Table of Contents
To wire a lamp holder, switch off the lighting circuit at the consumer unit and prove it dead, open the holder from the outside in, then connect brown to the centre contact and blue to the screw thread. On a B22 bayonet holder either core goes to either pin. Anchor the flex by its sheath before you close it.
Most lamp holders are broken before a wire is touched, by levering in the wrong place or pulling on a part another part still holds. A British house can hide five kinds of holder, and each opens its own way. Here is how to wire a lamp holder without damage: which one you have, where to press, which wire goes where, and why a tired holder makes a good bulb flicker.
Which lamp holder have you got?
Look at where it sits before you reach for a screwdriver: on the end of a flex, inside a fitting, or screwed flat to the ceiling. That alone sorts out the families.
| What you have | How to recognise it | How it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Bayonet pendant holder, plastic, B22 | The traditional British pendant: white body, threaded top cover where the flex goes in, two spring-loaded contacts inside | Unscrew the top cover and slide it up the flex |
| Snap-together holder, plastic, E27 or E14 | Smooth body, no screw heads, a seam round the middle and two small slots at the base | Remove the shade ring, then ease the two lugs out with a small flat screwdriver |
| Metal holder, brass or steel | A grub screw on the side, or a threaded joint between two halves | Slacken the grub screw, then unscrew the halves |
| Batten holder | A holder on its own round base, fixed straight to the ceiling or wall, with no flex | Remove the cover or the fixing screws; the cable stays in the base |
| Moulded holder | No seam, no screw and no slot anywhere | It does not open: holder and flex are replaced together |
The bayonet pendant is the holder most British ceilings were wired for. The snap-together holder is the one you meet on most lights sold today: assembled in the factory without a tool, it shows nothing on the outside of where it opens, which is why it is the one that gets broken.
Switch off at the consumer unit, and prove it dead
A lamp holder is wired dead, with no exceptions. The wall switch is not isolation: at a loop-in ceiling rose one terminal stays live whatever the switch does, and a switch wired into the neutral by mistake leaves the holder live with the lamp off.
- Switch off the MCB for the lighting circuit, or take out the fuse carrier on an older fuse board, and expect more than one room to go dark.
- Keep it off: tape over the switch or pocket the fuse carrier, and tell everyone in the house.
- Prove it dead at the holder with a two-pole voltage indicator: check the tester on a known live source, test, then check it again. A non-contact pen is not proof.
Then work in good light, with a head torch: most snapped lugs are snapped by people levering at a shadow. In England, replacing a lamp holder like for like on an existing point is not notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations, but the work must still meet BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations. Wales has similar rules, while Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own. Electrical Safety First advises using a registered electrician for electrical work, which is the honest answer if you are unsure how to prove a circuit dead. If the job grows into replacing the fitting, our guide on how to install a ceiling light covers the fixing and the connection in order.
Opening a snap-together lamp holder without breaking it
A snap-together holder comes apart from the outside in. Take the parts in the wrong order and you pull on something that is still held by something else.
- Take the bulb out, then unscrew the shade ring, the collar that holds the shade or glass. It turns anticlockwise by hand; a rubber glove helps if it has seized.
- Find the two slots at the base of the body, directly opposite each other, 2 to 3 mm wide and sometimes barely moulded. The shell opens there and nowhere else.
- Lever one side at a time. Slide a small flat screwdriver into the first slot, turn it a quarter turn to push the lug outwards, lift the top half slightly, then do the other side. The threaded sleeve lifts away.
- Photograph the terminals, then free the cores. Half a turn undoes a screw terminal. On a push terminal, press the release and pull the wire at the same time: pulling alone flattens the spring for good.
The traditional bayonet pendant is gentler: its top cover unscrews and slides up the flex, leaving the two terminals and the cord grip in front of you.
How to wire a lamp holder: which wire goes where
Strip 8 to 10 mm of each core, or the length marked on the holder, with no nicked copper and no stray strand.
- Edison screw, E27 or E14: brown, the live, to the centre contact terminal, often marked L; blue, the neutral, to the screw thread terminal, marked N. Swapped, the lamp still lights, but the thread your fingers touch while changing a bulb is live.
