I live in a house built about 20years ago, Yesterday i decided that the BC light fitting had to be changed in the kitchen The existing light output is dismal even with a daylight CF.
So i changed it for a 4' fluro. the wiring in this house uses a standalone earth cable (2core red/black for power and single lead beside it for ground) so i unscrewed the BC holder, screwed the 4' up and wired it up with red (which had 2 leads) to brown, black to blue and standalone black to ground, all was good, re-set the breaker and the light came on even tho the switch was OFF. thought this was strange, so pulled the tube out to shut light off over night, come this morning, i sought out to investigate what was going on.. I removed the switch from the wall, this is where i discovered, THEY USED BLACK AS THE ACTIVE SWITCHED.... this is a single switch fitting.
what i had was active switched to the shell of the fitting, neutral to its spot and the red pair on active.
Im surprised that the shell didnt arc out or do anything nasty, and that the house used BLACK as an active,... good thing we have fast acting breakers, thats all i can say.....
Is it normal for black to be used with active power?