House does not have earth – I guess I can’t have metal light switches, but I am not sure what else to buy? All plastic light switches seem to have metal screws anyway.

Same here. I went ahead and put metal fittings in anyhow (not switches though) and I’m just double careful if I ever need to touch them.

Same here. I went ahead and put metal fittings in anyhow (not switches though) and I’m just double careful if I ever need to touch them.

Lights are ok as you can get double insulated, but does not seem to be any switches made for no earth.

If your switches have plastic back boxes then you’ll be okay.

If you are concerned you may be able to put the lighting circuits on their own RCDBO’s.

The switches are on wood at the moment.

So I need to look for switches with plastic back boxes – can the face plate be metal?

Wouldn’t have thought so.

Use BG light switches. These have a small plastic insert that goes over the cover so the screw head is covered.

I suspect that the house does have earthing and what you have is a loop in loop out system where there all the connections are in the ceiling rose and its just a live in switched live out at the switch and because they didn’t need to earth the back boxes as they are on wood they simply cut the earth wire in the twin and earth short.

Take one of the switches off and pull any slack cable thru – I bets its twin and earth with the earth cut short. split the outer insulation off and you will find an earth – shorten the live and switched live and then you will have an earth available.

No earthing would be illegal would it not in the UK?

The house would have an earth but it was fairly standard many years ago to install lighting circuits without a CPC (earth wire).

If there is an earth on the lighting circuit you should see it in the ceiling roses so take a look in there first. There should be one cpc for each cable. It can get complicated though if singles are used for two way switching.

If you think there are CPCs then as tjagain suggests, strip back the insulation a little in the switch and see if it’s been cut off.

ah I see so I the light switches are probably ok to buy any, but I need double insulted celling lights.

I am getting an electrician to install, just wanted a rough idea.

When we bought our current house it was noted that the lighting circuits were not earthed. Seems there was a time when this was normal. Because we’re doing a lot of work on it I have re-done all the downstairs but it’s not an easy retro-fit unless you want to make a lot of mess.

I know I could use double insulated fittings and be safe but I don’t want it cropping up on the survey when we come to sell.

There will be an earth in the house but it’s unlikely there will be an earth in the cable. Even if there was an earth in the cable it’s unlikely to be connected at the other end so connecting at the switch won’t do anything. My back boxes all have plastic inserts so the face plate screws are isolated from the back box. It’s the way it was done and if it’s any reassurance it didn’t worry my dad when he looked at it and he was a qualified electrician before serving for 30 years in the fire brigade so someone who’s got a fairly good take on real risk v perceived risk.