- Bayonet, B22: the two spring-loaded contacts are identical, so either core goes to either terminal.
- Earth: a metal holder or a Class I fitting has an earth terminal for the green and yellow core. A plastic holder on a Class II light has none.
- Cord grip: anchor the flex so that its sheath, not the cores, takes the weight, under the clamp of a snap-together base or over the anchor lugs of a bayonet pendant.
Older British wiring uses red for live and black for neutral, and a partly rewired house often has both. Never wire by colour alone in an old house: your photo and your tester decide.
At a loop-in ceiling rose
Most British pendants hang from a loop-in ceiling rose. The supply comes in, carries on to the next light and drops to the switch inside the same rose, which is why it holds far more cores than your light needs.
Only the pendant flex is yours: brown on the switched live bank, blue on the neutral bank, green and yellow on the earth if the flex has three cores. The loop bank is live all the time. The switch return, black in older cable and blue in newer, is live too and should carry a red or brown sleeve. If only the holder is at fault, the rose stays shut. And if the room is about to get the colour drenching treatment, paint the outside of the rose cover with the ceiling, never the inside: a white rose shows from the doorway on a dark ceiling.
The earth is the other British catch. BS 7671 asks for a protective conductor to be run to every point in the wiring and every accessory, with one exception: a lamp holder with no exposed metal parts, hanging from such a point. That is why a plastic pendant can hang on two-core flex and a metal one cannot. Our minimalist black pendant has a steel socket and is Class I, so it needs the earth at the rose. Some older lighting circuits have no earth at the ceiling at all, and a metal fitting waits until an electrician has brought one in.
Batten holders
A batten holder sits on its own base, screwed straight to the ceiling, in lofts, cupboards and older halls. The cable runs into its base, often onto loop-in terminals, so treat it like a ceiling rose: one terminal may stay live with the switch off. Years under an incandescent bulb make it the holder most likely to be heat damaged. If you would rather move the light than renew the holder, our guide to the off centre ceiling light shows how without touching the wiring.
What breaks when you force it
Holders break where the effort lands beside the point designed to take it.
- A sheared lug. The blade went under the rim instead of into the slot. The shell no longer stays shut, and it is replaced, not glued.
- A flattened contact. The springy centre tongue of an Edison screw holder squashed by a bulb screwed in hard, or bayonet plungers that have lost their travel. Neither comes back on its own.
- A dead push terminal. A core pulled out without pressing the release: the spring stays open and the connection becomes a matter of luck.
- Heat damage. A holder that is brown, brittle or smells hot has run hotter than the fitting could shed. It is not reused, however it looks from the front. Holders under a glass roof are the most exposed, because the summer heat gathers right where they hang: our guide to conservatory lighting explains what to choose there.
A shade ring started at an angle cuts its own thread and leaves the shade crooked for good, and holders moulded onto their flex were never meant to open: change holder and flex together.
The holder decides the bulb, so it decides the light
A lamp holder fixes the cap you can fit, the power the fitting will take and the temperature it works at, and so what the room looks like at night.
The cap first. Replace like for like: B22 for B22, E27 for E27, E14 for E14. They are different fits, not sizes of one thing, as our guide to the B22 bulb explains. B22 is the traditional British cap, yet nearly every light designed for the European market, our range included, takes E27 or E14. An adapter lets a B22 pendant take an E27 bulb, but it pushes the bulb further out of the shade than the designer intended: our advice is to match the holder to the fitting.
Then the power. BS EN IEC 60238, the standard for Edison screw lamp holders, is based on the assumption that E14 caps are used for lamps drawing no more than 2 A, and E27 caps for lamps drawing no more than 4 A. That describes the lamps, not a rating stamped on the holder, and it is not your limit at home. The limit is the maximum printed on the fitting: 10 W in LED on an E14 for our wenge wood and matte glass wall light, 15 W in LED on an E27 for our bare bulb pendants.
