Lights with no earth

It met the safety requirements at the time. Most lights are not metal and in worst case scenario that a metal light fitting became live and someone touched it, it is likely the light will be off at the time (changing a bulb) and if light was on they would be standing on a chair and get a minor shock as a result of being in a chair isolated from the ground.

Typically lights are still not wired into RCDs or elcbs even on new houses as nuisance tripping is more trouble then the extra safety it introduces. On new houses there is an earth at lights for metal light fittings but it barely adds extra protection and it's unlikely anyone in Ireland was ever killed from it.

If you really want to improve safety get an electrician to give all the house a full health check. Replace all old work plug sockets with new ones and ensure water pipers in hot press and under sink are earthed. Check for dodgy wiring and old worn switches and appliances such as immersion heaters.

Do t charge phones at night as these are major killers and fit smoke alarms in all rooms except kitchen.

All lighting circuits are now required to have rcd protection

Yes you can put lights on a shared rcd but the preference is one for upstairs lights and another for downstairs(careful about landing light neutral).obviously the more rcds the better.don’t put them on the socket rcd. the new distribution boards come prewired with 2 rcbo’s(and surge protectors.

There won't even be a minor shock standing on a chair, via the path through the chair anyway, unless the chair is conductive, connected to the ground and not laminate floor etc, and the user is in bare feet. Doesn't happen. The path through a wooden chair would be multi mega-ohms.

There could be a nice surprise between 2 or more points of contact with the light fitting itself, ie - fingers across the pins as one example.

Opening up a can of worms installing an rcd on existing lighting circuits with the possibility of nuisance tripping. Rec will have to test and provide a certificate.they’ll have to issue a notice of potential hazard with no earths and any other issues he sees when he removes the cover of the distribution board . Unlikely they’ll do it.

Just to add a comment, my bathroom light packed in the other day, it’s a led array so I can’t just replace the bulb. I picked up a new light to replace it. The new light has an earth wire, but where I was going to install doesn’t have an earth wire. Will it be ok just to hook it up as is without having a spark to put an earth connect in?