electricallightingwiring
I'm trying to replace the hanging light below and I've gotten a little confused. Shouldn't the brown wire on the left be connected to the live (red) wires rather than the neutral? I understand that the black wires on the right are connected to the blue wire, both are neutral so that makes sense. The same goes for the earth wires. I just can't understand why it is wired in this way and how it even works?!?! Can someone clarify this for me?
go get an LED voltage detector. They're less than about $20 US, and it'll light up when it gets near the hot. And won't light up near the neutral...
In the UK colours are as follows
old UK colours newer EU colours
live red brown
neutral black blue
earth green green/yellow
The switched-live from switches is often insulated with the neutral colour (e.g. black) and should have red tape over it to indicate it is switched-live not neutral.
Your problem is that, to make sense of wiring, you need to carefully study the wiring before you remove a fitting and make sure you understand how it works. It can be difficult to do this after the wires have been removed from the fitting.
In some cases, a lot of the electrical wiring is done inside the casing for long fluorescent light tubes. This can include wiring for other light fittings in other parts of the room or in other rooms.
The problem is at some stage there were two switches for the light
Typical UK 2-way switch wiring is as follows
The image shows a pendant light, but the same principle applies for a fluorescent light. In your case you have the old-colour wiring for the fixed wiring in the walls, nopt the new colours shown here.
The earth wires here are shown green but they are often bare copper - the installer should have added a green/yellow sleeve to them.
Note that you do not connect all the neutral wires together and you do not connect all the live wires together.
If you need more detailed help, take a clear well-lit well-focussed photo of the wiring at the ceiling - and of the wiring behind the associated switches. Edit the question to insert the photos (or insert URLs to public websites where you uploaded the photos)
Best Answer
The cable on the left runs to the switch. Power comes in from one of the two other cables via red, runs down the red of the switch cable to the switch. When the switch is closed, power runs back along the black and into the light via the brown. Goes thru the lamp into the blue, which connects to the common neutral black of the other two cables.
Switch legs can be confusing because the neutral coloured wire carries power back the the switched fixture. All is as it should be though.