Loft light only on when landing light is on

[Nicko]

Morning all

I have recently ‘installed’ a loft light, with it’s own switch, using the Quickwire boxes.

I have ‘spliced’ off of the landing light and all works well... apart from that the landing light needs to be turned on for the loft light to be on.
It’s not a massive issue but I would like the loft light to be independent.

The landing light is part of a 2-way circuit (downstairs and upstairs switches).

Have I simply got a connection wrong somewhere?
Can anyone please advise?

Let me know if more information is required.

Thank you.

[SteelCamel]

Yes, you've apparently spliced into the switched feed rather then the permanent one.

What goes into the landing light fitting? If it's just a single cable - that's the wrong place to connect, the landing light is controlled from a junction box, which you will need to find. If there are multiple cables, then it's using the loop-in system, where the light is acting as the junction box.

There's a number of different ways to wire a light fitting but they all have the same basic idea. Once you've located the junction box (or fitting acting as a junction box), you'll need to identify the cables. One will go to the lamp itself - this is what you've tapped into, but isn't what you want, as it's only live when the light is on. One will go to the switch (the first switch for a two-way circuit) - or possibly two 3 core and earth cables, if the two-way switching also runs through the same junction box. Ignore the switch cables, there's no neutral (and the blue or black core should be marked with brown or red tape to indicate this). Then you should have one or two cables left - these are the permanent power cables, and these are the ones you need to connect to. There will be one if the landing light is the last light on the circuit, or two if the cable goes on to another light - maybe even three if the circuit branches here.

There's some useful information at http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/House_Wiring_for_Beginners (lighting is section 9), and http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/2_Way_Switching covers two-way switching.

[Nicko]

Thank you for the reply SteelCamel - and thanks for the links too!

I know what I need to do now, I just need to find the wire...

[GoSeigen]

Morning all

I have recently ‘installed’ a loft light, with it’s own switch, using the Quickwire boxes.

I have ‘spliced’ off of the landing light and all works well... apart from that the landing light needs to be turned on for the loft light to be on.

When I did our loft light I did it exactly like that -- so that if it was inadvertently left on it would only be burning when the landing light was also on. Two points though: the loft switch was in the loft space so not normally visible, and second, that was in the days of wasteful tungsten, not low-power LED lights...


GS