# Electrial and lighting question



## Electric_Andy (25 Nov 2020)

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


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## slowmotion (25 Nov 2020)

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 ).


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## Electric_Andy (25 Nov 2020)

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


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## slowmotion (25 Nov 2020)

Electric_Andy said:


> 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.





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


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## gbb (26 Nov 2020)

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)


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## slowmotion (26 Nov 2020)

gbb said:


> 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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