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EU electrical safety standard higher than UK standard.

C

calmyrself

I was asked by a client to put up a couple of Chrome bathroom wall fittings, bought from John Lewis. There was no earth terminal, only live and neutral. I rang JL and was told, that most bathroom lights, had no earth, as the cables were double insulated. Yet the shell of the fitting is metal. I was told that it is considered safe by the EU standard, and has has been passed safe by an independent assessor.

I told the JL MAN, you can have all the insulation you want on the cable, if the live cable came loose, through vibration or poor connection in the terminal, you have a very dangerous situation, especially in a bathroom. He was adamant, that the fitting was fine as he had all the paperwork to say it was. He went on to tell me the EU standard, ( EN 60335) was higher than the UK standard. Anyone come across this situ.
 
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You're spot on. I've done all that. Spoken to the manufacturer, JL a couple of times. There is def no secondary, or reinforced insulation on the casing or shell of the fitting. The only thing that is double insulated is the cable, and that seems to be at the core of what they call safety. i know, shop staff, just get told what to say. The company/ manufacturer gets the fittings made in china, had a mate with a wholesalers check them out. I put it in writing to trading standards. Even with all that, they hold firm to the fact that it complies to EN60335, EU standard, and the independent assessment, saying it is safe. Fella in the shop said, we've been selling them for years and no one has complained. i said, maybe there all dead.!!
 
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BS EN 60335 is harmonised European standard and therefore there is no problem with fitting these wall lights. If you look at BS7671, Appendix 1, you will see that BS EN 60335 is a refered standard. Appendix 1 is normative (to be complied with) so any standard that is listed automatically complies with the requirements of BS7671.
You will also find that the metalwork is insulated for live parts by reinforced or supplementary insulation in order to meet that standard and is therefore a Class 2 accessory.
 
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She probably got someone else to install them who was happy to do so in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and therefore with BS7671.

There was a post here recently about a Swedish-made binding machine which the manufacturer reckoned was class 2 (it had exposed metalwork) but didn't have the concentric squares symbol on it. It seems they don't bother with that in the rest of Europe.
 
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Had it with external coach lights, I started to earth them, and asked why no-one in the past had. Looked at the instructions, stated class 2 double insulated.

Think they were JL fittings as well, looked and examined the back of the fitting and there was a thick piece of material between the area where the terminal block is situated and the outer cast metallic casing.

So they must be saying, the fitting could never become live under fault. Ill have another look at one later/tomorrow.
 
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