Ceiling light fitting only two wires

Ant555

Sometime before I bought the house someone has changed the position of the ceiling light in one of my rooms.

I assume that the ceiling fitting with all the wires is in the original position however I am left with a small hole in the ceiling that has a cable with two wires poking out of it.

At the moment it has a standard bulb fitting and a shade on it but I want to change it to a fancy metal one similar to this

http://www.diy.com/departments/lights-by-bq-spiral-5-lamp-metal-ceiling-light/190417_BQ.prd

I am going to get to B&Q next weekend to take a look at them but does anyone know up front if I will have an issue fitting something like this with onlyhaving two wires and no earth cable?

Thanks

muckybutt

It would not be recommended to fit a metal fitting without and earth wire, should the fitting go faulty it could ..... kill you if you touched it and it was live , start a fire .... I could go on but i'm sure you get the idea .... A BAD IDEA !

Dave_J_3

you should not have any metal fittings or switches if your lighting circuit does not include an earth. Should an earth fault occur in the fitting, it will become live leaving the only available earth path through the next person that touches it.

Only plastic for you my friend

nickcc

There will be an earth connection somewhere in either your loft space or ceiling void, usually in the 13 amp junction box power supply. You could run your earth from this junction box but if you know little about electrics you will need the advice or services of a registered electrician. Most older house lighting cabling was only 2 core with no earth, talking about the mid sixties, if this is the case you should consider a rewire.

Captaincodpiece

nickcc wrote: »

There will be an earth connection somewhere in either your loft space or ceiling void, usually in the 13 amp junction box power supply. You could run your earth from this junction box but if you know little about electrics you will need the advice or services of a registered electrician. Most older house lighting cabling was only 2 core with no earth, talking about the mid sixties, if this is the case you should consider a rewire.

And if it's in the ceiling void it should be maintenance free.