Additional ceiling light

Yorky

Does anyone know how to wire up an additional ceiling light, independently switched from the other one? At present there is a single ceiling pendant with a single wall switch.

There is a loft above the room so it should be possible to feed another wire down the cable conduit for switching it on and off. I want to fit a two-gang switch in place of the exisiting one-gang.

The existing pendant fitting has a live connected to a single live feed and a neutral connected to two neutral feeds.The 'loop' section of the fitting has two live (brown) wires connected to it.

Therefore, can anyone help with the following:

Which cables feeding the exisiting pendant should the new pendant be taken from?

How should the cable to the new two gang light switch be configured at each end to allow independent switching?

Thanks in advance for any detailed replies.

batman2000

In all honestly....If your unsure about this kind electrical work best to get a spark...

Stoner

Ok advice as above, don't do it if this sounds in any way difficult.

but if i was doing it the first thing i would do is make sure that i knew how to turn the power off.

Once again if this sounds in any way beyond you don't do it.

Anyway this is how i would approach it.

First I'd establish if I had permanent live at the light switch, I'd do this by checking with a phase tester, I'd look for the live that lights the phase tester regardless of the position of the switch, one live cable will turn the phase tester on and off with your light bulb, the other should be on all the time.

Once this is established ,I'd turn the power off at the MCB board, check it is "dead " at the switch and at the pendant with your phase tester. (check all cables note the neutral cables may cause a dim light on the phase tester this is not the same as the bright light you get at the brown permanent cables.)

I'd mark these two cables with a marker so I'd know the switch and feed wires later

then in the attic I'd simply need to link a neutral cable (Grey outside, blue inside 1.5.sq.mm PVC/PVC ) from the pendant over to your new light position, bring an earth cable with this if it is present at the existing pendant.

I would not connect anything until I had all the cables installed.

then I'd bring a switch wire(Grey outside, brown inside 1.5.sq.mm PVC/PVC ) from from the new pendant position to the existing light switch.

I'd feed the new live down the existing route to the existing light switch as per the linked instructions below.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055135432

I'd go to the new pendant position (making sure I had decent grounds for the new light, cut some 4x2 wood if necessary and fix beteen the joists in the attic)I'd connect the new brown cable to the brown terminal, the earth and the blue to the blue.

Then I'd move to the light switch point

I'd get a two gang light switch, I'd get a small piece of brown 1.5.sq.mm cable and link the two "common" terminals

I'd connect the new switch Grey brown cable into L1 and the old switch cable (marked with a marker) into L2

Then I'd connect the existing feed cable into either common terminal on the light switch.

Now I'd check all the connections are sound, give them a little shake, look for butchered copper at the terminals, I might have damaged the termination end of the cables when stripping them, if I noticed anything that looks dodgy or ringed I'd repair it or fix it, do it again etc.

I'd stick a bulb in the new fitting and power up the MCB at the board, check the light , it should work, if it does I'd turn it off at the MCB again and screw up the pendant and the light switch. Then power up the MCB again

Once again if this sounds beyond you then don't do it, this is a DIY forum we are assuming that you have some knowledge of what you are doing, if this sounds difficult then don't do it.

Best of luck with it.