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Thread: Earth wiring for House lights/fans

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    Lightbulb Earth wiring for House lights/fans

    Good day

    I am new on this forum. Would like to ask a simple question regarding AC wiring of a normal house. Most older houses do not have earthing for ceiling lights.

    Therefore, is it allowed to run a single 1.5mm green/yellow wire [House Wire] from light to light without using conduiting, to earth the metal ceiling fans in each room and then connect it properly to cold water pipe ? This is to avoid costs of using twin and earth/surfix as the house is large.
    Alternatively- what is the compliance requirements for this earthing circuit ?

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    This is a common problem where old style houses used steel conduit. Finding ceiling fans and metal fitting with no earth wire attached is one of the most common problems.

    I recently did a test report and COC for a domestic property. The very first point I checked with the earth wire was a ceiling fan, no earth. I asked the customer who installed the ceiling fan, they informed me that all the fans in the house were installed by a qualified electrician who does all the their church members electrical (was told he is very good at what he does). The quick solution was to fit a bonding strap to the steel pipe and drop an earth tail down to the ceiling fan. I only do this if its a hit and run job(no COC issued), where the customer has made it clear that they are broke and don't have money to waste of electrical safety.

    Because in this case I was the person who had to sign the COC, I installed a 6 mm earth wire from the DB earth terminal, to an earth block in the ceiling space, ran a 2.5 mm earth wire to the geyser, bonded the geyser, the satellite dish, then strapped a 1.5 mm wire to the steel conduit to all the light points, where I fitted an earth (copper bonding) strap around the pipe and a lug for both the mains earth, a lug for the tail down to the fan, so even if anyone disconnected the earth wire at the fan, the earth was still connected to the rest of the fans.

    Which brings me to another issue I have found while doing inspection reports. The electrician doesn't join the earth wires at the light fitting because it is plastic, which then results in no earth continuity at points further down the line.

    This is also a common problem when old socket outlets are replaced with plastic sockets and extension boxes. The semi skilled who are dropped on site without supervision don't understand why there is no earth wire, so they just connect the red and black because there is no earth wire.

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    Thank you very much for your detailed reply Isetech. The 1.5mm and 2.5mm was it normal house wire and not Twin/Earth/surfix ?

    I am referring to this wire :

    https://leroymerlin.co.za/house-wire...xoCqtAQAvD_BwE

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    Another thing with fans - They either must be covered by a 30mA E/L or have a double pole isolator.

    Sans 10142 6.16.1.3

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