Hive heating only receiver wiring - Earths not need?

[SaintH]

Hi I have recently wired up a Hive receiver and is all working fine. However, my boiler is being fed from the fused switch via the Hive so I have twice as many cables (live, neutral and earth from the switch, and neutral, common, heating on and earth from the boiler as well as the link between common and live). I have been told elsewhere on this forum that it is common practice but this makes it very hard to push the receiver front onto the backplate nicely and is not quite flush on one side. It is secure and not going anywhere but would like it to be fitted properly. I can’t cut the cables any shorter than they are.
It says in the manual that I do not need the Hive to be earthed so potentially I could lose a couple of cables but my question is if the Hive is supplying power to the boiler, would I still need it to be earthed in any way? If I removed the earths, then the boiler itself would not be earthed which surely can’t be right?
Any advice appreciated.

 

[ianmcd]

Yes your boiler requires an earth but the hive does not

 

[stem]

Where there are a lot of wires and connections required, I normally sink a back box into the wall and put the connections in there, then just bring single wires out to the Hive backplate terminals that require an electrical connection. The Hive backplate fixing screws fit perfectly into the back box lugs.

Trapping / squashing wires together is never a good idea.

In your case, even though the Hive itself doesn't need an earth connection, the earth wires that are present should remain connected together somehow for the sake of the rest of the system. So, if you don't use the Hive earth tether to connect them (and that's what it's provided for) another connection of some kind would still be required.

If you do sink a back box in the wall and it's metal, that will also require an earth connection.