Basic Lighting Question

trotter_inc

Hey sparks!

I have a really basic lighting question for you...I just made a wooden play kitchen for my son and I would like to put a lightbulb and switch in to it so that he can turn the light on/off himself.

Here's the question....I have a spare light bulb casing which has a cable already connected to it, this cable has a blue and brown wire but no earth (Im sure this is the norm for lighting cables which come down from the ceiling). I would simply like to connect the light bulb and switch to a plug so I can move the kitchen around if I need to.

Can I just connect the blue and brown wires in to a normal 3 pin plug and not have an earth wire connected? To me that doesn't seem right and that's why I've posted here. Or, do I need to connect a 3 wire (earth, brown and blue) to the light casing instead of the 2 wire? I'm sure I looked at the light casing and there appeared to be only holes for 2 wires.

I hope my question is clear, thanks for the help!

Tommy

Avns1s

You can connect the 2 wires to the plug and it'll be fine.

However, I would be concerned about what will happen if something hits agains the bulb and breaks it. You will very likely have a live part that wouldn't be in your sons best interests. Alternatively, if your son removes the buld, he could get a nasty shock or worse.

trotter_inc

Avns1s wrote: »

You can connect the 2 wires to the plug and it'll be fine.

However, I would be concerned about what will happen if something hits agains the bulb and breaks it. You will very likely have a live part that wouldn't be in your sons best interests. Alternatively, if your son removes the buld, he could get a nasty shock or worse.

Thanks for the prompt response! Yeah, I figured that something might not be fully right without having an earth on the plug. Is there an alternative here?

TheChizler

Avns1s wrote: »

However, I would be concerned about what will happen if something hits agains the bulb and breaks it. You will very likely have a live part that wouldn't be in your sons best interests. Alternatively, if your son removes the buld, he could get a nasty shock or worse.

That or he could burn himself! Wouldn't recommend mains voltage in a child's plaything. I'd recommend some of those battery powered push-switch LED under counter lights, you can get them in pound shops and they generally have some sticky backing so they can attach to anything.

TheChizler

This type of thing: http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=10052&itemType=PRODUCT

DublinDilbert

Aldi have them led push lights on special offer, if you want to go down that road.

If your going to put any sort of regular bulb, as others have said make sure it's covered in. A bulk head outdoor light fitting would be best, should be less than €5.