Hi gents the house was built early 60s so no earth on the lighting side, all the lights in the house just have the 2 cables going to them black and red except for the bathroom which has 2 red cables its just a normal pull switch and is not switched from anywhere else any ideas.
no earth on lighting circuit
- Thread starter lanber
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What are you asking? I would say likely needs a rewire, but if cables are OK there is nothing to say anything needs doing. If the electrics are as required then no real problem, where the problem arises is when you want to modify some thing. Needs all Class II fittings, plastic switches, etc.
Ideas for what?
Unless the circuit is rewired, all switches and light fittings must be Class II / double insulated.
Unless the circuit is rewired, all switches and light fittings must be Class II / double insulated.
Are they single wires with grey sheath ?
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all switches and fittings are class 2 just need to replace the old pull switch, not sure why i have 2 red cables on the pull switch. when the rest of the switches are red and black Thanks.
yes they are two seperate red cables with grey sheath
Carry on and replace it then. The colour of the wires makes no difference.
They didn't have any black left
They were all supposed to be like that but someone wasn't told until most of that property was already wired
They were replaced at a later time for some reason
Installer was colourblind
Apprentice did some of the work, electrician did the rest
etc.
Because the ones in the bathrooms are run as singles and (I expect) the ones in the other switches are run in twin (no earth). The twin cables at that time were red and black.
Nothing to worry about, perfectly normal for a house of that age.
This could be single core cable, containing only red.
Or perhaps it's 2 core cable, containing red and black, and the blacks are joined in a connector block, OR the black is a continous loop.
Who knows why it's wired like that, probably easier or cheaper to that it that way.
Feel free to send photos though, always interesting to see peoples installations - especially the older ones when things were done better.
Usually.
It is certainly not a defect for a phase conductor to be correctly identified. It is preferable that it is identifiable throughout its length.
It's frankly backward using brown/blue (or previously red/black) twin cable instead of the appropriate twin brown (previously twin red) for permanent and switched phase conductors.
It's frankly backward using brown/blue (or previously red/black) twin cable instead of the appropriate twin brown (previously twin red) for permanent and switched phase conductors.
^^^ This. It was quite common at that time to run live & neutral separately as singles for lighting circuits.
Yes, with everything coming together in a large lighting connection box hidden, somewhere. Neutrals, being shy creatures, tend to hide in these boxes and were never allowed to wander in the direction of switches who have been shown to be a bit bitey!
singles can also be used without a lighting junction box. More applicable where 2 way switching is used
It's not wired in buried conduit is it?
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