Generally there are a few ways in which you discover that you need double insulated lights in your home. One thing that we regularly hear from our customers is that an electrician has come round and removed a light fitting only to tell them that they are not allowed to put it back up again. In this instance the electrician has discovered that there is no earth connection in the lighting circuit & as the original light needs that earth connection then legally he is not allowed to put it back up (even if the fitting has been up there for years already!)
This is the obvious way in which you discover you need class 2 lights but there are other ways. Generally if your home is pre-1970s and hasn't had any rewiring or electrical work done on it since then there stands a good chance that it wont have an earth connection. Unscrewing a light from the ceiling (after turning off the electricity for your own safety) will generally give you a picture of what wiring is feeding the light. If the house electrics are as described above then you may find that you have black & red cables. Modern wiring is brown and blue. If you do not see any green and yellow wires or just green then there probably isnt an earth connection. Theres a good chance that the existing light may have an earth terminal on it somewhere to attach an earth wire to and if this has nothing going to it then this is a pretty good sign.
You can tell at your consumer unit (fuseboard) as well if the lighting circuit has an Earth connection however this is probably best checked by a qualified person. In general if your not sure it is always best to have a qualified electrician to check for you
If it turns out that you dont have an earth connection on your lighting circuit then you have 2 options. The first is to have the house rewired which can be costly & messy as floorboards often need to be raised and walls chiselled in to. Or you can fit double insulated lights that are manufactured in a special way to be fitted to a lighting circuit without Earth. Fortunately we have a good range of class 2 lights on our specialist website that look just like ordinary lights. You can view them here
class 2 lights
#noearthnoproblem
This is the obvious way in which you discover you need class 2 lights but there are other ways. Generally if your home is pre-1970s and hasn't had any rewiring or electrical work done on it since then there stands a good chance that it wont have an earth connection. Unscrewing a light from the ceiling (after turning off the electricity for your own safety) will generally give you a picture of what wiring is feeding the light. If the house electrics are as described above then you may find that you have black & red cables. Modern wiring is brown and blue. If you do not see any green and yellow wires or just green then there probably isnt an earth connection. Theres a good chance that the existing light may have an earth terminal on it somewhere to attach an earth wire to and if this has nothing going to it then this is a pretty good sign.
You can tell at your consumer unit (fuseboard) as well if the lighting circuit has an Earth connection however this is probably best checked by a qualified person. In general if your not sure it is always best to have a qualified electrician to check for you
If it turns out that you dont have an earth connection on your lighting circuit then you have 2 options. The first is to have the house rewired which can be costly & messy as floorboards often need to be raised and walls chiselled in to. Or you can fit double insulated lights that are manufactured in a special way to be fitted to a lighting circuit without Earth. Fortunately we have a good range of class 2 lights on our specialist website that look just like ordinary lights. You can view them here
class 2 lights
#noearthnoproblem
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