Earthing plastic box / metal plate Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[Chris N]

Hi

I think I know the answer to this but being cautious.

I'm changing the light switches in my flat (18 months old) from plastic to metal front plates.

The boxes in the wall are plastic and each seems to have a 2 lots of cable (plus 2 blue wires which are not used - out of interest, what are these for?) with the unused ones screwed into little plastic things. I presume this is to future proof the wiring. At the moment the earth wires are not used as the box/plate are both plastic.

Obviously I will mark the cables and make sure everything is wired the same, plus connect one of the earth cables to the connection on the front plate. Where there are 2 earth wires should I just connect one and leave the other as is? (one of the sockets will be two gang).

Cheers

Chris

[sparx]

hi,
first I think you will find those 'unused' blues are in fact the neutrals for the circuit connected together in the one term block & are very much in use.
As to the earths if indeed the circuit is looped through then it is essential to connect BOTH earths to the switch plate to maintain circuit earthing,
regards

[Chris N]

Thanks for the reply.