Anyone know about earth wires?

[DRuM]

My electrician has lent me a temporary ceiling light for my bedroom as the transformer has died in my old light fitting. He's wired up the red and blue, and the earth wire is not connected to anything, it's just bent up and exposed. The new light I'm buying from ikea also only takes the live and neutral. He's coming back in 2 weeks but I wanna have a go myself at this. What do I do with the earth wire when I push the wires back up into the ceiling, is it dangerous to have the earth wire just exposed like that or doesn't it matter? I've done some DIY electrics here before, so I'm not a complete noob, but earth wires? Pfft, what do I know about them.

[plained]

what u mean the naked ground wire?

it screws to the rececpticle no ?

take apart some other one and take a look

[vesp]

afaik, if the appliance is class2 (double insulated) then the earth wire is sometimes left out. If your new lamps are completely non-metal this is prolly the case.

Better to wait for a sparky to answer, or do some google digging. Times like these are good for expanding knowledge!

[Tsakali]

if you mean the exposed copper wire then it's really not a big deal, atleast not for a light fixture.

just leave it be, or see if there is a screw on the new ceiling light where you can connect it there to ground the unit.

[DRuM]

Thanks for the replies. Hmm, ok, I'd best give him a call tomorrow to ask. Also, do any of you know if taking out just the fuse for the lights circuit is enough to guarantee not having a shocking time, or would you recommend turning off all electrics at the switch (like I used to do)?

[Tsakali]

just the fuse is good, or even the light switch in the room

[PhoeniX]

Bare in mind most of these replies will be from US people therefore their electricity is different .

[Nightshade]

The earth wire only serves as a safety return path in case of fault currents. In normal single-phase household AC wiring, the line and neutral wires are the primary "supply" and "return" wires. You want to have it connected to a solid earth point, but if you don't have one available there, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Let your electrician properly earth it when he comes back.

[Foo]

do not fuck with any of this shit without a means to test if the wires still carry current.

[Tsakali]

220

ouch

[DRuM]

It's scary all this electrickery.

[Scarface]

There's only one "earth" wire in your home, and it's connected to your grounding plate. Anyways, always bond the ground wire. Just flip the breaker off, open 'er up and there sould be a ground screw on the octo-box for you to screw the wire to. This just provides a low impedance path to ground so the breaker can trip in case a wire comes loose and touches the box.

[Scarface]

220

ouch

I highly doubt his ceiling fan is 240.

[Peenyuh]

"220... 221... whatever it takes"

[Scarface]

The earth wire only serves as a safety return path in case of fault currents. In normal single-phase household AC wiring, the line and neutral wires are the primary "supply" and "return" wires. You want to have it connected to a solid earth point, but if you don't have one available there, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Let your electrician properly earth it when he comes back.

you a sparky as well?

[losCHUNK]

you dont need to be a sparky to know that shit

[Pooinyourmouth]

....or even the light switch in the room

That's a great way to get hurt or killed. While you are supposed to run the live to the switch first, that isn't always the case. You can have the live and the neutral running to the fixture, then have one side break away with a switch in the loop.

[Tsakali]

right forgot about that... k I'll just go play some fallout 3

[Scarface]

....or even the light switch in the room

That's a great way to get hurt or killed. While you are supposed to run the live to the switch first, that isn't always the case. You can have the live and the neutral running to the fixture, then have one side break away with a switch in the loop.

Then that switch wouldn't be controlling the light, b/c the fixture would be connected directly back to the source. Hot to the switch, switch leg to the light. But yeah, don't use the switch as a disconnecting means since you don't know what other loads are on the identified.

[Fender]

Ask Mazda's dad, he's familiar with being grounded.

[SoM]

to a gutter

[SoM]

....or even the light switch in the room

That's a great way to get hurt or killed. While you are supposed to run the live to the switch first, that isn't always the case. You can have the live and the neutral running to the fixture, then have one side break away with a switch in the loop.

first you should run ground, then neutral, then power, when removing, then do it in reverse, at least here in Canada.

it also depends, if some fucker made the neutral a power and didnt mark it with black tape so get yourself a tester - for Drum.

[DRuM]

Well, I wired up some other halogen lights today with no problem, and turned off the electricity at the mains; fuck the fuses.
I'll leave the light with the earth wire UNLESS I find a different light to buy that has connections for all 3 wires, then it's a piece of piss to do.

[Peenyuh]

halogen lights?

doing a bit of gardening, eh?

[SoM]

home growing