Scottish Elises

Quick query, if anyone has experience of these things; usual disclaimers apply

I've got a load of brushed steel sockets & switches to fit to the new gaff - I removed & temporarily terminated a few of the existing (plastic) sockets & switches yesterday, to allow the plasterers to skim the walls. On doing so, I noted that there's only one earth / live / neutral wire at each point, rather than the two of each you'd usually find in a more modern house (my house is 40 years old).

The brushed steel sockets & switches call for an additional functional earth (earths the casing in case it becomes live) to be attached - Obviously I can't do this, as I have no 'spare' earth, only the 'protective' earth.

I have some of these (I used them to temporarily terminate the wiring)



Would it be acceptable to run two lengths of earthing wire from the socket into this, then the existing 'protective' earth into the remaining slot, or do I need a separate 'clean' earth?

Sounds fine to me, but I'm not qualified. I wouldn't even bother with the Wagos. I'd just use the terminals on the socket.

I await the screaming from the profesional elemachickens.

PS, are you sure they're ALL single wire? It's not unusual to have a spur or two, but not to have the majority on a radial or ring on a 40 year old house seems odd...

I would just earth both points together if required but normally any metal socket is earthed throughout the structure to the earthing connecting point, but would also recommended that you get an electrician round to look at the wiring if it's that old and you only have single(radial) points instead of a ring circuit. More importantly would be to make sure that the main distribution board has at least mcb protection, and ideally rcbo or rcd type breakers instead of older type boards containing rewireable fuses i.e. fuse wire).


Steve. (Not screaming)

It's not even radial,is it? Radial would still have two wires in to most sockets, no?

Don't bother, earths are for sissys.

tut

If you only have one wire behind a face plate then it's either a spur/branch or each socket has it's own fuse (unlikely). You will need to trace back and remove face plates till you find one with more than one 3 core wire. Then try and determine which sockets are part of either a ring or radial circuit. If you look in your fuse box and the socket fuse has only one wire come from it then your house is radial wired, if there are 2 then it's probably a ring.

The extra earth can be a short piece of earth wire that connects the back box to the face plate and is inserted into the same connection as the main earth wire in the back of the face plate.

See here for more info.