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Any sparks who can give advice?


JustaTwist
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Need to replace the light switch in the living room, thought it would be as simple as taking the old one off and putting the new one on by copying where the wires went in the last one....if only!


The back of the old one and back of the new one look different so don’t want to take a chance and put the wires in the wrong place but also don’t want to get an electrician out to do it because it’s such a “small job”.


Anyway old socket looks like

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New one looks like




And the old wiring looks like this

 

CF9AE91F-B820-4E4D-B1D7-060BE5666AF2.thumb.jpeg.3d0768b32e25b368e3ed84b88e2054bd.jpeg

 

Can anyone give me some help?

84D96F79-EBA8-490F-AC1C-95B89CA81C73.thumb.jpeg.074da4b2c0ed806b1d9ad365ab86cda4.jpeg

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Sorry mate but if you're struggling with that you have no business doing it. There are only "small jobs" if you know what you are doing.

 

I just wasn’t sure whether an electrician would bother coming out just for that to be honest. I’m more than happy to leave it to the professionals :thumb:

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I just wasn’t sure whether an electrician would bother coming out just for that to be honest. I’m more than happy to leave it to the professionals :thumb:

 

Of course a spark would come out and do it for you!


Piece of piss job for them, 3 minutes tops.


As Stu says though, if you want to do it yourself then move the wires one at a time between identically labelled terminals. Just make sure the power is off at the consumer unit!

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update:


It’s done and I’m still alive :D

I understood that the com wire and l1 wire had to go to the corresponding place on the new switch, the thing that was confusing me is that there was a small piece of wire going from com to com. I left this off the new switch initially but then only one of the lights would work so I put the bridge back in and they both work now :scratch:


Anyway, alls well that ends well.

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I am not a sparks but if that is a metal fronted switch is not meant to be earthed? Without an earth connection any electrical leakage that makes the front plate live won't trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse if there's no earth.


I only ask because it happened to me, in Liverpool as it happens. Mind you the joker who had wired the place up had also bypassed the fuse box so when a real live sparks did come to look at it he got rather a shock. Literally.

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I am not a sparks but if that is a metal fronted switch is not meant to be earthed? Without an earth connection any electrical leakage that makes the front plate live won't trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse if there's no earth.


I only ask because it happened to me, in Liverpool as it happens. Mind you the joker who had wired the place up had also bypassed the fuse box so when a real live sparks did come to look at it he got rather a shock. Literally.

 

Yes all four earth wires are connected to the relevant place on the switch :thumb:

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The lights may well work, but that's no substitute for using a professional electrician. Here's how to rectify your work so that it will be indistinguishable from that of a pro:


1. Strip all the cables so that there's at least half an inch of bare conductor sticking out of the back of each terminal.


2. Cut the cables either so short that swapping the switch at any point in the future will mean running a whole new cable, or so long that the faceplate bends when you screw it back on. If it cracks in the process, so much the better.


3. Don't bother with those fancy maintenance-free Wago connectors when a shitty plastic terminal block and tape will do.


4. When putting more than one conductor in a terminal, just stuff them in any old way and hope that tightening the crap out of it will hold them all in place. Extra points awarded for stripping the threads on the screw and/or shearing the head off.


5. Make sure you trap at least one of the wires (preferably the line) in the box when screwing the faceplate on.


6. Make as much mess as humanly possible, and swear incessantly.


7. Bang on endlessly about being a 'time served spark' and moan your arse off about DIYers who think they can do your job.


:thumb:

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