Is telephone wire for a socket Earth good?

[securespark]

The thicker red wire is probably a single conductor whose sheath is red.

IE: copper wire, covered in red insulation, then covered in a red sheath.

 

[WhydidIstart]

Iron pipes in the loft are common, but will have been for gas lighting. They might still be connected to gas fires and may still be live. Occasionally there are later wires poked down them.

Interesting, thanks - I'll watch out for that. These particular ones were 4 - 5 inch diameter in places and full of sediment, so I think they were for some kind of early central heating system. Luckily one end was open, so they weren't in use and I have cut a lot of them out already. The plumbing is a whole different kettle of fish... In another loft section there's cast iron, lead, copper and plastic plumbing all in the same area.

At least after some plumbing troubles the heating system is new though!



Thanks for the info on dates, sounds like the casing and capping wiring went in some time after it was built. Perhaps it's as new as 80 years old!

Interesting re the sleeved red cable, I've never seen that before.

Some of the more modern parts of the installation:



Also found this under plaster in a cupboard. Appears to be dead, but who knows what it's connected to. It comes through the wall, then to a terminal block that had bell wire attached and then disappears under the house.

 

[Iggifer]

My inlaw's house had the lead piping for gas lighting still in place in the 1970's.

The remants of the gas lighting were still present when my parents' house was sold in the late 80s.

I was on a rewire in January that still had gas lamp pipework in the walls and floor. Guess how we found out it was still in the wall....

 

[Echo the husky]

I know that too, a padsaw cuts effortlessly though lead pipe!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Where I live is a 1930s build and I rewired it in mid late 70s, the old wires were fiber insulation and walls had gas pipes for lamps I guess, all of these were removed as having gas going in walls etc is pretty dangerous, I even came across T&E in lead covering!