Earth and cheap sockets

[Steve Walker]

The other day I was looking for some 2-gang 13A sockets. I have always been used to reasonably decent ones and they have always had a metal eyelet in one of their fixing holes, connected to the earth bar. While I was looking, I was suprised to find cheap ones that did not have this feature. I can see people using these as a direct replacement for paint marked, old sockets without thinking of adding a connection to the back box's earth terminal and therefore leaving the possibility of a fault making the back box and hence the contactable screws live.

SteveW

[A.Lee]

They will be earthed at the screws - there is usually an earth bar/strap on the socket to both screw holes.Even the cheapest sockets from Screwfix have this. Earthing the back box is not a neccessity if one of the lugs is fixed (most have at least one fixed lug). Alan.

[Steve Walker]

No! That was the point of my posting, these sockets do *NOT* have any earthing at the screwholes, they are simply holes in the frontplate, with no metal. Therefore earthing of the backbox *is* a necessity, although many people will not realise this.

SteveW

[ARWadsworth]

Any brand name on them?

[DerbyBoy]

No! That was the point of my posting, these sockets do *NOT* have any earthing at the screwholes, they are simply holes in the frontplate, with no metal. Therefore earthing of the backbox *is* a necessity, although many people will not realise this.

SteveW ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Hopefully someone will come along and give chapter and verse on this. I wonder if a Standard has been relaxed since the introduction of the earth lug in the back-box?

[Steve Walker]

They are Toolstation's "Contractor Pack", marked HLM.

I was specifically looking for cheap ones, as I am only intending using them for a few weeks until work is complete and we can choose what we really want. I wasn't expecting much at the price, but this is the first time I've come across any that do not earth the screwholes.

SteveW

[ARWadsworth]

Is this any good (nothing has changed apart from a desire to bring down production costs).

From BS 1363-2 1995 (Specification of 13A switched and unswitched socket outlets)

10.2 If means are provided for electrically bonding the mounting box to the earthing circuit of the socket-outlet by means of the fixing screws the connection between the screw and the earthing terminal shall be of low resistance.

Note the use of the word "if".

[ARWadsworth]

Ta. I'll make sure I avoid them:-)

I also have never seen that. I have seen them with just one metal eyelet

[Robin]

And I think you can still get nylon M3.5 screws to avoid risk?

PS If one comes across old lighting circuits without a CPC should one use nylon screws in standard plastic fittings? Purely hypothetical question for me.

[ARWadsworth]

Depends if it has the old wooden backbox:-)

[Steve Walker]

It's a pity these things don't stick in your mind. If that was in the previous version, then I have definitely read it before! My father was on various BS committees (even chairing some) and used to come back from meetings with notes that he'd then incorporate into the documents and I would proof-read for him, before they were distributed for further comments before the next meeting. I bet you didn't know that much of BS

1363-3 was typed up on Wordstar running on a Ness PC-XT compatible, in a loft in the Manchester area! Indeed I sometimes suggested minor word changes that made sentences read better and they were generally incorporated! That's my only claim to fame unfortunately :(

SteveW

[Andy Wade]

Clause 10.3 I think you'll find :~). Exactly the same wording in the

1984 version, BTW - so no change.

[ARWadsworth]

You see what happens when you cannot copy and paste bits from a pdf file and have to type it out :-)

I blame copyright for that mistake.

[John Rumm]

I use the screenshot reader that came with Abby fine reader pro - it can OCR directly from the screen display - so if you can look at it, you can grab it ;-)

[Terry Casey]

Install Adobe Reader X.

The Save As menu offers you the choice of saving as a .pdf or a .txt file.

I've just tried it with a random file that I'd downloaded from the web - and it works!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd not trust those anyway, so always run a tail from the socket ground to the terminal in the box.

[John Rumm]

What about on PDFs containing print and save restrictions?

[Terry Casey]

Dunno. All the files I've wanted to save since I've been using it have offered both options.

[John Rumm]

Have a go on:

[Chris Wilson]

"ARWadsworth" wrote in news:is0uv2$sah$1 @dont-email.me:

Those in my dad's old house did have back boxes :-)