Home electrics help

[ste68blue]

Hi all, please accept my apologies now as i know this is not vehicle related and i would fully understand if the MODs deleted the post

Hi all, i wonder if someone can help and give me a few pointers please
I will try and explain this in simple terms (for my benefit no one elses...)

I have a friend who asked me to have a look at his kitchen lighting and switches.
In his kitchen he has two doorways, next to those doors he has a light switch that operates two light fittings at the same time, you can turn the lights on or off by either switch.
What he wants is the be able to operate switch 1 to operate light 1 and switch 2 to operate light 2.
(one light with one switch and the other light with the other switch)
So i took off the switch and found two red wires, a black wire and of course the earths.
I have to say i isolated the power and tried disconnecting each of the red wires in turn hoping it would isolate a fitting, without success...

Is there a way i can do this without having to rip up the floor boards upstairs to find all the wiring in the ceiling?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Stephen

 

[solarman216]

Hi all, please accept my apologies now as i know this is not vehicle related and i would fully understand if the MODs deleted the post

Hi all, i wonder if someone can help and give me a few pointers please
I will try and explain this in simple terms (for my benefit no one elses...)

I have a friend who asked me to have a look at his kitchen lighting and switches.
In his kitchen he has two doorways, next to those doors he has a light switch that operates two light fittings at the same time, you can turn the lights on or off by either switch.
What he wants is the be able to operate switch 1 to operate light 1 and switch 2 to operate light 2.
(one light with one switch and the other light with the other switch)
So i took off the switch and found two red wires, a black wire and of course the earths.
I have to say i isolated the power and tried disconnecting each of the red wires in turn hoping it would isolate a fitting, without success...

Is there a way i can do this without having to rip up the floor boards upstairs to find all the wiring in the ceiling?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Stephen

if he only has one switch at each door then no it cannot be done without a lot of work, and your diagram is misleading as there is NO NEUTRAL at a light switch, Rick

 

[ste68blue]

Hi Rick, thanks for the reply.
Sorry you are right there is no neutral, its the black wire....
So how does that circuit work....?

So it cant be done....bummer

 

[solarman216]

what you have there is a two way system which enables either switch to turn on or off the lights, in order to do separate switching of the two lights you will need to run a new triple and earth from the two switch points plus separate the two lights at whichever switch they start at, plus two 2 gang switches at each switch point, probably means chasing new wire down wall at both switch points etc, Rick

 

[ste68blue]

Cheers rick...blimey sounds messy....
Thanks anyway

 

[solarman216]

Cheers rick...blimey sounds messy....
Thanks anyway

no probs Rick

 

[solarman216]

Cheers rick...blimey sounds messy....
Thanks anyway

no probs Rick

 

[CliveG]

I was called out to look at a lighting problem for a client over here in France and came across a neat little gizmo.No wires connected to 2 switches(working as a normal 2 way system with both operating the same light) just a little electronic sender.In the light fitting there is a receiver.In truth I didn't look at the ceiling light but it has to have current there otherwise it wouldn't work.So either of these switches would operate the light with the receiver allowing the current to pass to light fitting.The gizmos contain the same type of battery as a car remote so was a cheap fix(except for 120miles of running around!).The costs of these kits were 90 odd euros and 125 odd euros respectively a great way to give 2 way lighting without chopping out walls.Obviously you would only need one sender per light and separate the lights(that could be tricky).You might be able to find these in the UK at a good electrical wholesaler as I'm sure they're not unique to France,hope this may be of help.