JohnRoss Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Had cause to temporarily remove a wall mounted 2kW panel heater and noticed something odd about the wiring. The heater is metal bodied but there is no sign of an earth wire. The three wires in the cable coming out of the back of the heater are Brown, Blue and Black. The brown and blue are connected to live and neutral but the black is not connected to anything. I am assuming the black is some remote switching facility as the heater does have a prog position on the control switch. The feed to the junction box in which the heater is connected has a live and neutral connected by choc block to the heater and an earth wire, not connected and a fourth wire, which I assume is the remote switching circuit, also not connected. The only label I can find on the heater bears the NF and CE symbols and gives the power rating 2000W, a number NR2 ET20, Constructeur No 229, 43/98 and Cat B. I am concerned that despite being a metal construction there is no earth in the manufacturers cable coming out of the heater. Does anyone recognise this heater and is it safe to assume that it has double insulation and does not need an earth?....................................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Yes they are all like that [:(] if you look you will probably find the double insulation symbol (a square within a square I think) It seems bizzare to me also that metal bodied appliances dont need to have the casing earthed, I know that if it is fed by a disjoncteur differntial then it should be safe but I would rather that the disjoncteur protecting the circuit would saut as soon as the casing bacame live rather than waiting for someone to touch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRoss Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 Ah yes and thanks it does bear such a symbol. I always thought the rule was that if an appliance had a metal body which could become live under a fault situation then it had to be earthed but maybe not now! Come to think of it my electric drill is only two pin and yet does have some exposed metal work. I would not like to put my faith in the house differential trip rated at 500mA as ours is as I gather that it only takes 30mA to kill someone. Still thanks for the info and will find something else to worry about now..................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Yes the black wire is "fil de pilote" for remote control and should be left unconnected if the panel is just on local control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 In the same vein...the wiring in our place is clearly the product of several deranged peasant minds (Absolutely no offence intended...I aspire to be one...peasant that is...deranged I have down pat already)We have junction boxes with no lids spewing forth a multitude of multicouloured cables from rubber and canvas through to modern pvc. we have back to front switching...back t back power and switching containment ie. on one side of the wall is a power outlet and the oter is a light switch........cables run in same containment....etc etc.What tickled me....not in a wriggly singed eyebrows way was to note that having removed the bath panel .........the bath is earthed in modernish green and yellow. Nowt surprising in that except everything else is so hideously wrong I can only suppose that the cable if followed probably has a plug top on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Do you have the mahogony fuse box to go with it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRoss Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 Why would you earth a bath? Might be a good idea if it was fed by local electric water heater I suppose. Remember what happened to poor Cloclo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Fran%C3%A7ois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Mahogany Dis board...nah...maybe once but the woodworm have had it if so. Bath is connected to an electric water heater which is halfway between the board (dare I call it that..old wired fuses etc) and the ground spike (Which is also a bit flaky)A thought occurs......Do I ask the wife to take a bath?..........Oh Oh!!! Incoming!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 You could, but she might ask you to test the water[6][6]......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 I wonder if you can buy a waterproof multimeter ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Guerriere Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 Oh b** you canhttp://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/41950-multimeter-waterproof-st-9929.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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