Help me find plastic light switches

Ectophile

Risteard said:

Rewiring the lighting is the correct approach. The wiring must be ancient anyway. 

If it's PVC cable without an earth, it's likely to be early to mid 1960's.  After then all circuits, including the lights, were required to have an earth.

Risteard

Ectophile said:

Risteard said:

Rewiring the lighting is the correct approach. The wiring must be ancient anyway. 

If it's PVC cable without an earth, it's likely to be early to mid 1960's.  After then all circuits, including the lights, were required to have an earth.

Precisely my point. 

GDB2222

We have a property built in 1971, and the wiring is still in good condition. As far as I know! The whole estate was built around that time, and I am not aware of loads of rewiring being done. The PVC sheathed cables seem to be bearing up well.

So, I’m not sure what your point is about 1960s?  Until you test the insulation, you can’t tell whether it all needs to be ripped out. Or am I missing something here? 

bobbybuttons

These houses were built early 60's. I've now managed to find some suitable silver grey switches that are plastic and screwless fronts, not quite the chrome ones I wanted but safety comes first.
Thanks all. 

Hasbeen

bobbybuttons said:

These houses were built early 60's. I've now managed to find some suitable silver grey switches that are plastic and screwless fronts, not quite the chrome ones I wanted but safety comes first.
Thanks all. 

It would be helpful to say where you found the switches.

To help anyone in a future similar situation

bobbybuttons

And just thinking about all the others through the house, I'll have to change them all if they have metal back boxes and screws too ☹️

bobbybuttons

Hasbeen said:

bobbybuttons said:

These houses were built early 60's. I've now managed to find some suitable silver grey switches that are plastic and screwless fronts, not quite the chrome ones I wanted but safety comes first.
Thanks all. 

It would be helpful to say where you found the switches.

To help anyone in a future similar situation

They are simplicity screwless plastic switches, I got mine on ebay but I believe amazon do them too. Might not be to everyone's taste but something a bit different to white plastic. 

Ectophile

If you hunt around, nylon screws do exist.  But you will need ones with the old non-metric threads if you want them to fit properly.  And they aren't at all common.

It's also possible to get little plastic caps that push over the screw.  But you'd have to find ones that actually fit properly in your switches.

Risteard

So, I’m not sure what your point is about 1960s?  Until you test the insulation, you can’t tell whether it all needs to be ripped out. Or am I missing something here? 

Inspection is the more important part of inspection and testing. The testing supplements the inspection. You are talking about 60+ year old wiring, so I would suggest that it is life expired. You can actually have damage to insulation without it showing up on an insulation test anyway as air is an insulator.

FreeBear

FreeBear said: If it makes you feel any better, ordered some fancy black glass touch switches thinking "they'll be easy to fit"... Need to run a neutral wire to each switch, and also do some hacking to upgrade the firmware. Thought I was buying Sonoff smart switches, but getting some cheap(er) knock-offs instead.

Well, the cheap Chinese knock-offs turned up fairly quickly. Couldn't get them to work with the App... Fortunately, a near 100% clone of the Sonoff switches, so dead easy to flash new firmware (Tasmota) and integrate with the rest of my home automation setup.