Many of the light fittings in my house are metal (none of the switches are though). The house was built in the 60's and has no earth on the lighing circuits.
Is this acceptable?
Is this acceptable?
Metal light fittings...
- Thread starter steve553
- Start date
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No.
You should consider a rewire, but in the more immediate term, if any of the fittings are within easy reach you should certainly change them for a standard rose + pendant holder or some other double insulated fitting.
Hopefully you don't have any metal switchplates? If so, would recommend they be changed for plastic immediately.
S
sparkyspike
In the meantime, you should protect your unearthed lighting circuits with an RCD.
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er...the fuses have all been replaced by MCB's (2 * 5 for lights, 2 * 32 for ring and 45 for shower circuits) but the original on/off remains.
The light fittings (there are 3....all with 50w halogen bulbs) are connected with the wires which originally went to the ceiling rose going to the terminal block on the fitting. I have just checked all of them and are all fitted correctly.
I what circumstanses could they become 'live' other than say a worn wire. A bulb blowing could not cause this? Indeed when a bulb does blow it always trips the MCB....is this normal
Thanks
Steve
This is not the same as an RCD. MCBs are for overcurrent protection, an RCD provides protection against earth faults. It looks at the current flowing in the live and neutral conductors at the CU, and if they differ by a set amount (usually 30mA) then this indicates a fault down to earth, and it trips. This isn't an alternative to having a CPC on your lighting circuit, but it would be better than nothing.
It's very unlikely a blown lamp would cause a metal fitting to become live. However, lampholders can often come loose on fittings, and so it's entirely possible that when changing a lamp you could inadvertently cause the metalwork to become live.
It's really not a matter of 'if'. Your lighting circuit should not have metal accessories without an earth connection, so your two options are to replace the accessories and fittings with plastic ones, or rewire the lighting circuit one way or another. It would seem pointless retrofitting a CPC when the wiring may be nearly 50 years old.
Hmm...
Thanks for the replies.
Would a spark just rewire the lighing circuits for me....or would they insist that the main ring is also done? The ring circuits are fine and since the ground floor is solid the downstairs sockets are fed from the void between the ground and first floor and channelled into the walls (this would then need a full redecoration...which we have just done!) Whereas the lighting would be easy by lifting floorboards and roof access.
The house is a standard 60's semi.
I have noticed that the ring circuits are
1 The kitchen wall sockets where the cooker point is (and the cooker point)
2 The rest of the house (including the other side of the kitchen)
S
ie not upstairs/downtairs split
Thanks for the replies.
Would a spark just rewire the lighing circuits for me....or would they insist that the main ring is also done? The ring circuits are fine and since the ground floor is solid the downstairs sockets are fed from the void between the ground and first floor and channelled into the walls (this would then need a full redecoration...which we have just done!) Whereas the lighting would be easy by lifting floorboards and roof access.
The house is a standard 60's semi.
I have noticed that the ring circuits are
1 The kitchen wall sockets where the cooker point is (and the cooker point)
2 The rest of the house (including the other side of the kitchen)
S
ie not upstairs/downtairs split
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