Home electrics advice
Discussion
Evening all
Hoping there's someone who can advise me...
I've got a lamp at home - metal stand, about 5 foot tall with a dimmer switch - takes a standard light bulb. The electrical cable comes out of the bottom of the lamp & goes via a dimmer switch to the plug. The dimmer switch seems to have blown and the lamp no longer works.
The cable is two core, but instead of the usual black outer with blue & brown wires inside, it's a transparent outer with two silvery cables inside.
So my problem is, if I disconnect the wires that go to the dimmer switch and just attach the plug there instead, I've no idea which way round to wire them into the plug. Now, being an generally unwise, I've tried them both ways round, and the lamp works either way but obviously I don't want to leave the lamp potentially wired up backwards, just in case. One of the wires has got a thin pale blue cotton thread running though it, but I wasn't sure whether this actually means it's neutral or whether it's just there to differentiate between the two wires.
So, has anyone any suggestion as to how I know which way round to wire the lamp? Is there any way of telling which should be the live & which the neutral? Just out of interest, how come it works both ways round?
My knowledge of electrics is somewhat limited - I don't want to electrocute anyone or, more importantly, the cat!
Many thanks for the help.
Jim
Hoping there's someone who can advise me...
I've got a lamp at home - metal stand, about 5 foot tall with a dimmer switch - takes a standard light bulb. The electrical cable comes out of the bottom of the lamp & goes via a dimmer switch to the plug. The dimmer switch seems to have blown and the lamp no longer works.
The cable is two core, but instead of the usual black outer with blue & brown wires inside, it's a transparent outer with two silvery cables inside.
So my problem is, if I disconnect the wires that go to the dimmer switch and just attach the plug there instead, I've no idea which way round to wire them into the plug. Now, being an generally unwise, I've tried them both ways round, and the lamp works either way but obviously I don't want to leave the lamp potentially wired up backwards, just in case. One of the wires has got a thin pale blue cotton thread running though it, but I wasn't sure whether this actually means it's neutral or whether it's just there to differentiate between the two wires.
So, has anyone any suggestion as to how I know which way round to wire the lamp? Is there any way of telling which should be the live & which the neutral? Just out of interest, how come it works both ways round?
My knowledge of electrics is somewhat limited - I don't want to electrocute anyone or, more importantly, the cat!
Many thanks for the help.
Jim
On an edison screw lamp the neutral is on the threaded part of the base, and the live bit is on the pin at the bottom of the base, A bayonet lamp has both the live and neutral on pins on the base. So if you was to change a lamp on an edison screw fitting that was wired incorrectly, there is a chance you could get a shock if the fitting was switched on, as the threaded part of the lamp would be live.
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