I have just replaced a plastic 2 gang socket. both earth wires on old socket were sleeved together with y/g e/wire and in one terminal.it looked as though there was only one earth terminal however on new socket there are 2 earth terminals, so i separated earth wires sleeved them both and connected separately to each terminal,was wondering if this is ok and have just done some unnecessary work, also there is no flying earth wire to metal back box i believe not necessary? thanks in advance.........
help
- Thread starter uglee101
- Start date
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no need to split the earths into the socket, they normally run on a metal bar between themselves and the faceplates screwholes (least the last plastic double socket i saw did)
earth lead to the back box, if it's a metal faceplate then always fit it.
earth lead to the back box, if it's a metal faceplate then always fit it.
It's not a problem either way.
The reason a lot of sockets have two earth terminals is for integrity. There are rules for circuits which may supply equipment with high earth leakage currents (as is (was ?) common for IT equipment).
The idea is that with one terminal, if that works loose then you have a socket which is not earthed, and the case of the supplied equipment will be made live by the earth leakage. By having two separate earth terminals on every fitting, you have to have two separate failures before this happens - and hopefully the first failure would be detected during periodic testing before a second one happened.
But in general, this isn't usually a problem.
BTW - this is probably a question that would be better in the UK Electrics forum.
The reason a lot of sockets have two earth terminals is for integrity. There are rules for circuits which may supply equipment with high earth leakage currents (as is (was ?) common for IT equipment).
The idea is that with one terminal, if that works loose then you have a socket which is not earthed, and the case of the supplied equipment will be made live by the earth leakage. By having two separate earth terminals on every fitting, you have to have two separate failures before this happens - and hopefully the first failure would be detected during periodic testing before a second one happened.
But in general, this isn't usually a problem.
BTW - this is probably a question that would be better in the UK Electrics forum.
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