Double insulated lighting & how not to panic when an electrician gives you that look!
(A customers' experience)
Things couldn’t have been better. Our new house, which we
had bought off my parents when my siblings had eventually cleared out, was
officially ours. No sooner had we moved all the boxes in that attentions turned
to decorating. Well my wife’s did anyway. I was quite happy to take it easy for
a few months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite handy with DIY but I was in no
rush. Talk of pasting tables and carpets drowned out by football commentary got
louder and louder until eventually resistance was broken and I had to listen.
As ‘she who is to be obeyed’ planned what she wanted, we
made our way to the nearest non-descript DIY store. All the usual suspects were
placed in the trolley, after taking what seemed an eternity to choose paint
& wallpaper, before we made our way down the lighting aisle. Not
particularly an inspired collection of lights but enough to finally whittle it
down to a shiny chrome 3 headed ceiling light. In to the trolley that went.
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| Pretty, chrome but definitely needs an earth connection! |
Cue a few weeks later and plenty of late nights throwing up
the plum coloured wall coverings she had chosen and I finally decided it was
time to replace my Mums old cream pendant lampshade with the new ceiling light.
Next day our friendly usual electrician came around. Tea was
made & a pack of biscuits cracked open, however the ambiance was broken
abruptly when he announced that he couldn’t fit the light! The fact he made a
small hole with his lips and sucked air in slow and loudly only heightened the
mystery. Was our electrics faulty? Had he discovered a mouse chewing on the
cables? Had a meteor hit somewhere locally and ended electrical life as we know
it? Nope, we didn’t have an earth in our lighting circuit!
‘You what now?’ I think was my initial reply. Instead of
finding the standard grey twin and earth cable he had found single red and
black cables. Live and neutral but no earth. Apparently this was quite common
on house built pre-mid 1960s. The state of my Mums old shade suggested that it
probably had hung there since that time! What made things even more awkward was
the fact that he couldn’t fit the old light back up again. Despite it hanging
there since the dawn of time, technically it was no longer compliant and he
legally couldn’t put it back in its place. Basically I had an old light that
wasn’t suitable and a brand spanking new one exactly the same!
Things got worse when he told us the initial option of
rewiring the house. I’m not sure what made my wife turn paler, the expense of
it or the potential mess it would cause! Fortunately there was a second option.
Class 2 double insulated lights are apparently lights that don’t require an
earth connection. If I could get some of these then he would be able to fit them.
So off we went back to the DIY store to purchase some double insulated
lighting. One slight issue however! Not only did they not stock any, the shop floor
staff had never even heard of it! Blank faces all around.
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| Pretty, chrome & perfectly fine without an earth (courtesy of Lightahome) |
Now the internet may have had a negative effect on sales for
high street shops but one thing it is great for is finding unusual items that
you can’t get in your everyday store. Double insulated lights, I discovered,
was one of those things. After a quick search we ended up looking through the Lightahome
website at their class 2 range because it seemed thorough. The gentleman on the
other end of the phone was also very helpful so we ordered from them. A few
days later our package arrived and thankfully our nice friendly electrician was
more than happy to install the lights. Cost us another packet of biscuits mind
you but at least it kept my wife happy. Now back to the football!
(Thank you to Jeremy from Doncaster for his time writing this post!)
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