hobgoblins

I have an empty electrical socket on the wall in one of my rooms which I know is live from the one time I brushed against it whilst cleaning ! I have bought a plug socket to put into the wall but notice that there are only two wires in the hole in the wall, no earth wire ... is that normal in older houses here and is it safe to fit the socket with no earth wire ?

duztee

Are you sure it is a socket and not a connection for a light switch?
Older properties do not tend to conform to any accepted regulations, either by the original builder or any intervening DIY'ers.

hobgoblins

Yes, it's for a plug socket ... the light switch is above it and the switch is in place although not in use as there is no light fitting, just four wires hanging out of the ceiling ! I guess I will need to get an electrician to have a look at the wiring horrors in my house ...

duztee

I am NOT an expert, electrical or otherwise.
But your wiring sounds remarkable similar to mine, in a couple of my rooms I have two switches mounted one above the other, in my case the ceiling fitting was originally a combined light/fan unit with one switch for the light and the other for the fan.
Unless you are competent then Yes you need an electrician to sort out which wire does what.
Though I will warn you the first thing they will say is that you need to do a complete re-wire!
Other possibility is that at sometime the room was fitted with wall lights.

Hungarian houses are wired with plugs and lights on the same circuit, so it is not unusual for a plug outlet to simply be fed directly from the switch above., remove the switch to see if an earth wire is hiding in the rats nest which will be behind the cover.

Peter_in_Hungary

It is quite common for older wiring to be installed without an earth. And as said above here lights and power are on the same circuit. This is fitted up radial fashion from the consumer unit rather than as a ring main as in the UK.

Is it safe to use? Well I would say yes - but only if you have a 30mA Earth-leakage circuit breaker (ELCB) or a 30mA Residual-current device (same thing different name) installed on your system. (A lot of modern equipment is double insulated and has no earth wire anyway)

It sounds like you have bare wires about the place - get the ends insulated with insulating tape as a minimum.

hobgoblins

Thanks for the advice Duztee and Peter. I will get someone in who knows what they are doing !