2 plate lighting question

AJJewsbury:

Why not just use the traditional three plate system with permanent L, N, and switched L at the ceiling light positions, then just run a three core and earth down to the switches for the N?

'cos you'll have no chance at stuffing that lot into the back one of the fancy decorative light fittings, which seem to think that providing for 1off each L, N and PE is sufficient (some don't even provide a PE terminal, let alone space to add any)?

   - Andy.

But that is what the  void above is for Andy.


Z.

gbruell:

Hi all,


New to the forum so please be kind! I'm starting a rewire of my home and have decided for a multitude of reasons to go with wiring the lighting using the 2 plate method(smart light switches and the like mostly requiring neutral). I was intending and can't see any negatives to doing it slightly differently in that I wasn't going to take the feed for following on differently switched lights from the switch, instead I plan to supply one junction box from the consumer unit and then spur off for each room's lighting (may install a second jb depending on how congested the first is looking). 


 

Is the re-wire really necessary? What are the reasons please? Do we really need to rewire our homes because we can't get a few wires into a modern decorative light fitting connector? Or is it to use the totally unnecessary toy of modern complicated "smart" control switches.


Oh ek!

 

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Z.

that way if one circuit fails you should still have some light in every room,


   - 

There is always the tried and trusted method of using a table lamp or similar, plugged into a 13 Amp socket in case of a lighting circuit problem.


Z.

If you are going for a central joint box approach, it is more conventional to take everything back there - switch cables and light cables - often with cables with an extra core or two to each position - which then gives you a lot more freedom to adjust layouts at a later date or even make temporary changes (e.g. arrange for a room being redecorated to have its lights switched from another room). Think big adaptable box with loads of wago terminals rather than a traditional round JB with 4 or 6 fixed terminals.

Thanks Andy, could you elaborate on the advantage of a few extra cores? not quite sure how it would help me, maybe I'm being thick? 


My plan would be to take the switch cables as they get their permanent live from the JB but then the lighting cables off the switch to their respective light point

wallywombat:

But make sure such a central junction box is easily accessible, otherwise you end up with the worst of all worlds.

Whys that? I would surely at a later date be able to take power for future lighting from a either the JB or from any of the switches as they all contain permanent L, N & CPC

Zoomup:

gbruell:

Hi all,


New to the forum so please be kind! I'm starting a rewire of my home and have decided for a multitude of reasons to go with wiring the lighting using the 2 plate method(smart light switches and the like mostly requiring neutral). I was intending and can't see any negatives to doing it slightly differently in that I wasn't going to take the feed for following on differently switched lights from the switch, instead I plan to supply one junction box from the consumer unit and then spur off for each room's lighting (may install a second jb depending on how congested the first is looking). 


 

Is the re-wire really necessary? What are the reasons please? Do we really need to rewire our homes because we can't get a few wires into a modern decorative light fitting connector? Or is it to use the totally unnecessary toy of modern complicated "smart" control switches.

The whole house is a rats nest of various historic cable types mixed in with some newer stuff, lots of new sockets being fed from flex wired into the rear of existing sockets, cables supplying outside lighting running through an extractor fan, tonnes of twin and earth outside &  the consumer unit is a modified Bakelite rewireable fuse box with some circuits fed via MCBs retrofitted at some point. The house is a complete renovation job, will be tearing up every floor and taking all the ceilings down so in my opinion a lot of reasons to just start from scratch electrically. 

Thanks Andy, could you elaborate on the advantage of a few extra cores?

gbruell:

wallywombat:

But make sure such a central junction box is easily accessible, otherwise you end up with the worst of all worlds.

Whys that? I would surely at a later date be able to take power for future lighting from a either the JB or from any of the switches as they all contain permanent L, N & CPC

Because there's lots of reasons why you might want access to it at a future date. Even for just adding a new light and switch, the JB might be the logically easiest/best place to take a new feed, but now you can't because of access.  But its a lot more than that; you'll want to be able to test and inspect, fault-find and maybe move/remove an existing light or fitting. All of which becomes a pain if the JB is under floorboards subsequently covered by tiles or laminate or something else not easy to uncover.


Also if the JB isn't accessible, it has to be a Maintenance Free type to BS 5733.