Don't usually get involved in this sort of thing, but a neighbour collared
me on the way in from work.

Her kitchen ceiling light has been flickering recently and her husband had a
'look' at the switch. Now the ceiling light doesn't work. Might of course
be nothing to do with him at all.

Light not on, no power to fitting at all. Bulbs OK, switch operates
properly.

Two gang switch on the wall, one switch operates an under cabinet light
which works fine. The other side should operate the ceiling light.

Inside the switch are three cables;

Cable A has the red to Common terminal, black to One Way terminal on the
ceiling switch.

Cable B has the red to Common terminal on cabinet switch, black joined to
black on Cable C.

Cable C has the red to One Way terminal on cabinet switch, black joined to
black from Cable B.

Checking for continuity in the ceiling rose (only two wires) the black cable
in the switch connects to the red in the rose, the joined neutrals in the
switch connect to black wire in rose.

Having disconnected the switch I checked all the wires for power against the
joined neutrals. Only the red from cable B was live.

If it's something simple or her husband has twiddled where he shouldn't I
will sort it out for her, so any advice appreciated.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Don't usually get involved in this sort of thing, but a neighbour
collared me on the way in from work.

Her kitchen ceiling light has been flickering recently and her husband
had a 'look' at the switch. Now the ceiling light doesn't work. Might
of course be nothing to do with him at all.

Light not on, no power to fitting at all. Bulbs OK, switch operates
properly.

Two gang switch on the wall, one switch operates an under cabinet light
which works fine. The other side should operate the ceiling light.

Inside the switch are three cables;

Cable A has the red to Common terminal, black to One Way terminal on the
ceiling switch.

So a standard switch drop.

Cable B has the red to Common terminal on cabinet switch, black joined
to black on Cable C.

Cable C has the red to One Way terminal on cabinet switch, black joined
to black from Cable B.

That has a separate feed probably from the CU where the neutral is joined
inside the switch - quite common where you can't easily access the
lighting circuit above.

Checking for continuity in the ceiling rose (only two wires) the black
cable in the switch connects to the red in the rose, the joined
neutrals in the switch connect to black wire in rose.

Having disconnected the switch I checked all the wires for power against
the joined neutrals. Only the red from cable B was live.

If it's something simple or her husband has twiddled where he shouldn't
I will sort it out for her, so any advice appreciated.

If there are only the two wires at the ceiling rose there will be a
junction box elsewhere and it sounds like that isn't supplying the line to
the switch.

--
*Succeed, in spite of management *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.