brummydave
Senior Member
Been to an old (60s?) flat today to swap strip light in kitchen for 'something modern' (like track lighting) and a double strip light in the bathroom, again for 'something modern' and 'maybe more suitable for a bathroom'. Seems simple enough, but then I discovered only the bath light is earthed - and I'm not sure where to. There is a spurious cable coming from the ceiling in the airing cupboard and is clamped to the water pipe so that may be the mysterious earth!
The lighting circuit is just two wire from a rewireable 5A fuse in a board made by 'Bill'. The incoming cable is something I've never seen before, seems almost MIMS in its appearance, and the earthing is through conduit to the metal meter box. The Ze reading was 0.18 which did give a PFC of 1.4kA.
Unfortunately it's a top floor flat with a flat roof so access above ceilings is negligible!
I've suggested either the lighting circuit is rewired, or at least has an earth cable drawn round (which amounts to the same amount of work really), or I use only new Class 2 fittings.
If I leave the circuit as is, I've identified 3 existing ceiling fittings that are class 1, 3 brass light switches as well as 2 more fittings to be confirmed class 1 or 2.
On top of this, there's no gas or water bonding and obviously, no RCDs at all.
The customer did then ask if I wanted to fit a new board but I'm not sure how this ties in with an unearthed/class2 circuit.
Any advice please on how to proceed?
Thanks,
Dave.
The lighting circuit is just two wire from a rewireable 5A fuse in a board made by 'Bill'. The incoming cable is something I've never seen before, seems almost MIMS in its appearance, and the earthing is through conduit to the metal meter box. The Ze reading was 0.18 which did give a PFC of 1.4kA.
Unfortunately it's a top floor flat with a flat roof so access above ceilings is negligible!
I've suggested either the lighting circuit is rewired, or at least has an earth cable drawn round (which amounts to the same amount of work really), or I use only new Class 2 fittings.
If I leave the circuit as is, I've identified 3 existing ceiling fittings that are class 1, 3 brass light switches as well as 2 more fittings to be confirmed class 1 or 2.
On top of this, there's no gas or water bonding and obviously, no RCDs at all.
The customer did then ask if I wanted to fit a new board but I'm not sure how this ties in with an unearthed/class2 circuit.
Any advice please on how to proceed?
Thanks,
Dave.