I am long winded. Bear with me.

1. This past month, I decided to change 1 power socket in my house. The power socket cannot be screwed to the internal box anymore so I was trying to figure out how to fix this. I tried buying those cassette repair devices but they don't work. Don't buy them!

2. In the end I changed it to a dual power socket with an external PVC nut box that I used to hide the hole. I also used liquid nails because I didn't want to drill holes because the socket is below a window. This may be a mistake.

3. Because the internal wires were too short, I had to put wire connectors and extend them with new wires. Previously, the two blacks were wrapped together, the two greens were wrapped together and the two whites were wrapped together. I unwrapped them, and put them into wire connectors and then attached new wires to the wire connectors. All 6 wires were then put into the external nut box where I then put the two black, two green and two red/ white wires into their respective holes in the new dual power socket. It works so far.

4. I used a socket tester to test and noticed no earth wire. I thought at first it's not a problem because all the power sockets in my room said no earth wire. But when I tested in other rooms and the kitchen there was earth wire!

5. I found out 2 rooms + 1 bath (dry) has no earth wire. They are all adjoining to each other. I pressed the button on the socket tester but nothing happened?

6. I spoke to electrician and he didn't seem too concerned except he said don't use heavy appliance in the room. He said only 3 pin plug appliances and metal products will be affected and this was when I recalled that when I used to charge my Macbook Pro I would feel the current when I charged it. Now it all makes sense. He said if I charge laptop and all, it should be OK. He said the lights and ACs should not be affected...

7. He said I can pull an earth wire from a good power socket from another room to a socket in the room(s) that don't have earth wire and it should be OK because it's in a loop?

My questions

1. Could it be 1 power socket that is causing the earth wire now to be broken in the circuit? I remember we had 1 power socket that blew out a multi-usb adapter because we plugged in 2 wireless mics to charge. The power socket still works but if I change it do you think it will solve my earth wire problem? Or if I changed all my power sockets in those 2 rooms + 1 bath?

2. If I bought an RCD adapter (with 3 pin) for certain power points (like bathroom) is that sufficient? Right now, this charges 2 pin appliances only

3. Can this all be fixed at the box and can I add an RCD there or change out the circuit breakers for those rooms?

4. I went to the apartment unit below me to check and noticed only 1 power socket doesn't have earth wire but the rest have in the same areas my rooms. Is that the power socket problem?

I just find pulling a new earth wire from around my house to this part of my house is too much. There must be 1 central point the earth wire is incoming from for this part of my house to be affected and that just needs to be fixed...

Update: OK I added the photos

This post has been edited by pigduck: Sep 21 2023, 07:15 PM


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Yeah done!

Is there no other way but this?

1 No cable has died
2. Electrician has not come yet. I just plugged in the socket tester into the sockets to test
3. OK I might buy the RCD adapter in the mean time for bathroom
4. And eventually I should install RCDs in the DB
5. Good to know that I can probably get the earth wires back in working order from the DB
6. Ours is metal DB now but it kena rain leaking before and probably a few more times that I wasn't aware of
7. Very old place. 30+ years and I never realised the no earth wire problem until I tested with the socket tester.
8. So I still need to tap from nearest socket? This is something I am trying not to do because it will look ugly.
9. I looked at my DB box and noticed that there is a power ring for sockets in the two rooms. Could the earth wire at the dB box for this circuit breaker be broken?

This post has been edited by pigduck: Sep 22 2023, 06:34 PM


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1. Yes OK change the main RCD to 30ma, check continuity of the ring circuit and tag neutral wires in the DB
2. Yes it is under red (top) 32a power socket ring circuit for R3/R2 - it apparently covers the service room too but that room based on my socket testing is OK.
3. Can this be earth wire be manually dismantled from the busbar? The RCCB didn't trip when it got wet? In fact, thinking about it now, we had a pipe burst in the bathroom VERY close to the power switch in the bathroom - can the earth wire get wet then stop working?
4. Are you saying that say within 1 of the power socket ring circuit, we could have some wires touching in the two sockets that are killing the earth wire circuit?


This post has been edited by pigduck: Sep 22 2023, 10:48 PM

1. OK so this power socket ring starts from DB and ends at DB - I need to figure out where is the entry point and where is the end point when it comes to the sockets in the affected area.
2. The lazy electrician just wanted to tap from a good existing socket. He did mention a loop but maybe for easy method it is to tap but it is ugly
3. It sounds more effective to figure out which socket is the start from DB and which is the end to the DB because it is a loop.
4. If I remember correctly, we used to have an instant water heater that we removed after awhile in this bathroom but that is more than 15 years ago. Maybe this was when they dismantled the earth wire.
5. So if this is a power socket ring, and if 1 socket 'disconnected' the earth wire and broke the ring, then the entire section will not have earth wire, right?
6. Or does it mean that if 1 socket 'disconnected' the earth wire, the rest of the ring will still have earth wire connection? Since now is a whole section of the house or at least under 1 MCB that doesn't have earth so it makes sense it was disconnected at the busbar. We will only know if they open up the DB, right?
7. I will check by turning off the 32a MCB tomorrow to see.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Sep 23 2023, 12:15 AM


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Based on the paper that is stuck on the DB, it says it is a power socket ring. I have no idea why they cut out the earth wire in this ring

I think from my photos, the ELCB is 63A?

The electrician doesn't want to look at the DB and just wants to drag a new earth wire from the nearest socket. 😓