Hi,
My wife decided to re-decorate the living room. As per usual she perused the typical home furnishing shops of the UK and ended up with some lights fittings which she liked the look of. They are made of metal and have 2 'G9' bulb fitting on a base.
I came to fit them, opened the box, looked at the fitting and said 'eh'. I have never seen a metal double insulated light fitting. Not only that we spent quite a lot on these fittings and I expected something of good quality....
So DI metal light fittings have a terminal black that is enclosed in a small snap shut plastic box, with sleeving attached on end for the incoming mains supply. Lets just say it would be a major squeeze to get the typical UK mains lighting 'twin and earth' into the sleeving and onto the terminal block.
There is a videos online from an online supplier of double insulated light fittings, which shows this kind of sleeving arrangement:
What this video doesn't show is that the terminal block and sleeving would end up inside the base of the light, which on a small light fitting is a squeeze.
What it also does not explain is in the UK it is typical to have the 'switch loop' which is the junction from Mains supply live to the light switch contacts and back within the light fitting. So how do you do that in that double insulated light?? From what I understand the correct way to do this and comply with wiring regulations in the UK it must be done with a separate junction box. What a pain in the arse just to put a lamp fitting up!
There are ways to bodge it such as making your own earth connection on the fitting, remove the double insulated logo, and put a connection block inside the fitting. However this assumes the metal throughout the fitting has a low enough resistance to pass earth bonding tests, and therefore will be able to pass enough current in case of a fault. It’s not the right thing to do really.
Has anyone else come across this?
Is it common to have say 2-core lead for light fittings in Europe, with perhaps the mains supply feeding into the light switch instead of the light?