REPLACING WITH METAL FACE PLATE

[bobtol]

Hi
I am replacing my mounting box with a new plastic box for easy installation but am replacing my faceplate with a metal one, what do i do with the earth wire, i guess i will just conet it to the earth terminal on the back of the front plate. As there should be no need to earth the mounting box as it's plastic. Is this right. Cheers

BOB.T

 

[Paul Martin]

You will need to always earth the metal faceplate of the socket, this is usually and integral of the socket. As you conect your earth cable to the earth terminal, you will probably see a metal bar that also connects to a riveted recess where the fixing screws pass through the socket outlet.

If you have metal backboxes, you should also run a wire from the earth terminal on the socket outlet to the connection at the back of the back box.

Hope that helps?

 

[bobtol]

Hi
I know that i need to earth my front plate but inside the wall there is only 2 red 2 black and a green earth i take it running from the back box to the front plate the back box is screwed to 2 pipes that the cable runs through, old style i think, i wanted to replace the single socket with double sockets as well but because the back box is screwed to the pipes the cable runs through i cannot take this out so need to make do with single sockets unless anyone has any ideas. Not the rewiring idea to dear just now.

Cheers

 

[Paul Martin]

The pipes you refer to are called conduit.

I suspectthat you may well have two earth cables that are twisted together and inside a single earth sleeve as this is commonly done.

To change the single backboxto a double should be relatively easy to do but it really does depend on how the original one has been installed and what sort of finish you desire for the new socket outlet.

There are some readily available adapter plates that convert a single backbox to a double but this will in turn mean that socket outlet doesn't finish plush with the wall. Would this be a problem?

Click here for a link

 

[bobtol]

Hi
The only earth i see is the earth from the back mounting box to the original front plate and it is green about 3 inches in length there is no other earth, i can only think the metal conduit is acting as earth as it is screwed to the mounting box would this be the case. Also i have just spent £50 on nice metal flush fitting ones so the converters which i have already though of is not really what i wanted, although i might need to do this anyway. To get to the nuts to unscrew the box i would need to cut some plasterboard away. A right royal pain in the A**e, this is turning out to be. Thanks for all and any more ideas. Cheers

 

[bernardgreen]

Not sure what you intended to do. Did you intend to replace the metal single socket metal box with a double socket plastic box and then find the metal box was fixed to conduit ?

With a system reliant on conduit for the earthing of power sockets I would recommend getting an inspection to measure the impedance of the earthing system. Disturbing a box on a conduit can loosen the nuts on the conduit which in turn seriously and maybe dangerously affects the continuity of the earth circuit to the socket changed and other sockets as well. It is not un-known for the unseen joints in conduit to loosen and disconnect the earth continuity. Tolerable for lighting cicuits with no metal fittings but NOT for power circuits to appliances which must be earthed.