# Forum Home Renovation Electrical  How to change a hanging light fitting to a bayonet?

## elly82

My children accidentally smashed a bayonet light fitting in one of the bedrooms, throwing a ball in there.   :Mad:  
So  I went to Bunnings, got a bayonet fitting and replaced the old one by  just putting the wires in the same spot on the new one. All working well  now. I thought that was easy so went and bought 2 more bayonet battens  planning to change the lounge and study lights over. Currently they have  brass hanging light fittings on them, the lounge takes 6 lamp globes  and the study 3 lamp globes. They hang too low and my tall husband is  always knocking his head on them, so I just figured I'd take them down  and match the wires to the bayonet like I did before. But it seems they  different wires in them? They have a grey cable coming out of the  ceiling which runs all the way through the hanging fitting to the  bottom, which if you unscrew a cover the wires all split off at the end  of the cable and are connected in there. If I cut this wire at the roof,  just protuding a small bit, will I be able to just connect it to a  bayonet batten? The one in the childrens room just had the 4 wires  themselves coming out of the ceiling, no cable.  *Edited by Bedford  ...It is highly recommended that you engage an electrician for this job, as you  have no indication of what the four wires are connected to. Electricians are cheaper than funerals.*

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## chrisp

> My children accidentally smashed a bayonet light fitting in one of the bedrooms, throwing a ball in there.   
> So  I went to Bunnings, got a bayonet fitting and replaced the old one by  just putting the wires in the same spot on the new one. All working well  now. I thought that was easy so went and bought 2 more bayonet battens  planning to change the lounge and study lights over. Currently they have  brass hanging light fittings on them, the lounge takes 6 lamp globes  and the study 3 lamp globes. They hang too low and my tall husband is  always knocking his head on them, so I just figured I'd take them down  and match the wires to the bayonet like I did before. But it seems they  different wires in them? They have a grey cable coming out of the  ceiling which runs all the way through the hanging fitting to the  bottom, which if you unscrew a cover the wires all split off at the end  of the cable and are connected in there. If I cut this wire at the roof,  just protuding a small bit, will I be able to just connect it to a  bayonet batten? The one in the childrens room just had the 4 wires  themselves coming out of the ceiling, no cable.  *Edited by Bedford  ...It is highly recommended that you engage an electrician for this job, as you  have no indication of what the four wires are connected to. Electricians are cheaper than funerals.*

  Elly, 
It seems that you have a mixture of bayonet fittings and hard-wired pendent lights.  The light fittings you have purchased from Bunnings sound like the "self install" type that depend upon a bayonet fitting to current fitted in the proposed location. 
Changing a hard-wired pendent fitting to a bayonet fitting is not within the bounds of a "self-install" job!  :Yikes2:  
Legally, you need to engage a licenced electrician, and I think, as Bedford has pointed out, you maybe a little out of your depth if you don't know the correct way to go about the change. 
Also, the "four wires" in the light in the children's room indicates that there is no earth wire present.  To swap the fitting will require the 'provision' of an earth wire (even though the 'self-install' lights don't use them). 
Me thinks it is probably time to call an electrician.  :Smilie:

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## Master Splinter

The 'four wires' could be Active, Neutral, Switched Active and Earth, with the 'four' referring to the number of wire terminations not the actual number of wires.

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## elly82

Thanks, yes I think I may have to get an electrician out for it then. The childrens light did have an earth wire, the bayonet fitting had an E marked for that one, on both the old and new.

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