And the heat. A holder carries a T marking, the highest temperature it is designed to work at, and a holder shut inside a glass fitting needs a higher one than a holder on an open pendant. A holder that browns has been running past it. LED bulbs largely solve this: the sheet of our minimalist black pendant gives 15 W in LED as the match for 60 W in a traditional bulb, a quarter of the power.
A sound holder takes a 2,700 K bulb as readily as a 4,000 K one, so a rewired pendant is the moment to settle cool white vs warm white, and to check the bulb if the light is on a dimmer: our guide to the dimmable meaning shows what to look for on the pack.
One last symptom sends people out for bulbs they do not need. A lamp that flickers, or goes out when you brush past it, is often the holder rather than the bulb. The centre tongue lies flat or a bayonet plunger has lost its spring, and the connection makes and breaks. With the circuit dead, look into the holder: a flattened tongue can often be eased up with the tip of a small screwdriver. The other causes, from dimmers to drivers, are in our guide to flickering lights.
And if the holder is sound but the fitting has had its day, the same two cores will feed any of our bulb pendant lights, while a wall point takes one of our bulb wall lights.
Frequently asked questions about wiring a lamp holder
What is a lamp holder called?
It is also written lampholder, and often called a bulb holder, a light socket or simply the fitting. It is named after the cap it takes: B22 for the bayonet, E27 and E14 for the large and small Edison screw. The shade ring is the collar that holds a shade onto it; the ceiling rose is the moulding the flex hangs from.
What are the different types of lamp holders?
By cap: the B22 bayonet, traditional in British homes, the E27 and E14 Edison screw, and pin holders such as GU10 and G9 for spotlights. By build: plastic bayonet pendants whose top cover unscrews, snap-together plastic holders with two lugs, metal holders with a grub screw, batten holders fixed to the ceiling, and moulded holders that do not open.
What is a batten lamp holder?
A holder built on its own round base and screwed straight to a ceiling or wall, with the cable running into the base instead of a flex hanging from a rose. You find them in lofts, cupboards, garages and older halls. Many have loop-in terminals, so one can stay live with the wall switch off: isolate at the consumer unit and prove it dead first.
How do I wire an E27 lamp holder?
With the circuit isolated and proven dead, open the holder, strip 8 to 10 mm of each core, and connect brown to the centre contact terminal, usually marked L, and blue to the thread terminal, marked N. A metal holder also takes the green and yellow core on its earth terminal. Anchor the flex by its sheath, then push the shell together until both lugs click.
Does it matter which way you wire a lamp?
On an Edison screw holder, yes: the live goes to the centre contact and the neutral to the thread, so the part a finger can reach while a bulb is half out is the neutral. Reversed, the lamp still works, which is why the mistake goes unnoticed. On a B22 bayonet holder it does not matter, because its two contacts are identical.
How do I install a lamp holder?
Buy the replacement first and compare: same cap, same shade ring diameter, same flex entry, or a shade that sat straight may tilt. Isolate and prove dead, open the old holder, photograph and free the cores, and wire the new one the same way. In England a like-for-like swap is not notifiable under Part P but must meet BS 7671; if in doubt, use a registered electrician.
Sources
- BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations: isolation, and a protective conductor run to every point and accessory, except a lamp holder with no exposed metal parts suspended from such a point. BSI and the Institution of Engineering and Technology
- Approved Document P, Electrical safety, Dwellings: notifiable work in England, and like-for-like replacements that are not notifiable. HM Government, GOV.UK
- BS EN IEC 60238, Edison screw lampholders, clause 1: the data on E14 caps (lamps up to 2 A) and E27 caps (lamps up to 4 A) on which the standard is based, and the T marking for the maximum operating temperature. BSI and the International Electrotechnical Commission
- IEC 61184, Bayonet lampholders: the B15d and B22d fits. International Electrotechnical Commission
- Advice for householders on electrical work at home and on choosing a registered electrician. Electrical Safety First
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See also
Mood Lighting: The Three Settings That Really Create It, Room by Room
How to Change a Spotlight Bulb, Even With No Clip or Spring
Conservatory Lighting: Fixings, Lumens and the Black Mirror After Dark
