changing light fitting - lot of wires running through existing holder

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I want to change some of my light fittings,

When I unscrew the current cover there is the usual blue and brown wires going into the baton holder so join those to the new light, fine so far,

my problem is that there is a lot of other wires in the current holder, there are all going through little connectors that are neatly clipped on to the base that is screwed to the celling. I need to remove the base to screw up holder for the new light.

Can I just snap out the connectors from the current base?

There is also an earth wire on a connector on the current base. Can I just connect this to the earth position on the new light?

Anyhelp most appreciated,
 
Are these the wires to switches / dimmers? If you don't know what you are doing (as it seems from your post) I suggest you leave the work to an electrician
 
Probably your loop phase. Some lighting circuits are done this way. As Mathpac says your probably better off leaving it to an Electricain because if you mix them up you'll find that your swtich may control several different lights around the house and then you will have no choice but to call an electricain.
 
Sorry I phrased it badly.

Yes its the loop through wires,
if I snap out the terminal connectors on the old base and join the earth wire to the connector on the new fitting this should be ok?

The problem is that there are no terminal connectors on the new fitting so if I disconnect them (the loop through wires) from the old base I will just have to reconect on a different connector anyway presumably.
 
Some jobs are just made for people who know what they are doing. I think this is one of those!
 
I've done this twice and messed it up both times at my first attempt. I used the fixed live rather than the switched live to the light. If you mark the wires that are currently used for the existing fitting, you should be ok. Use the existing fittings for the looped wires (if you can, I couldn't as it wouldn't fit, hence my error) and you'll be fine.

Just make sure to kill the power (main fuse especially, just to be safe) beforehand.

Also, for good instructions (including photos), read THIS

Be safe !
 
Thanks Pique318 that is very helpfull link.

I have done one but there was room to leave the old base so just had to connect the relevant two wires, but have another one to do with less room.
 
several qualified and knowledgeable electricians are killed each year in england/ireland,theses are guys who should know what their doing,how much money will you save doing it yourself,is it worth it,get the professionals in.
 
It is so important to kill the power from all the lights in the house not just the trip switch that turns the power off for the particular light your working on. Believe me I found out the hard way and clung to the wire that was looped to the lights in a different room.
 
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