Wiring LED battens

I've removed 2 fluorescent lights from part of my workshop but left the wiring in place because I want install 3 LED batten lights all to the same existing switch.

I've had a look at some wiring diagrams on the net and am baffled that some of them show a neutral suddenly turning into a live! I don't need to put in the earth so that makes things simpler.

Some of the wiring is hidden so I cannot physically trace the route but the electrician (sadly deceased) who did the original wiring did at least mark which cable goes to the switch.

Can any knowledgeable person advise?

Brian

I replaced all the fluorescent tubes in our house with LAD equivalents using the same luminaires. There should be two or possibly 3 wires provided for each luminaire that you removed - L, N, and E. Assuming the new LED ones have the same and they are marked, just connect the wires to the corresponding terminals.

Do the wires to the original two lights come out at one point in the ceiling or two ?. Also how many wires come out at each point on the ceiling ? There may be more than three wires coming out out of the ceiling. One may be a permanent live which is joint to a wire going to the switch. There could be a third wire joined to this point taking the live feed on to feed something else.

Les.

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 12/04/2020 11:01:20

[This posting has been removed]

Brian H, it may be that you have an incoming LN&E cable, a T&E going to the Switch and another T&E going to the 2nd light position.

The black wire coming from the switch will be the live switchwire, not a neutral, and is connected into the light fitting switched live along with the red conductor going to the 2nd light, the black from that cable connects to the neutral.

Emgee

I adapted the current battens when changing to led strips. Even that wasn't quite as simple as it might have been because I did it in two batches and the second led strips used a different wiring method. At least if using battens with supplied leds then you avoid that issue (and the circuit breaker going off) Otherwise be aware.

pgk

" One may be a permanent live " Better not be, live is switched. Brown/Red to L or live, Blue/Black to N or Neutral and Green/Green Yellow to E or Earth.

LED "Tubes" tend to have feed connections to one end of tube and although some tubes have a "Dummy" starter supplied with them to use existing fluorescent battens, It's easy enough to strip out original wiring and "Convert" to suit LED tubes.

Regards Ian.

Edited By Circlip on 12/04/2020 11:38:17

Many thanks for helpful replies; I have had a more extensive investigation and found that the electrician helpfully marked the word 'feed' on the wire so I now know where its coming from.

As Les observed, the wires to the switch are both live when the switch is on. I have threaded a new wire through the holes in the roof rafters in preparation for connecting the LEDs which are just 2 connections, no earth. I've had to move the positions where the wires terminate as they were originally in the centre of the old fluorescent fittings whereas the terminations on the LEDs are at one end.

Not there yet but very close. Thanks for your help.

Brian

It could be that this is how your wiring is:

As you can see, there is a permanent live and a switched live which may be black with a red sleeve or red tape. ( assuming old wiring colours)

Thanks Stuart, I think that's exactly what I have. The wiring was done by a professional electrician about 15 years ago so live is red and neutral is black.

I have a round junction box to connect everything to so I'll be cracking on with it.

One of the problems has been that the ceiling is made of 1" poly foam held up with PVC strips and this warped rather a lot during a silver soldering session and will all have to be replaced,

Brian

Melted Poly is bad for your health if dripping on your head in the event of a fire.

Regards Ian