Buying an antique hanging light fixture with original wiring

Samthepan · Jul 20, 2020

I am hoping to buy an antique (1929) plafonnier or hanging light fixture.
It has not been rewired since it was first made and, despite living in France for over 40 years, I don't have the faintest idea where I could get it rewired and the equivalent of PAT tested.
Can anyone advise me please?

ackbarthestar · Jul 20, 2020

Tricky one, but as you have married a pretty young French lady it would be probable that one of you will be able to speak the local lingo and employ a local French electrician.
But seriously, It does need rewiring and a PAT. If you are comming back to this country then you could bring it here for a rigourous check over.

Samthepan · Jul 20, 2020

ackbarthestar said:
Tricky one, but as you have married a pretty young French lady it would be probable that one of you will be able to speak the local lingo and employ a local French electrician.
But seriously, It does need rewiring and a PAT. If you are coming back to this country then you could bring it here for a rigorous check over.

Our - admittedly few - encounters with local electricians have not been happy ones. When we moved into our house, we had a super plumber and used his mates (plasterer, tiler, kitchen doer-upper, etc) who were all great except for the electrician whom we could never get hold of as he was always at the beach, surfing.

In the end, it will be up to the tadpoles to sort out what to do with the light, and they will be staying in France in all likelihood, being about 95% French, despite having been brought up bilingual and spending all their summers in England, with my parents. Little brats speak to me in French even when I speak in English, which I reckon I'm losing

So you think the best thing is for me to find a local electrician and have the light fitting rewired here?

ackbarthestar · Jul 21, 2020

I would have thought it would be reasonable to sniff around and find someone trustworthy and 'qualified'. But if you do come back here for a visit then make contact with somebody on this forum who works in your vacinity.

Mike Johnson · Jul 22, 2020

If you are going to have it re-wired and PAT tested in the UK, just make sure the electrician carrying out the works knows the French norms (N FC 15-100) which are different to the UK regulations.