Stuffed by a lighting circuit

["Chris Malme" <ChrisM@xxxxxxx>]

I thought I had worked out how I was going to link various X10
controlled lights in my lounge into the main switch by the door. I
would replace the main switch with a TD4 controlled by 4 momentary
switches in a plate, and power the TD4 from the switch cable, with a
simple bit of rewiring at the rose. This would leave the main light
unswitched, so I was going to wire that in direct, and use an LM15 to
control it. For safety, I was going to replace the existing pedant
light connector with a switched one, so it could be manually isolated
if necessary.

However, I started work today, only to find my house lighting is not
as I thought. In fact, I haven't seen it done like this before.

I am used to both the junction box and ceiling rose methods of wiring
a lighting circuit. However, in this house, built in the 80s, the
live circuit and neutral circuit are completely separate. The live
circuit feeds all the light switches directly (rather than to the
light or junction box, and then down to the switch), while the
ceiling roses are linked by a single neutral loop (with an earth, of
course). This means the switch wire is indeed a single wire (again
with an unsheathed earth) by which live power is carried from the
switch to the light.

Now this works, of course, and I can't see it being any less safe
than conventional wiring, but it means I am completely stuffed. With
no live feed to the rose, and no neutral feed to the switch, and only
one wire connecting the two, I can either have power to the TMD4 in
the switch, or the LM15 in the light, but not both. Short of rewiring
the house or using the earth of course, which I am not prepared to do.

Has anyone seen this layout before, and does anyone have any bright
ideas? Looks like I will be flogging the TMD4, and moving to a SS13E.

Chris