Wiring - no earth for lighting

Have you *any* access to the non-switch end of the conduit? If so, if the existing cables aren't too tightly packed, you can disconnect one of them, securely (but neatly) attach a single earth wire (single-insulated green-n-yellow conduit-rated) to the disconnected end, use the existing cable as a draw wire to pull up the new earthwire, then (here's the cunning bit) pull up another conduit's length plus-bit-for-luck of the earth wire, reattach the existing now-middle of the earth wire to the existing twin cable, and draw it back *down* the conduit with the earth wire. Result: existing cables + earth wire in conduit.

Of course, you can get boring with using polypropelene string as the 'intermediate' drawwire (and can then afford to leave a length in situ for later draws, if there's any chance of further additions) - but using the same wire off the same reel gives you that nice 'minimalist' feeling ;-)

HTH - Stefek

Reply to
Stefek Zaba
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certainly works. You can then scare the visitors by replacing the switch with an 1890s open knife switch.

NT

Reply to
bigcat

Hee hee. Just remembering the old knife and fork switches with the wooden knob on the end knife blades. Like something out of a mini hammer horror movie. :-)

If you were rich you got properly turned and polished oak knobs, but the poorer ones among us got knotty pine that split and splintered more easily. :-)

And all this on DC current, surface strapped wiring to wooden strips with waxed paper and flax cloth insulation. Pull it tighter so it looks neater going up the walls. LOL

Good gracious, am I really that old? :-) LOL

Thought that heaven had arrived when someone gave us lead covered that fixed easily with a nail through a zinc saddle. The good old days. ROFL!!!

Reply to
BigWallop

I've had a similar idea on many an occasion. I'm amazed that nobody makes them. With a little development effort you could even fit all the gubbins into a standard ceiling rose, or something not much bigger. Then you could add all sorts of smart control mechanisms at the switch plate, and also remote control using X10 or Zigbee etc from anywhere in the house.

Not *so* hard, surely?

Reply to
Mike Barnes

''Come into my dungoeon'' - its gotta appeal to some folks. I think back then wiring was generally steel rather than copper, Cu was considered unaffordably expensive. So with hand wound insulation it was on the bulky / scary movie side. An improvement over chains at least. Frankenstein rules. Somewhere.

Question is what the BCO would make of it?? Maybe Russia will get tired of making films of leading the police around the city on car chases, as they do, and instead install kit like tthis and invite the BCO round, and generally wind the guy till he pops.

NT

Reply to
bigcat

Missed the start of this thread but is the wiring up to this sort of current ?

Bit of PWM with a power MOSFET. No problem.

Reply to
Mike

On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 15:43:17 GMT, "BigWallop" waxed lyrical about:

Thanks to everyone for the help with this, I have now managed to test the continuity and found that the conduit is earthed - so SWMBO can have her brushed chrome lightswitches (Phew!)

Perry

Reply to
Perry Gunn

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