Electrial and lighting question

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Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
I have a single light bulb in my garage and a single light switch. I've just bought some LED strip lights for extra lighting. It says they can be wired directly to 240v supply.

My question is, can I just wire them into the existing light switch? There's no earth on the lights, presumably because they are plastic.

Thanks
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Conventional light switches don't have a neutral cable going to them so your new light won't work if you wire it directly to the switch. The switch just has a permanently live connection and a switched live connection. You need to wire your new light to the cable that feeds the old light. That cable will have a switched live conductor and a neutral conductor (and probably an earth ).
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Oh great, thank you. I was just thinking should i wire it to the existing light! I hope there's enough room inside the fitting
This shows it more clearly that my rather garbled explanation.

560178
L1 is the switched live. Com is the permanent live.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
You can usually identify the switched live at the fitting, it has a red sleeve round it. (In my house anyway...is that a standard across the years)
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
You can usually identify the switched live at the fitting, it has a red sleeve round it. (In my house anyway...is that a standard across the years)
Putting a red sleeve on the blue (or black) conductor to indicate that it's the switched live is quite common but I wouldn't rely on it to be marked.
 
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