Fitting Electric Socket & Switch Plates

Gloomendoom

mikey72 wrote: »

There's only one female elec/mechanical engineer in the country?

Errrrrrrrrrrrr.... I can state, with some confidence, that she is not the only female electrical/mechanical engineer in the country.

Prehaps the only female electrical/mechanical engineer with the username 'Barneysmum' in the country.

loracan1

Barneysmom wrote: »

If you are determined to DIY, turn the power off, unscrew the cover and take photos of where the wires go.

My hubby decided to change our stairs/hall socket a few years ago. OMG. Luckily I'm an elec/mechanical engineer....but I told him if he ever did it again.......

In addition to actually checking which is neutral/live etc - not all sockets are identical...

gizmo0205

wallbash wrote: »

Thats NOT what we said . Too many people get in 'experts' to do simple jobs.
We are raising a generation that won't try , kids that cant change a plug, youngsters
who are scared of doing something wrong.
There must be someone you know who would help .

To be really sexist .... if you can bake a cake , thats a lot harder than what you want to do .

Wallpapering and painting will take you longer to learn.

Ermmmm, I'm actually 31 and can wallpaper and decorate perfectly well and even change a plug :eek:. I was just agreeing with you all that this would be a job that would be best handled by someone who knows what they are doing, not necessarily an electrician. I'm in no way scared to try or scared of doing something wrong, more not wanting to blow the electrics or blow myself and the kids up in the process:D.

Oh and I am rubbish at baking too .

KillerWatt

Switch the sockets off at the CU (that's the fusebox)
Plug something in to the socket you want to replace to confirm it is actually dead.
Plug that same thing in to a socket you know is live to confirm it is actually working.
Unscrew socket from wall

Any wires that are coloured red or brown will be the live, and go to the terminal marked L
Any wires coloured black or blue will be the neutral, and go to the terminal marked N
Any wires coloured green or green/yellow will be the earth, and go to the terminal marked E





PS

Without meaning to sound patronising (because you asked if you need to switch the power off first), I'd suggest you get someone who does know how to change a socket to show you how it's done the first time around.

jaywhoopee

I find the Readers Digest DIY book invaluable for anything I'm not 100% sure about. I've seen it available for under a tenner and in 6 years I've certainly had my moneys worth out of it.

I think it recommends just turning the whole electricity supply off on the basis that if you think you 've turned the right circuit off but a previous owner bodged something (eg mixed up live and neutral or even ran a socket off a lighting circuit or something idiotic like that) then you could still be in danger.

If it's something you'll be doing a lot of then I have a Kewtech Kewcheck 103 socket tester which will confirm visually (through 3 LEDs) whether the socket is wired correctly or not (and various error conditions) but the most useful thing about it is that it beeps when the socket is live.

This is useful if you leave it plugged in upstairs and are wondering whether you've just turned the right circuit off downstairs at the fuse box and it can also alert you to someone else in the house turning the power back on while you're still working on a circuit!

mikey72

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Errrrrrrrrrrrr.... I can state, with some confidence, that she is not the only female electrical/mechanical engineer in the country.

Prehaps the only female electrical/mechanical engineer with the username 'Barneysmum' in the country.

Must admit, I know several others.

Barneysmom

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Errrrrrrrrrrrr.... I can state, with some confidence, that she is not the only female electrical/mechanical engineer in the country.

Prehaps the only female electrical/mechanical engineer with the username 'Barneysmum' in the country.

NO, I kow there are millions of engineers, I meant in my field of engineering.