Metal light switch and socket faces

[kuytd]

Hi.

I am going through the house at the moment changing the old plastic fittings (house is full of single sockets without switches), for nice chrome finish fittings.

When it comes to earthing, is there any danger of shock from metal fittings, or does the earth in the electrics remove any risk?

Thanks, Nick.

 

[Chri5]

Provided the earth core is present, and connected back metal plates have no risk.

If a live were to touch the plate and no earth was present

If you need to check, run a fly lead from the main earth terminal / MET and connect to a meter set on continuity, the 2nd lead of the meter when touching the earth at the switch will make a full loop ( met-> fly lead-> meter-> light earth -> met) and buzz or bleep.

 

[kuytd]

Oh. I also meant to ask...

..I want to change the sockets from singles to doubles, as there are not very many sockets in the house and I hate trailing extension cables everywhere.

I assume that if i want them to remain flush, I have to change the back boxes for double boxes. I have hollow walls and don't mind making larger holes to avoid surface boxes. Then just fit double faces?

May sound simple, but I don't know if there are any other problems with this, as in the adding of a second socket. A friend says I have an older style loop system, which means if I added a new socket on another wall, linking from an existing, that it would need its own fuse. Would I still get this kind of problem when it comes to changing a single to a double?

Hope you get what I mean....