DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,
I'm replacing a faulty bathroom fan that was installed prior to me taking ownership of my flat.

When removing the old fan prior to installing the new one I noticed that instead of using an earth wire, a second neutral wire had been connected to the earth screw on the device.

Although this is most certainly contrary to wiring regulations, is this unsafe to:
- the user (given that the device is operated by a pull cord only); and also
- the device itself - can it cause damage?

Thanks for your help.

Brad

Hi this seems most unlikely to be the case,
are you sure the '2nd neutral' is not in fact an earth but wrongly sleeved with a piece of black instead of green/yellow?

To assume is dangerous one needs as always to test. To test if a wire is neutral or earth normally one needs to switch off the main isolator. I have in the past had a problem in where colours are not to be trusted working out what is neutral and what is earth.

Many fans have two lines and as a result it needs more than two core and earth so it is possible that the colours are wrong. So question is how do you know it's a neutral wire?