Ceiling chandeliers in residential and office spaces perform not only the role of lamps, but also perform an aesthetic function. Leaving aside issues of beauty, the purpose of writing this review is to analyze the technical side of lighting fixtures connection.

Preparation for connection

Before you start work, you must learn the principles of safe operation:

any electrical installation is carried out with the voltage disconnected;
The presence of voltage must be checked directly at the place where the work is to be done, since the wrong switch can be turned off by mistake.

You can use an indicator light to determine precisely whether a live wire is energized.

The circuit can only be briefly energized to locate the phase conductor.

Otherwise, the preparatory work is limited to:

shortening the cable coming out of the ceiling to the right length;
The removal of the outer sheath of the cable in the necessary section;
Strip the cable ends of the insulation.

After that, you can begin work on hanging the chandelier and connecting it to the 220 volt network.

How to find the phase

In most cases, the chandelier is connected to existing wiring, and it is usually done in a concealed manner. Before connecting, you will need to find the phase wire. If you plan to connect a chandelier with incandescent bulbs, phasing is not criticalBut for safety, it is worth making sure that the switch breaks exactly the phase wire. If it is going to LED chandelier connection or lighting fixture with a halogen bulb, it may be decisive for the serviceability of the fixture. Although this is not as often as it is thought - at the input of the driver or electronic transformer in the vast majority of cases is a rectifier, which does not care about the phase.

On the Ceiling

To find the phase wire on the cable that comes out of the ceiling, you have to temporarily apply voltage to the lighting network and turn on the wall light switch. Next, touch the core of each conductor with an indicator screwdriver. Where the indicator light comes on, that is the phase. Using a multimeter you can finally verify this - between the found phase and the second wire (zero) will be a voltage of about 220 volts.

Important! If 3 or 4 wires come out of the ceiling, then two conductors may be a phase. Therefore, it is necessary to check all wires with an indicator.

In a chandelier

The terminals of the chandelier are usually marked. Terminals are marked with letters:

L - For connection of a phase conductor;
N - for neutral conductor;
PE or ground symbol - protective earth.

Alphabetic marking of terminals of the ceiling lamp.

If there is no marking, you should pay attention to the color of wire insulation. Usually the same standards are used for internal wiring of chandeliers as for external wiring:

phase wire can be marked red, brown or white;
The neutral wire - blue or blue;
protective grounding - Yellow-green.

If all wires are the same color or a different coloring is applied, you can trace the connection of the wires. The protective conductor is connected to the body of the chandelier, and most likely next to the terminal block. If the chandelier has an electronic transformer or driver, you can trace which wire is connected to the L terminal and which to the N terminal. If you cannot trace the connection of the wires, you can call them up with a multimeter. The reasonableness of this exercise is up to each one of us. In 99+ percent of cases, the phasing will not affect the performance of the luminaire (except the PE conductor - if you have it, you must always identify it!), and the safety is ensured by the right lighting switch connection.

Wiring diagram depending on the number of wires

Depending on the previous wiring, between 2 and 4 wires can be coming out of the ceiling. There are various ways of connecting the cables.

2 wires

The simplest option. This scheme assumes:

A single-key switch (or a double engaged as a single switch);
No PE conductor.

Diagram of connection of the chandelier to two wires.

To connect the chandelier, you need to make sure that the switch breaks the phase conductor, as well as find the phase conductor on the ceiling. But this does not have to be done for the reasons mentioned. In this case, even if a multi-arm chandelier is used, you can only control all the lights at the same time. If the luminaire contains several lighting elements and the wires from them are not brought out to the terminal block, they must be connected: phase conductors to phase conductors, neutral to neutral conductors. The wires can be connected by twisting and soldering, screw terminals or clamp terminals.

Diagram and example of the connection of wires in a chandelier for connection to two wires.

3 wires

In the case of 3 wires, there can be two variations of the scheme.

Method #1

In TN-S or TN-C-S systems there is a PE conductor. In this case, the circuit is almost the same as the previous one, except for the PE conductor.

Wiring diagram of the luminaire to three wires in a system with a protective earth conductor.

You can identify the purpose of the wire by the color markings. If it is not present, the phase wire is found with an indicator screwdriver (this must be done even if the insulation is multicolored). To distinguish the neutral conductor from the protective conductor with a screwdriver will not work, the multimeter is also of little use - both of these wires are galvanically connected with each other. The only way out - call wires from the place where you can identify them to the exit of the ceiling.

Method #2

In a system without protective grounding (TN-C), the three conductors likely imply a two-button switch.

Diagram of connecting a light fixture to three conductors in a TN-C system.

The conductors of the N elements of the multi-arm chandelier are connected to each other, the phase ones are divided into two bundles which can be controlled separately.

Diagram of the grouping of lamps in a chandelier.

