did wonder myself about that but assumed that "double light switch" meant '2 gang single way light switch' controlling a ceiling light and pair of wall lights because there's only red and neutral (blue or black) cables described, but it's best to be completely sure with electrics, hence the suggestion of a pic.

 

Completely agree.
It will eliminate any misunderstandings.

 

do have pics but unable to upload as my home pc is dead and this work computer has restricted usage

 

Do you mean the live feed to the wall (& ceiling?) lights came from the live cable in the wall switch, rather than being fed from live cabling in the first floor void/roofspace and the wall switches are not just serving to 'break' the live connections in the ceiling rose/wall lights, but also to supply power to them? (could explain the number of cables).

P.S. Are your neutrals blue or black?

 

That's a bit of a sod (gardening term) then, so you can't just stick a USB card reader into your work's PC USB port?

P.S. You may be able to send a picture message to somebody who will post it for you.

 

unfortunately my home is goosed and this work pc has restricted capabilities, therefore, I can't upload pic at moment

 

will have to work a way around getting picture up

 

Are you able to do a sketch (even a hand drawn one then scanned in)?

 

Same issue as with as posting a pic. Perhaps @pip could get somebody else to put an image on Photobucket, Flickr, Dropbox. Google Images, etc.

 

Assuming the computer at work is Windows, you could use "Paint" then select the pencil and draw away, save it as a jpeg then upload it here.

 

Despite using good old basic 'Paint' all the time for loads of images posted on this forum, you beat me to it. All too often simplicity is overlooked. (also a great 'app' for screenshots with boxes, circles, arrows, etc.)