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Electrical

putting up wall lights in my living room

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.28 PM

Hi all, i'm a girl who likes to 'have a go at some DIY but i don't want to do anything dangerous!!! my mum brought me 2 new lights to go on the wall in my living rm. there's nothing there at the moment except the end of the grey wire for the houses main electrics with the earth/live and neutral in a connecter(?) -its covered over with a ugly flat white piece of plastic that looks like a plug with nothing on it. the lights ive got say they shouldn't have an earth attached to them but the live & neutral from the wall are no way long enough to go into where they need to in the light fitting. a friend says i just need to get a brown and blue "10 amp single core conduit" wire from screwfix and use this to attach where the live & neutral need to go into the lights to the white block (connecter??) that's in the wall - matching up to the brown and the blue?!? Is this right?? is there anything else i need to do other than obviously turning the power off before i do it!!!! Thank you everyone, Louise xXx

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4 Answers

Anonymous user

With all due respect having a go at DIY is great, but electrical work should only be undertaken if you are competent. Whilst your job is straightforward I wouldn’t give you advice on how to do it. A decent sparks will do it in no time as a quick fill in job.

Answered31 December 2019

RP Electrical

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Hull

Hi, You just need a small (approx 1metre) 1.5mm twin and earth (T&E) cable. Check that the original circuit is from the lighting circuit before connecting and that the lighting circuit is on a 6amp fuse on your consumer unit. But basically... all you have to do is take a small piece of the T&E, stripped out the single cable (brown, blue) (throw the copper away as thats the earth) and attach one end in to each corresponding connector block in the circuit and then your lights. PLEASE make sure that the power is turned off and that you are using the exisiting lighting circuit. Ideally though, if you are not confident or sure then please call a qualified electrician for your safety and others. Many thanks, Ross

Answered31 December 2019

FRNP ELECTRICAL SERVICES

Rating: 5 out of 5

Clacton On Sea

I would not advise anyone that isn't trained in ELECTRICAL work to work on any house hold electrics

Answered31 December 2019

Anonymous user

RP Electrical have given a good answer above but please, please make sure the circuit is not live before touching any of it. Best do it with a friend checking your every move. You should purchase a reliable means of testing for a live mains circuit and test that it works correctly (ie indicates live for live and not when dead) before you do anything else. Make sure you have enough light to work in once the mains lighting circuit is turned off. Tell everyone in the property first what you are going to do. Switch off the relevant breaker, put some tape over the switch to remind anyone not to turn it back on, test that the outlet you are looking to modify is dead. Once it is and your happy with that, you may proceed. This is so important! You may not get a second chance!

Answered1 January 2020