4 wires

If there are 4 wires coming out of the slab, a wiring diagram for a multi-arm chandelier involves:

A two-key switch;
the presence of a protective conductor.

Diagram of connection of the chandelier to four wires.

Otherwise, there is no difference from the previous version, and the grouping of lamps inside the lamp can be exactly the same.

It is possible quite rare that four wires means the presence of a three-button switch, but it is not much more complicated than the variant with a double, it is not rational to consider it separately.

Step-by-step instructions: How to connect a light fixture to a triple switch

Connecting to a switch

Connecting the chandelier to the switch in most cases is made by distributor box - the cables are entered in it, cut and connected according to the chosen scheme. The general principle is as follows:

In the box goes cable from the switchboard - 2 or 3 wires, depending on the presence of the conductor PE;
The N and PE conductors go through the box in transit;
There is a break in the phase wire, and the switch is connected into it;
If a two- or three-button switch is used, the phase wire is divided into an appropriate number of branches.

A cable with a number of wires equal to the number of keys plus one is lowered to the switch. Lighting networks perform cable with copper conductors with a cross section of 1.5 sq.mm.

Single

If the chandelier is connected to a single-key switching device, then in the gap of the phase wire includes a cable of two conductors. The neutral and protective conductors go through a box to the light fixture.

Wiring diagram for a single switch through a distribution box.

A more detailed article: How to Wiring a One-Button Light Switch

Double

This option will require an increase in the number of wires in the cables:

A cable with three conductors goes down to the switch;
four conductors go to the chandelier.

If there is no protective grounding, it is enough to run three wires to the chandelier and four wires to the switch.

Diagram of connection to the double switch through the distributor.

The right connection to the socket

The chandelier can use a variety of sockets - Edison threaded, plug-in, etc. In most cases, the phasing of the connection of the conductors to the chuck is not important to the performance of the lighting fixture. But for safety reasons, the threaded socket You must connect the phase conductor to the center contactand to the side contacts - the neutral conductor. The logic is as follows: if the electrician in violation of safety rules will perform any operation inside the cartridge under voltage (bending the contacts, cleaning the plastic parts, etc.), the risk of accidentally hit the side contacts with a screwdriver or other tool is much higher. It is better to let the electrician touch the neutral wire. For the rest plugging the socket does not have any special features - stripped wires are inserted into the spring clips or clamped in the screw terminals located in the back of the socket. And it is also important not to exceed the wattage of the lamp for which the socket is designed. This can cause it to overheat.

Chuck type	Voltage, V	Maximum current load, A (Power, W)
E27 ceramic	220	4 (880)
E27 plastic	220	0,27(60)
G4	12	5(60)
G9	12	5(60)

Features of Chinese chandelier connection

The electrical part of luminaires manufactured in Southeast Asia is often characterized by:

Underestimated cross-sections of conductors;
Use of unknown alloys instead of copper for making conductors;
poor quality of insulation of wires and terminal terminals (inelastic material, reduced thickness, reduced insulating properties).

The first two points can lead to excessive heat during operation and further deteriorate the quality of the insulation, its cracking and crumbling. To avoid this, you can periodically removal of the chandelier and its inspection, but hardly anyone will do it at home. Therefore, you should at least check the quality of insulation of wires before installation. To do this you must Remove the bulbs incandescent bulbs or unplug power supplies for halogen and LED lamps and measure the resistance between each wire and the housing. It should be infinite. It is even better to measure with a megohmmeter for 250 or 500 volts. If the insulation resistance turns out to be low or zero, you should return the Chinese chandelier to the seller or replace the conductors yourself with higher quality ones.

Still haven't figured it out! Then watch the video.

Common Mistakes

Often inexperienced electricians lower the neutral conductor to the switch along with the phase conductor, and then ask questions about where to connect it. In fact You don't have to pull the neutral wire to the switch.. And it is certainly not necessary to break it with a switching element. It should go through the box in transit, running parallel to with the earth conductor.

Another common mistake when connecting a double switch is to connect the phase conductor to one of the outgoing terminals instead of the common terminal for the two contact groups. In this case, only one group of lamps will be on. This mistake is easy to spot and correct.

The other errors that lead to malfunctioning lighting circuits are in most cases due to inattention, and are associated with incorrect connection of electrical wires. To avoid such problems, you should check the diagram more often (especially if you have no experience).

Otherwise, the connection of the chandelier with knowledge of the minimum basics of electrical engineering should not cause problems.

Comments:

Sergey
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Ashamed to admit it, but if it were not for your instruction I would not have figured it out on my own, my father used to do such things. All in detail and to the point.
Paul
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It's good that there are articles like this for people like me. I do not understand electrics and can not work with wires, but I have to go into it and when I changed the chandelier, I did not understand it myself, but the article is cool, all consistently explained and understand the main thing.
Maxim
To reply to this article.
Correct the wiring to the double light switch through the distribution box: the brown wire must be brought to the light bulb

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