Electician-how much will it cost?

[TEAK36]

Hi,
I just want to get an idea of how much it will cost for hiring an electrician to fit a new light in my bathroom.

My bathroom had an awful looking suspended ceiling which had those downlighters fitted. When I removed the suspnded ceiling I noticed that the downlighters were connected to the original light cables in the main ceiling via cable with a transformer attached. I have now removed everything and all i am left with now is two main cables in the ceiling, each containing a red and black cable, and a copper wire.I have looked in my diy book and it says the red is live, black is neutral, and the copper wire is the earth, but what I dont understand is why there are 2 sets of them if there is only one light switch. I did try to connect a new light fitting myself, but when I turned the power back on it blew the fusebox. I have now decided to get a proffessional in to do the job as it will probably be a real easy job for a pro, but I dont want to get ripped off on the price. I have isolated the cables and have wrapped insulating tape around each wire.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

[raysparx1]

Hi TEAK,, what you have is live pair coming in and switch wire, disconnect all wires (after turning of mcb of course, lol) see if you can see which wire goes to switch, then come back and let me know

[raysparx1]

If you want to call a sparky in it should cost no more than about �30.00 it is simple job

[TEAK36]

cheers for your help raysparx1.

I will have a look to see which cables are connected to the switch, and will let you know.

[raysparx1]

TEAK, if you can find wire that goes to switch, this how you connect it, the 2 red wires go together in strip connector and tape up, the black wire from switch is the one that connects to live side of light or connects to brown wire on fitting,, and the other black wire goes to neutral side or connects to blue wire, earth wires twist together and connect to earth, hope this is clear

[theonlyone]

Teak36 , you are a brave person as electricity really scares me .Good Luck

[TEAK36]

Hi raysparx1

Thanks for your help, but I am still doing something wrong.

I located the cable which runs to the switch itself, and I connected red to L, Black to N, and the earth to the remaining connector, but nothing happens. I then tried the same with the other cable, and the light comes on, but I cannot switch it off. I remembered that when I first took the old light down I noticed that the red wire from each main cable were twisted together, and so was the earth, but the black wires were not.I reconnected the cables as they were originally, but with only one of the black wires, and again the light is on but will not switch off.I tried the same set up with the other black wire but the light would not even come on.

[raysparx1]

TEAK if you only have the two wires then try again, two reds togrether, then one black to one side of fitting, other black to other side, then see if it works, ok

[TEAK36]

hi raysparx1,

I just read your earlier answer and I think I understand, but am I correct that this means that none of the red cables are used at all. I thought the red was the live and the black was the neutral. I dont have any type of connectors apart from the one on the new light fittng which simply has 3 holes 'holes' one for Live, Neutral ,and earth.

[raysparx1]

TEAK on the new fitting one of the blacks goes into the live terminal, this is the one from the switch, the other black is the neutral, if you haven't got a connector, twist the two red wires together and tape them up, on no account do they connect to the fitting, one of the blacks bcomes live when the switch is operated, let us know how you get on, but obviously if it still does not work then contact local sparky, but remember it should not cost a lot to rectify,good luck, Ray

[TEAK36]

raysparx1,

I will give it a try in the morning, its sounds very simple.

Many thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.