BC to ES adapter

[David Lang]

I was in TLC Direct last week & the bloke being served next to me asked if they had a pendant lamp holder with an Edison Screw fitting.

The TLC guy said no, he didn't think they existed, but they had an adapter

The guy looked at it & reckoned it was potentially dangerous as an ES lamp holder has to be wired with the female screw thread as the neutral

- because when unscrewing the lamp, you could touch the male thread on the lamp, which would be live.

Since a BC lamp holder can be connected either way around, he has a point.

Are these thing legal/safe?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Never quite understood why you can't buy an ES pendant lampholder - like the BC ones.

TLC did once sell them, but in brass, and quite pricey.

[Graham.]

[Scott]

[Michael Chare]

I bought a BC22 to E14 adapter on ebay. It makes sense to switch off before removing a bulb

[DerbyBorn]

He has a very good point - also the added length will not suit many applications.

What are they so scarce? Most shops seem to sell loads of ES Lamps.

[Mike Clarke]

Might have been the case once but all recent ES lamp holders I've seen don't make contact with the thread until the lamp is screwed almost fully home by which time it would be well nigh impossible to touch it.

In fact I often wonder if an ES lamp holder might be safer wired the other way round. With no lamp fitted the large central contact in the bottom is much easier to touch with a finger than the small side contact at the bottom of the thread.

[Max Demian]

I don't know why modern safety considerations allow BC or ES lamp-holders in any case, as you can just remove a bulb and stick your finger in. Compared with power sockets, which have a shutter even though the holes are too small for (adult) fingers. Maybe it's just that there are so many lamp-holders around and to ban them would be too traumatic.

[tabbypurr]

no.

Because despite the obvious apparent safety issue, IRL IIRC the number of deaths from BC lampholders is 0, and from ES 1.

NT

[David Lang]

He tried a lamp in it and you could touch the male thread easily.

[NY]

Ah, so modern ES fittings have a screw thread (which may be metal) and which is *not connected* to either wire. Then when the bulb is screwed home, its screw makes contact with a contact (making the thread live if the fitting has been wired the wrong way round) by whuch time the thread is inaccessible to you fingers.

You may have a point about making the central pin the neutral and the tiny thread contact the live :-)

I still reckon that a bayonet fitting is far better than a screw: firstly because the metal of the sleeve and bayonet is not electrically connected - ever; secondly because it only requires you to twist the bulb through a few degrees with your wrist to lock it in place, rather than having to turn it several revolutions until it is fully home and contact is made; thirdly because there's less chance of the bulb and fitting fusing together if they corrode, because the sleeve of the fitting is not a close fit around the bulb and the only contact is a point on each bayonet lug.

Shame that we're the only ones who use it. Originally I thought it was 240V bayonet / 120V screw, until I learned that most of mainland Europe uses 220V screw bulbs.

[tabbypurr]

right

and 4th it's safer. Hence the rest of the world doesn't use it.

They don't use ring circuits either, another safety improvement & cost reducer.

NT

[harry]

Many BC lampholders now are shuttered.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Already have a ceiling rose and flex.

[Graham.]

Is that a commendation of ring or radial. It can be read either way IMHO

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. But then TLC sell BC pendant lampholders too. As do most of the sheds and supermarkets. All also sell ES bulbs - but not the same sort of pendant bulbholder.

[Scott]

My fault . I Googled for ES and it came up with this link, which I did not correctly check before posting.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , David Lang escribió:

Ikea sell them.

[Tim Watts]

It is possible to design a safe ES socket.

The threads are plastic and there's a thread contact down in the base, which means the bulb does not make contact until well screwed in (and the bulb's thread is more or less shrouded by the socket).

Some ES pendants are like this - so an adaptor could be made the same way.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , David Lang escribió:

Ikea sell a BC22 to ES27 adapter which is shrouded, so the bulb thread can't be touched. ikea.co.uk, search for 90295615

Two for a quid.