IKEA ceiling light wiring?

Hi, i'm Trying to fit an IKEA bathroom light and my house has the old wiring colours of red & black where as the ikea light use the new system of brown, blue and green/yellow for earth.. here's my problem.. The wires coming out of the ceiling are 2 red and 2 black.. 2 red wires connect into one terminal in the back of the existing light socket and the 2 black wires connect into seperate terminals..

So as i've know red is live and the 2 red wires connect to the live terminal of the ikea light but what about the 2 black wires? at the moment they connect into different terminals how do i know which to connect where.. thanks for any help you can offer..

tony
August 2008

Hi, the old wiring colours were black and red, the new being brown and blue, typically the usual method was called a three plate system where the permanent feed was looped in and out again (2+earth in and 2+ earth out) the switch wire (the 3rd wire 2+ earth which should be brown/brown or may be red/red or red black with black sleeved red on a one way switch) live goes with the brown/red loop feed then feeds the switch and the return goes to the bulb along with a neutral, all the earth's green/yellow were joined together. hope this helps

Rob
December 2007

Hi, the old wiring colours were black and red, the new being brown and blue, typically the usual method was called a three plate system where the permanent feed was looped in and out again (2+earth in and 2+ earth out) the switch wire (the 3rd wire 2+ earth which should be brown/brown or may be red/red or red black with black sleeved red on a one way switch) live goes with the brown/red loop feed then feeds the switch and the return goes to the bulb along with a neutral, all the earth's green/yellow were joined together. hope this helps

Rob
December 2007