Outside pir light problem

[ProDave]

55 minutes ago, dave1967 said:

both live and neutral lite screwdriver. Confused.

If what you think is N, lights up a neon screwdriver, then it is most certainly NOT connected to neutral.  So you have a wiring fault somewhere.

 

Did the old light work before you removed it?  Not sure we have had a straight answer to that one.

 

Tread carefully, a floating neutral can be a dangerous fault to find and dangerous because unexpected things can become live.

[dave1967]

They said previous light did work then it packed in. 

[Spinny]

Could this not be down to the internal circuit design of the light.

Some Smart home modules are designed to work without a neutral and others require a neutral for example.

Some devices may be looking to draw a very low continuous trickle current to power the PCB and detectors, and direct a larger current or even different voltage to the bulb ?

[dave1967]

Ok. They said there is another light roiund the back of the house thats off the same switch now so it probably something gone wrong with that one. I will tell them to get someone in as it all looks a diy job.

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, dave1967 said:

They said previous light did work then it packed in. 

So most likely the neutral fault occurred and rather than any proper testing it was assumed it was the light fitting so you tried a new one?

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

So most likely the neutral fault occurred and rather than any proper testing it was assumed it was the light fitting so you tried a new one?

Have we proven that L is getting there?

[Temp]

On 28/01/2026 at 19:52, dave1967 said:

I will tell them to get someone in as it all looks a diy job.

 

Does sound odd.

 

On a previous  house I found a set up that had one side of a light connected to live. The other side was connected to a switch that supplied the light with either live or neutral. So when the light was off BOTH sides of the lamp were live.