Lighting circuits on old (1950) house .

[Oldskool]

Good day !

I have recently finished rewiring my old house from open wiring to everything now with flat twin + earth .
All the light switches (and plugs) are steel boxes connected to 20mm (or whatever the size was in 1950)steel conduits which protrude into
the roof space . All the conduits have about a 60 degree bend running parallel to the ceiling . They all have a brass bush on the threaded end . All the conduits are bonded together with open earthwire and to the main DB and also to a steel water supply pipe . I will replace this with an earth spike .

For the lighting circuits , I have have fastened plastic Major Tech type junction boxes as close to the protruding pipes as possible . I have fitted a plastic 32mm adaptor to the box with a 32mm flexible plastic conduit from there to fitting over the steel conduit end . 25mm does not fit over the brass bush .

I have taken red 1.5mm panelflex to and from the light switch through the steel and plastic flex conduit into the junction box . The supply to the box and from the box to the light fitting is flat twin + earth. All my connections in the box have been done with Wago connectors - I only discovered them recently and they are a pleasure to work with . I used bootlace ferrules on the flex at the light switch side but not on the Wago side .

My light switches are all Crabtree with steel cover plates . I do not like the plastic stuff . I recently discovered (thanks to the Forum) that I must have an earth wire to the light switch . I am busy pulling in 1.5mm insulated earth wire from each junction box to each switch box . Should I earth from the terminal on the switch carrier plate to the steel box as well ?

My junction boxes have the rubber type 'gland' and I have slit them and pushed my flat twin through that . The cable is saddled to within about 70mm or so from each box . Is this acceptable ?

I have not done any house wiring since about late 1980s and would appreciate any comment or input as to what I have done.

Thank you

[Derlyn]

Good morning brother.

Sounds like what I would have done.

I don't understand your statement "I will replace this with an earth spike".
If your conduits are bonded together and earthed at the DB then that should be sufficient.

Should you earth from the light switch carrier to the steel box as well ? Not necessary. The steel box and conduit are already earthed. The carrier must be earthed separately so that it is still earthed when removed from the wall box.

[Oldskool]

Earthing from DB

Hi Derlyn !
Thanks so much for your reply .

My question then about earth at the DB . The original DB was a big wooden box mounted to the wall surface . I replaced this a while back with a steel surface mount box . I took the earth wire from that wooden box and fastened it to the earth bar in the DB . The only place that earth goes to is the steel pipe I mentioned .The steel conduits coming down to the DB terminate into an open steel box recessed into the wall behind the DB .There is no connection between the DB and the recessed box and conduits . Am I missing some point here ?
I wish to remove the steel water pipe as it is no longer used .
My mains supply is an overhead L and N coming from the smart meter unit on the pole outside .
I see also that the corrugated iron roof is connected to the earth system in a couple of places .

Your experience is much appreciated .

Thank you .

[Derlyn]

Is there no stubby/meter box on the outside wall of the house somewhere. I know sometimes the overhead goes from the roofbox to a stubby/meter box and then to the DB. In most cases the neutral is earthed in that box.

On those old wooden DB's, the neutral was usually earthed on the DB somewhere, with a label indicating such.

In your case, if there's no meter box, then hit in a spike.

[Oldskool]

The supply wires come directly to a conduit in the roof which used to go directly to the wooden DB . The main CB and kWh meter were also mounted on the wooden board . The kWh meter was removed when smart meter was installed . The earth and neutral were not connected anywhere and there was no label . I will install a spike and connect it to the earth bar on the steel DB . I have a length of 6mm sq. insulated earth wire to use which I hope will be adequate .

Again , many thanks .