Earth problem?

[Bluesbreaker]

I'd be grateful for advice before I call an electrician in, as I'm not sure I need to. I started replacing the floorboards in one of my bedrooms, giving me a birdseye view of the downlights in the kitchen below, which were in place when I moved win and probably around 2 years old.

I noticed the earths are just tucked up and unprotected on each lamp connector and there's no interconnection of earths between the lamps. There's earth back to the switch and that's it as far as I can see. I may well be wrong, but I thought you always needed continuity of earth and that would mean lamp-to-lamp-to-lamp....etc.

So, could someone please tell me:
1. Am i right?
2. What risk does this pose (out of interest)
3. What's the solution...is it merely to make the earth continuous by connecting them?

Thanks

 

[riveralt]

Earth continuity should be maintained throughout the circuit.
However, in cases where the electrical equipment (Class 2) does not require and does not offer a loop option in the fittings, I would have expected at the very least the electrician
would have connected the earth loops in a terminal block and taped it.
To do otherwise would have made it difficult to complete the testing of the circuit.

So in your case you will firstly need to check that the downlights do not require an earth to be connected. If they do require an earth then it comes down to your confidence in implementing the safe isolation before fitting them.
The same confidence issue also applies where the downlights do not require an earth and therefore implies the need to connect the earths together to form the continuous loop.

In either case I hessitate to suggest that the DIYer do this, simply because I cannot see how the circuit has been put together and what other issues might be hidden.

 

[stillp]

Could you explain in more detail what you mean by "the earths are just tucked up and unprotected on each lamp connector" and "There's earth back to the switch" please?
A phot of the wiring to the downlighters would help.

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Thanks, that makes sense. I'm sure the lamps themselves don't require earth connection, I have a spare and there's no option to connect one. My worry is I'll do loads of renovation and discover a fault late on. Whilst the wiring appears generally good, this installation doesn't look like good practice and probably not done by a spark. I don't fancy leaving anything to chance if someone's bodged it.

Whilst I am completely confident I can make the earth continuous, loike you say there could be other nasties lurking. I'll get someone in to test the lot I think.

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Well, there's T&E running between the six lamps, but only live and neutral are connected to the fittings. But oj each one, the earth is just loose and not connected to anything. I expected to see connecting blocks joining the earth at each lamp. I thought maybe a DIYer had seen only L/N on the fitting and assumed earthing wasn't necessary. I can't see an electrician making that oversight.

RE the switch, I meant that there's earthing in the switch (faceplate and back-box), but nothing, it seems, going from lamp-to-lamp.