No earth wire!

[Dave A]

We're finding a lot of this - no earth wire!
Mostly in light circuits, but every now and then...



Who needs an earth wire to a socket outlet?

Or even the geyser (as long as it's bonded to something, right?)



Just an earth line between the geyser earth point and the water pipes - I kid you not.

Pretty tempted to hunt down whoever issued the COC for the original installation on this one.

[AndyD]

The socket looks like DIY, either that or a complete tosser. They've used a surface mount backbox in a flush mounted installation and it looks like they might have used singles house-wire buried straight in the plaster. Also there's no screws holding the backbox in place, they must have just plastered around it and the cable entry hole looks like it was made with a kitchen knife or something similar.

The geyser also looks like housewire buried in the plaster and no sign whatsoever of an earth wire in the supply and is that a tape joint shortly after it comes out of the wall? Isolator....nahhh why bother. Geyser tray as per regs......nahhh also obviously not necessary. That bonding wire ring terminal looks like it was fitted with a hammer and chisel which in itself is no mean feat with a 4mm lug.

Okay, enough commentary, now lets get down to the serious business of the scoring.

Category 1, Aesthetics.
The missing isolator and earth wiring give the installation a minimalist feel which is very fashionable at present. Look I'll grant you he's no Frank Stella or Yves Klein but the clean lines and lack of clutter by leaving the earth out of that socket is giving the nod toward the cubist movement and their complete rejection of inherited rules and values so, for a delicate combination of art, philosophy and electrical installation I'm giving him a 9 in this category.

Category 2, Danger.
Housewire buried in shallow plaster, complete lack of CPC's...not just unconnected....completely not there at all, tape joint and no isolator are all elements of a complete symphony that gets the heart racing and really delivers from beginning to end. From a danger point of view this little offering packs a punches way above its weight and leaves you begging for more so it's an 8 from me.

Category 3, Overall Message.
Overall the set up shows a strong and unyielding middle finger to all things health and safety. Whilst the highly visible dangling earth wire was a nice touch and the in line tape joint is always a crowd-pleaser I'd have preferred that some of the other little gems were generally more visible to casual observers without the 'use of a tool'. The fact that they're all concealed in a backbox or above a bulkhead ceiling in this particular case kinda dilutes the H&S 'fuck-you' somewhat; hence the less than perfect score in this category. Only a 7 from me I'm afraid.

Conclusions.
Overall score of 8/10 is very respectable, great effort and not without style and a certain bravado. Definitely an installer to look out for in future as I can only see great things coming from here on in.

[tec0]

that is nothing.... LOL

I wish i had a camera back in the day... in my days as contractor i saw a electrician using a hammer drill hammered a cavity placed the wire "normal electrical wire that you will find on a toaster" into the cavity running from the ground the roof. Now i don't know how it was connected up there but i recall he just plastered over the electrical wire.

[kosmonooit]

At a site I was doing LED conversions at (and had to crawl in the ceiling) I found that some random Air Con installers had connected their power cable to a random Plug circuits and diverted the ECC there, so the Earth did not go to the plugs! Generally wiring in ceilings is such a mess, security and CCTV installers add to the havoc - bad practices, no training, no supervision, ...?

In terms of lights, fittings do not need to be earthed if they meet certain conditions, one being out of arms reach from the floor,

[AndyD]

........In terms of lights, fittings do not need to be earthed if they meet certain conditions, one being out of arms reach from the floor,

Can you give the appropriate regulation to back that up please?

[kosmonooit]

Can you give the appropriate regulation to back that up please?

SANS 10142

6.12.3.2 The following conductive parts do not need to be earthed:

b) exposed conductive parts of fixed electrical equipment that are
1) out of arm's reach from the floor (or walking) level,
2) out of arm's reach from a structure that is bonded to earth, and
3) not exposed to the weather or to the condensation, dripping,
splashing or accumulation of water, and
4) not touching a conductive surface;

and/or

6.14.4 Lamp holders
6.14.4.1 A lamp holder shall be shrouded in insulating material or shall
be earthed, unless it is simultaneously
a) out of arm's reach from the floor or walkway level,
b) out of arm's reach from a structure that is bonded to earth,
c) protected from the weather and the splashing, dripping, or accumulation
of water, and
d) not touching a conductive surface.

[AndyD]

Would you call this a lamp holder; or this?

[kosmonooit]

Its a luminary and if its out of arms reach from the floor & structure bonded to earth, protected from weather / splashing etc and not touching a conductive surface it does not need to be earthed.

[bergie]

out of arms reach from your scaffolding or steel ladder. lol
that rule should have been taken out long ago. i fail everything not earthed properly regardless of what the book says.

[bergie]

category 4: speed of installation

save on labour costs 9/10

[kosmonooit]

out of arms reach from your scaffolding or steel ladder. lol
that rule should have been taken out long ago. i fail everything not earthed properly regardless of what the book says.

Then it could be said you are applying your personal opinions and not the regulations? that could be a problem in a number of ways.

[Dave A]

In terms of lights, fittings do not need to be earthed if they meet certain conditions, one being out of arms reach from the floor,

One of the problems we're finding is that "under certain conditions" has been extended to "light circuits do not need to be earthed at all" in far too many installations. A recent one we tested had metal wall light fittings within arms reach all over the place, not one of which was earthed. And despite being wired in surfix, there was no earth wire available at the light point because the earth wire had been neatly cut back.

Talking of earth and surfix, here's another classic -



They're right there - waving at each other. Why clip them back like that? Just join them for crying out loud.
Oh yeah - you can't just twist them together, so snip snip - much quicker.

And even if the light point is out of arms reach, there's nothing quite like wanting to replace a light fitting with a ceiling fan & light (particularly where the ceiling is a concrete slab), and discovering there is no earth available at the light point.

[bergie]

Then it could be said you are applying your personal opinions and not the regulations? that could be a problem in a number of ways.

i will probably get myself in trouble by making statements like that. if the regulations say " do not earth it" ,it is different to "there is no need to earth it"
i'm not going to earth something that is double insulated , but i always earth steel lightswitches with plastic covers and plastic screws or light fittings out of arms reach.

[AndyD]

The regs don't permit luminaires or light fittings not to be earthed, the only mention the lamp holders.

[Leecatt]

One of the problems we're finding is that "under certain conditions" has been extended to "light circuits do not need to be earthed at all" in far too many installations. A recent one we tested had metal wall light fittings within arms reach all over the place, not one of which was earthed. And despite being wired in surfix, there was no earth wire available at the light point because the earth wire had been neatly cut back.

Talking of earth and surfix, here's another classic -

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5873[/ATTACH]

They're right there - waving at each other. Why clip them back like that? Just join them for crying out loud.
Oh yeah - you can't just twist them together, so snip snip - much quicker.

And even if the light point is out of arms reach, there's nothing quite like wanting to replace a light fitting with a ceiling fan & light (particularly where the ceiling is a concrete slab), and discovering there is no earth available at the light point.

Nice picture, I assume that you do realise that the use of "twist ties" is also illegal.