Bought a new LED strip light to replace an old fluorescent light. After removing the old light I'm left with 3 grey cables coming from the ceiling.There are 3 copper ground wires are all sleeved into a single cable, 3 red wires ending in a connector, and 3 loose black wires (see diagram and photos below). There are 2 switches to operate the old light.
How would I go about connecting the the old wires to the new LED light which has just a brown L, green/yellow and blue N cable using a connector?
The biggest problem I'm having is identifying which is the live wire as it isn't marked and I don't own a multi-meter or voltage tester. Would it be possible to trial and error which wire is live after I figure out how it is wired, would this cause any damage to anything (LED light) or would it simply flip the breaker?
Best Answer
That looks like standard UK wiring using older colours.
You should really go out and buy a voltage tester but you can make up a test lamp with a pendant lamp-holder and a low-wattage bulb.
The lamp holder can be obtained from many stores. Alternatively you probably have one somewher in your home or in a garage that you can temporarily borrow.
The lamp holder has a bayonet socket (or Edison-screw socket) at one end for the light-bulb and at the other end, under a screw-off cover, has two screw-terminals for wire connections.
Your wiring works like this, note that one of the black wires is a switched live. Connecting that to the other blacks will blow your fuse or trip your breaker when you turn the light on, so don't connect the blacks together yet.
Step one is to identify which cable comes from the consumer unit. We are only concerned with the black (neutral) wires.
Step two is to work out which of the other black wires is a switched live.
Finally connect the spare black wire to the black wire that comes from the main panel (consumer unit)
Before starting, I recommend you read the answers to