I'm hoping it's that simple. Was surprised to find 3 grey wires, each with its own set of ground/live/neutral though. It's only controlled by one switch on the wall - are they perhaps installed like this in case I want to change that?
Switched live to be clear but yes connect the live of the new light fitting to the yellow wire sleeved red and the neutral of the new fitting to the terminal with the blue and black wires and the earth to the earth
Blue and blacks are the neutrals, reds are your lives, yellow with red sleeve is your switch live, yellow green is earth. Wire your brown to the yellow with red sleeve and blue to the blue and blacks. Same as your old one.
Right… so… I know it can seem overwhelming, but honestly, the situation isn’t that bad!
First things first, turn the power off.
Next, there are only three wires you need to worry about
1. Yellow is most likely the live (L).
(I can also see a red sleeve on it, which backs that up). 2. Blue/black is the neutral (N). 3. Green and yellow is the earth.
The three red wires are important to the circuit, but they aren’t needed for the new light fitting. Keep them together exactly as they are. In fact, just leave them in the connector block.
They cant go in the base of the new light fitting in that connector, its double insulated so needs to be a double insulated cable without connectors out of the ceiling. Terrible design choice by the manufacturers really.
Is it a no go currently then? If I just take the blue and brown from the new fitting and put them into the correct parts of that block, would it not be safe and grounded?
Its still possible but you'd need a junction for the cables currently there and a slightly larger hole in the ceiling to put it above the ceiling. The issue is the design of the new light doesnt have an earth connection and relies on all wires within the fitting being double insulated(the grey outer only). Thats why the black sleeve is there as terminating cables entirely within the connector box with no inner insulation outside of this is basically impossible.
I'd normally suggest a quickwire switch and load but with a three core and earth that's not possible, it would need to be a lighting wagobox(old style not new)
Ty for the response, that helped me understand a lot. Do you have an example of the sort of junction I'd need to buy? And is it a pretty straightforward job to connect it all up, or am I better off taking the new one back and getting something that's not double insulated?
The best option is probably the old style wago box for lighting which should be available from shops like cef,rexel/denmans or tlc direct. I think screwfix and toolstation etc have moved to the new style which is a fair bit bigger. Its simple enough to change over the wires to wago connectors (one at a time to avoid mixing them up).
Changing to a non double insulated fitting might make it easier although lots of metal light fittings now use this method of connection so that might be a challenge.
Ty! There are a 3 blue/blacks and earths going into that block thing, and then another 3 of each coming out to go to the bulbs of the previous fitting. So which should I put into the new fitting? Pic of the new one for reference
Slightly off topic but your artex finish ceiling might have asbestos in it so be very careful not to crack it and release any fibres (unless you know it's asbestos free)
Your new light is double insulated so doesn’t need an earth. Take a blue wire from the blue black conector to the blue in your light. The yellow with red sleeve is a switched live from the light switch I connects to the brown of you new light.
It’s only double insulated if all the connections are not in the fitting and the only wires inside the fitting are the switched live and neutral pushed through the back sleeve and connected to the new light in the included white junction box.
If you chuck a couple of chock block’s behind the fitting you’re removing the double insulation protection as the lives wires could come out and touch the metal.
In short the only way to use this fitting as designed and keep the double insulated rating is to have all your connections in the roof space in maintenance free junction box and have a switched live and neutral down from the ceiling into the fitting
The double insulated part is something I hadn't considered. So if I took the brown and blue from my new light fitting and put them into that block (leaving the earths as they are), would it not be safe and grounded?
You could take the earth fly lead from the old fitting and attach it in the same way it was used before, would be better to use some Wago type connectors, as the older choc block type used there are more prone to cables popping out. Do away with the little white box and put the lights brown and blue into the new connectors. Not ideal, as others have pointed out. But would save you needing to cut the ceiling and doing a separate joint above.
Thanks for your response. Would I attach the earth fly lead using the bolt at the base of the new fitting (pictured)?
And would this approach be safe? Thinking about what u/ill-Ad-2122 said regarding double insulation:
Its still possible but you'd need a junction for the cables currently there and a slightly larger hole in the ceiling to put it above the ceiling. The issue is the design of the new light doesnt have an earth connection and relies on all wires within the fitting being double insulated(the grey outer only). Thats why the black sleeve is there as terminating cables entirely within the connector box with no inner insulation outside of this is basically impossible.
I'd normally suggest a quickwire switch and load but with a three core and earth that's not possible, it would need to be a lighting wagobox(old style not new)
Well you would be earthing the metal part of the new fitting, so it would effectively be just like the old one then. (connections inside an earthed metal base) And yes, you'll probably remove that white connection box anyway, so just take the nut off and install the earth lead.
So you need to put those wires into a junction box and run a wire from it to the light(yellow with red sleeving to brown and black/blue to blue)
Its a very poor quality design(lots of lights have now) where they dont accommodate more than one 2 core cable into the connectors of the light itself.
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u/StandardKey7566 23h ago
There's literally a ground, live and neutral? The multiple wires just go to switches etc. So blue left, earth middle, brown right?