No earthing in lighting circuit

[jaimaraj]

Hi,
I recently discovered that the ligting circuit in my home is not earthed.
Would it be safe and legal to connect the lighting circuit to the earth on a nearby socket?

 

[ZenStalinist]

No. I reccomend you rewire your lighting circuit, and unless you are absolutely sure the rest of your wiring is AOK, ask an electrician to inspect your wiring.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

See here: http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9993

and here: http://www.screwfix.com/talk/thread.jspa?threadID=6276&tstart=0

You talk casually of "connecting the lighting circuit to the earth on a nearby socket", but there is no earth conductor in the lighting circuit to attach to a nearby socket. If you're going to go to all the hassle of installing a separate earth cable running to all the fittings and to each switch, you might as well do it properly...

 

[securespark]

As Ban says, you can run in a seperate earth conductor. This is only acceptable if it runs in close prox to the live conductor of the same circuit, but if you're going to do that, then...............

 

[jaimaraj]

Hi All,
Thanks for your responses.
I spoke to a qualified electrician last night who said that I could solve the problem by using double insulated fittings (switches, lights etc.). So I could surface mount (on plastic fitting) all light switches & change all light fittings to double insulated types.

 

[securespark]

Yes, you could..........

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yup.

You could also solve the problem of dodgy brakes on your car by not driving very fast...

Still - full marks to the electrician for not shaking his head whilst breathing in loudly through his teeth and saying "you need a full rewire, cost you 3 grand"