installing new ceiling lights

murfilein · 03-10-2022 10:29am #1

i want to replace some ceiling lights we currently have in our house

its those dangling ones that you can attach a shade to, see the image:

2022-10-03_102200.png

thankfully before ordered the new lights, i removed the cover, and was surprised to see this. what the hell is all this? i expected just a wire to come out of the ceiling.

this is the light i wanted to install: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082HKCJW8

its supposed to sit flush with the ceiling. how would i go about installing this with the wiring we have right now? what even is that, why are there so many cables coming out? the circle base is like 5 mm high, which obviously doesnt work with the light i want to install. there are screws at the base so i could remove it, but i still wouldnt know what to do with all the stuff thats coming out the hole there.

hope someone can give me a hint on how to do this, or if its even possible without too much hassle...

awec · 03-10-2022 10:38am

That's standard, it's just a normal ceiling rose. You remove it.

Unwire it, then unscrew it from the ceiling, and you'll be left with wires hanging from the ceiling.

There's more than 1 wire because the lights are in a loop. You need to connect all the wires to your new light, otherwise you will find that other lights on the same circuit will not work. The easiest way to do this is to use something like a wago (which will let you combine 2/3/4 live/neutral/earths into 1 live/neutral/earth, which is easier to wire into your new light fitting).

All that said, if you are not confident in what you are doing here, hire an electrician.

murfilein · 03-10-2022 2:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695017#Comment_119695017

thanks for your reply!

the point of the exercise is that i want to learn how to do stuff myself in my house. i dont want to rely on professionals to do mundane tasks. i recently replaced a regular wall plug with one that also has a usb port, which is nice and surprisingly easy. and just yesterday i replaced a tap in a bathroom.

i know which breaker to use to get rid of electricity upstairs where i want to replace the lights, its just that i have never done that particular thing myself.

i know what a wago is, but is there a procedure to follow? some only tutorial i could have a look at that shows this situation that i am facing?

the arrangement of the cables looks kinda random to me right now. 8 slots, 2 groups of 3 slots and 1 part with 2 slots, but only 7 are used. and the second from left in the image even has 2 wires going in for some reason?

2022-10-03_140443.png

only the most left (brown, possibly green) wire and the most right, a blue cable go down to the bulb.

hhow do i group the rest? just all into 1 wago and a brown/green and blue to the new lamp?

awec · 03-10-2022 2:55pm

I believe you'll need to keep the blocks separate, so you'll want to mark the 2 browns before you disconnect them so you know they're separate to the 3 browns.

But as for how it wire it up on the new light, that's beyond my ability so will leave someone more knowledgable to answer that one. You might get better luck in the Electrical forum if nobody else replies here.

The Continental Op · 03-10-2022 3:34pm

Its fairly logical. From your picture the two brown cables on the left go to the positive terminal on the new light (obviously minus the third brown which goes to the pendant) and similarly the two blue cables on the right go to the negative terminal. The two brown wires in the middle are joined to each other. The yellow and green covered wireds goes to an earth terminal if there is one in the new fitting.

Remove the wires to the pendant first then you have two less to worry about.

murfilein · 03-10-2022 4:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696344#Comment_119696344

i dont quite understand what you mean with pendant.

this is the image they have for installation on the new light:

2022-10-03_164926.png

the brown and blue wires for postive and negative are easy enough, that seems to be the only thing thats required according to these instructions. but what about the other browns and blues that are not shown in the instruction? do i just put them in the wago as they are right now? in that way i would get two 3 terminal wagos and one two terminal wago and replicate the setup that i have now... is that correct? (or i guess two 2 terminal wagos as the center 3 terminal group only uses 2 terminals anyway)

The Continental Op · 03-10-2022 5:02pm

The pendant is the light bulb fitting it hangs down like a pendant.

Look at it another way. If you were replacing the hanging down bit and leaving the ceiling rose connector you would just cut the bulb holder off and connect the two wires and then add an extra wire for the earth.

You can't do that so you have to replicate the connections in the ceiling rose in the new light. So all you need are the wagos you listed above.

awec · 03-10-2022 8:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696626#Comment_119696626

Yes, you use the wago to connect the wires together.

So for the 3 live wires on the left, you put the 2 lives coming from the ceiling into a wago, and then you connect a 3rd live from the same wago into your new light fitting. Then do the same for the neutrals. The 2 lives in the middle just need connected into a wago, but not connected to the light. And then connect the earth to the light.

In order to connect your new light fitting to the wagos you're going to need a small bit of cable, as this won't come with the light. Unless you want to keep it you can probably just take this from the pendant you are removing.

The actual wiring of this up is easy, it will take you longer to fix the light to the ceiling than it will to wire it.

ted1 · 03-10-2022 9:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697426#Comment_119697426

Is there a second light of this ?

There appears to 2 switch lives .

murfilein · 11-10-2022 4:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697521#Comment_119697521

sorry for the late reply.

yes there i a second light one floor down, both turn on and off at the same time. there are 2 light switches, one on the one pictured and one at the floor below at the other light, an again, both switches turn on/off both lights.

jumbone · 13-10-2022 6:55pm

I wouldn't be taking advice from any of the posters talking about positives and negatives...

Good explainer for 3 plate wiring here - https://flameport.com/electric/lighting_circuits/lighting_ceiling_rose.cs4

Or a video (which I haven't watched) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOy486TUtHY

This is on a landing isn't it? Then make sure you switch off power for the whole house, not just the upstairs lights as there is a strong chance of a 'borrowed neutral' - this is where the light is connected to both the upstairs and downstairs circuits

murfilein · 17-10-2022 3:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119740575#Comment_119740575

thank you!

installing new ceiling lights

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