Chip

My pa has recently bought one of those halogen light type fittings on an aluminium type rose fitting. Says the fitting needs to be earthed. As he has no earth cable in the existing fitting what can he do or is there no way it can be fitted.

Chip.

fast bloke

All metal light fittings should be earthed. If there is a short to the casing with no earth and you touch it, you will become the earth and glow very brightly. Might be best to get a spark to look at this as wiring with no earth is generally quite old or botched DIY job, so lots of potential for pain

matt.bowey

For gods sake make sure you earth the case!!! You will have to run another cable from the fitting to the nearest earth point!!

SCOBY

The lighting feed will either go straight to the switch or to the fitting, probably to the fitting as it sounds like an old wiring job.

At the original fitting unsrew it and get a tool that will tell you whats live i.e volt stick or steinels or try to trust 1 of those screwdriver testing tools, just make sure it works on something else thats live 1st.

You then want to see if the live cable is going onto another fitting by giving it a tug. i.e linked feed,( but make sure youve turned the power off when doing this). If this is the case and theres an earth at that point then all you need to do is just tie a new length of cable onto the end (1.5 twin & Earth) of the old 1 and pull the new 1 all the way through to where the new light is going.

Youve obviously got to diconnect these from the Roses, but make sure you remember where each 1 goes back.

If this isnt the case then I would suggest 1. Full rewire cos it sounds like you aint got much earthing. Or 2. Buy another light thats hasnt got a metal base.

EASY PEASY

Good Luck
SCOBY

stevie c

dont forget that cold water pipes count as earth points too,but like said earlier,the earth will still be inside the twin and skin cable,friend just needs to pull it out and extend it,no big problem.

steve

SCOBY

On very early house re-wires Earths were not found to be used that much in T&E.

Yes he can try and get some slack & strip it to c if theres an earth, but trust me all of us electricians we dont think about the next person, just get in and get out, of corse doing a good job at the same time

With regards to the bonding of water pipes, yes thats ok as long as the mains water pipes into the house have been earthed, have you ever tried getting your hand into a hole in the ceiling and strapping a bonding clamp and connecting it to a water pipe, its bloody impossible.

Hope this helps

Cheers

SCOBY

stevie c

water pipe was a long shot,but you never know,how many jobs have you done and thought 'god,that was handy'?

mind you there are more jobs of the 'god,this is a bitch!' variety!

steve

SCOBY

Worries me too m8, I hate touching anything that I havent installed

There are a lot of cowboys out there, as I found out the worst way.
But anyway I think this is going way over the head of the man that asked the question.

Simple answer = Leave the light up that was already there in your dads place and nick the new 1 and put in your place.

Simple

SCOBY

Chip

Scoby
That sounds like a good idea to me.

Chip

EwanS

Chip,
If the fitting is 12volt with the transformer remote to the fitting (plastic bullet or box)then there is no requirement to earth .
If the fitting is all in one piece, and metal - What should be earthed to the casing though, is the high tension side of the circuit. so where the mains enters the casing it should be earthed - you will find that the transformer may be earthed at the same point.
EwanS

cryptwalk

Just a quick note if you fail to bond properly all points cos it's hard to get to it, and someone die's you can be held responsable and sentenced under the electricity at work regs.

I know of a person whom got 7 years for not bonding a instalation properly, there was a fault on the central heating pump and every time it came on it put the pipes live, the fellow went back 4 times to try and find the fault unsucessfully as they were getting zapped. Unfortunatly the 21 year old son got a zap that killed him hence the fellow gettting sent down. If it had been bonded correctly at all suplimentry and main earthing points it would of
pop't the mcb/rcd/fuses/whatever.

Kinda off subject, sorry but it worrys me when jobs are half done i see it everyday.

[Edited by cryptwalk - 1/2/2002 11:48:04 PM]