Earthing Steel Dimmer Switches

roger-bernhardt · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:10 pm Post Subject: Earthing Steel Dimmer Switches

We had an electrician install a few steel 2G Dimmer Switches. There was a fault with one so I opened it up to discover that the earth wire was not connected to the face plate/switch. I opened up the others and none of them had the earth connected. Is this dangerous? I have now earth wired both the mount box and faceplate independently. Is this ok or do they have to be earth wired to each other?

Steve · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:23 pm Post Subject:

Just the face plate is sufficient. If you've done both, this is fine. If you have two cables with two earth wires, they must be in the same terminal.

JohnD · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:33 pm Post Subject:

It doesn't matter if you put the earth wires into the back box or the face plate; BUT you must link the earth terminal of the box and the plate together with a piece of G&Y sheathed, otherwise you are relying on the integrity of the fixing screws, which are sometimes removed, loose or suffer corrosion in the box. Same with sockets. Lots of people keep a pocketful of G&Y in 6" lengths for this very purpose (I sell them at 50p each if you want some