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- Nov 28, 2009
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This mornings job. "My outside light is stuck on"
Simple, almost certainly a PIR light with a duff sensor, should be a simple swap. WRONG
See the picture for what I found. Yes indeed a faulty PIR light, but look how it's wired.
A 1mm t&e comes out of the wall, (fed from the FCU that feeds the boiler timeclock). you have to admire the craftsmanship involved in running it up the wall, along the soffit, round behind the gutter and into the light.
But wait a minute, there's two cables into the light. The other one comes out of the light, back behind the gutter, along the soffit a bit further and feeds into the conservatory for a light there as well.
First hurdle. Isolate the circuit. Newish CU nothing labelled. So I go along turning each mcb off in turn, but nothing turns off the feed to the FCU. So I start turning them off and leaving them off. What I found was the (only) ring final had each end fed from a separate 32A MCB. That wouldn't have been very clever in the event of a fault and needed both 32A mcb's to be turned off to isolate. So having verified ring continuity on all conductors and IR, I have a ring final on one MCB and I can isolate to make alterations.
So I re wire it all, putting the outside cabling in conduit (with much less outside anyway), and putting the PIR light on it's own circuit with it's own switch.
Job sorted as well as possible. About to pack up. "oh can you look at this kitchen light that stopped working"
Lighting wired loop at light, power to light but no return from switch. Uncsrew switch for a look. wire snapped off from switch. But hold on why so many wires? Obviously not wanting to use a black for SL, and not having any sleeving, it's wired with two t&e cables one feeding the switch and one for switched live back to the light. Both neutrals were connected to neutral at the light fitting, and both neutrals, unterminated, were just floating around inside the switch back box. And did I mention he had used an intermediate switch as a simple on/off switch.
This is one of those houses where you get a feeling that whatever you look at, is going to be wrong somehow. I did suggest to the owner I do a PIR, but she declined, having already spent a lot more than she expected for a "simple" faulty outside light.
I have a feeling that's not the last I have seen of that house
Simple, almost certainly a PIR light with a duff sensor, should be a simple swap. WRONG
See the picture for what I found. Yes indeed a faulty PIR light, but look how it's wired.
A 1mm t&e comes out of the wall, (fed from the FCU that feeds the boiler timeclock). you have to admire the craftsmanship involved in running it up the wall, along the soffit, round behind the gutter and into the light.
But wait a minute, there's two cables into the light. The other one comes out of the light, back behind the gutter, along the soffit a bit further and feeds into the conservatory for a light there as well.
First hurdle. Isolate the circuit. Newish CU nothing labelled. So I go along turning each mcb off in turn, but nothing turns off the feed to the FCU. So I start turning them off and leaving them off. What I found was the (only) ring final had each end fed from a separate 32A MCB. That wouldn't have been very clever in the event of a fault and needed both 32A mcb's to be turned off to isolate. So having verified ring continuity on all conductors and IR, I have a ring final on one MCB and I can isolate to make alterations.
So I re wire it all, putting the outside cabling in conduit (with much less outside anyway), and putting the PIR light on it's own circuit with it's own switch.
Job sorted as well as possible. About to pack up. "oh can you look at this kitchen light that stopped working"
Lighting wired loop at light, power to light but no return from switch. Uncsrew switch for a look. wire snapped off from switch. But hold on why so many wires? Obviously not wanting to use a black for SL, and not having any sleeving, it's wired with two t&e cables one feeding the switch and one for switched live back to the light. Both neutrals were connected to neutral at the light fitting, and both neutrals, unterminated, were just floating around inside the switch back box. And did I mention he had used an intermediate switch as a simple on/off switch.
This is one of those houses where you get a feeling that whatever you look at, is going to be wrong somehow. I did suggest to the owner I do a PIR, but she declined, having already spent a lot more than she expected for a "simple" faulty outside light.
I have a feeling that's not the last I have seen of that house
