Ancient ceiling pendant fitting

Albermarle

FreeBear said:

Bookworm105 said: has the property ever been rewired? If not it is highly likely those pendants are fed with 2 core wire without an earth, so you will have a major problem if your new light fitting must have an earth connection to be safe.

Is the wiring vulcanised rubber (VIR) ?

If so, the whole lot needs rewiring as a matter of urgency. VIR goes brittle and starts falling off the conductors leaving live wires exposed. This is a serious safety hazard and a major fire risk.

Should the cables be 1960s PVC insulated, it would be wise to get the place rewired.

I am pretty sure the older parts of our house are '1960s PVC insulated'
When we had a loft extension, I asked the electrician ( who also fitted a new consumer unit) if the house would need rewiring at some point. He said as long as its PVC coated cable it is OK.
Also another electrician who has a few times done some minor work, never mentioned anything. Also I have had a look behind a couple of sockets, and the insulation looks fine. Plus we never get any flickering lights or RCDs unexpectedly going off.
So probably ideally does need rewiring, but thinking about the costs and more importantly the disruption, I have decided to let sleeping dogs lie. It is a bit of a 50:50 call I think.

tudorfan39

Thanks for your comments, odd cos the living room and kitchen have modern spot lights/pendant lights. But bedrooms/hallway have these old things. Got an electrician out and he practically ran out of the house saying it all needs rewiring, but he never did anything other that look at them. I didn’t want to unscrew them and find I had made an expensive and irreversible error. But people on here seem 50/50 so may leave sleeping dogs on this one

tudorfan39

Fyi my house was built in 1960 so I’m hoping that it’s too young to have VIR cables

Albermarle

tudorfan39 said:

Fyi my house was built in 1960 so I’m hoping that it’s too young to have VIR cables

Has it got a consumer unit, as opposed to an old fashioned fusebox? 

Bookworm105

FreeBear said:

Bookworm105 said:

FreeBear said:

Bookworm105 said: has the property ever been rewired? If not it is highly likely those pendants are fed with 2 core wire without an earth, so you will have a major problem if your new light fitting must have an earth connection to be safe.

 it would be wise to get the place rewired.

yes it would be wise, but the annoying thing is one is no longer "allowed" to DIY a job I can do but not sign off.

• Fitting a new consumer unit.
• 
  
• Rewiring a house.
• 
  

hence i said what I said, before the rules changed I did both in a previous house 

tudorfan39

ok some pics if That helps?

Bookworm105

tudorfan39 said:

ok some pics if That helps?

sorry all that shows is the mains coming in from outside connected to the electricity company's main fuse (the back box) and the grey wires ("meter tails") going from fuse to meter and then meter to consumer unit. All of that is the responsibility of the electricity supplier and no domestic electrician would touch that part of the world. 

A pic of your consumer unit ("fusebox" if you're old fashioned) would show what age your side of things is 

ThisIsWeird

Can you get above any of these light fittings, Tudor? Eg, do you have a loft?

And, as Bookworm says, that ain't yer fuse box! (Currently referred to as a Consumer Unit - a CU). So, where do these cables go to:

tudorfan39

Apologies! Showing my ignorance here!! Here’s a pic of what I sincerely hope is a fuse board!! 

FreeBear

A fairly modern consumer unit with a bit of space for extra MCBs or RCBOs if needed.
Hopefully, the wiring from that CU is of a similar age. Can you see any cables exiting the top of that box ?