Swapping plug socket

[simondyntDBeK]

Non electrician here (no sh1t!)

Have bought a new USB plug socket from Screwfix hoping it might be a simple swap.

On the new socket I understand the the two red wires are LIVE and go in the L slot and the two black ones are NEUTRAL and go in the N slot and the yellow/green cable goes in the E slot but the instructions then talk about more earth cables going to 'functional earth' which I don't understand.

Any tips appreciated!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Don't worry about it.

It is for places with many computers etc. on the circuit - offices, for example, with lots of earth leakage.

 

[chivers67]

Safely isolate the circuit and Swap it out as you have written. May sure you wiggle the conductors to make sure they are tight and terminated.

 

[simondyntDBeK]

Brilliant - thanks both!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Just to say -

It's not really a 'Functional Earth'. It's called 'High-Integrity Earthing'.

 

[simondyntDBeK]

That was easy! Cheers

 

[mattylad]

Is that in the kitchen?

Whats plugged into it now?

 

[simondyntDBeK]

Is that in the kitchen?

Whats plugged into it now?

A rarely used toaster, an Amazon Echo and now an iPhone charger.

 

[mattylad]

Im just wondering about the bit on the back of the socket that says "for IT equipment only"

 

[plugwash]

A lot of power supplies have something like that written on them. Different types of appliance are covered by different standards which may have different requirements for things like leakage current.

 

[ericmark]

Im just wondering about the bit on the back of the socket that says "for IT equipment only"

That seems an error as there is an earth wire and other than a shaver outlet IT equipment is not permitted in domestic installations you are required to have an earth, clearly IT does not stand in this case for insulated from terrestrial so does not refer to the 13A socket, as to the USB socket, can't see what difference it makes if used for charging a vacuum cleaner or a fax machine really does not matter if the device is designed to send information or for any other use, it is simply charging a battery. Be it in a torch or a radio does not really matter.

So it would seem silly to mould into the unit "for IT equipment only" I would expect some thing lost in translation some where and would ignore it.

 

[plugwash]

Pretty sure it's reffering to "information technology equipment", not the IT earthing system.

 

[bernardgreen]

It gets confusing as there are two situations where the Earth pins in the socket are not connected to the CPC bought to the socket by the Twin and Earth cable but are instead connected to a clean / local Earth ( the back box and front plate if metal are connected to the CPC )

(1) Sensitive equipment where electrical noise on the CPC could interfere with the operation of the equipment.
(2) medical equipment where voltages on the CPC could affect patients connected to Ground referenced bio-monitoring equipment

Full circle CPC Earth
Half circle Local or Noise Free Earth