Help needed with Light Fixture

[FlashyFeeds]

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Recently moved to an Altbau building, which is a German term for an old house. And picked up this light fixture from someone on ebay (Picture 2) which has to be connected to the following electric box (picture 1)



Written description of what is going on in those pictures

1) The building is old and the electric box has only 2 entries - neutral and hot. On the picture the blue wire is neurtal and brown one is hot.

2) The fixture itself has 2 ground cables (green cables with yellow stripes) - one with a normal conducting cylinder on top (the part that goes into a the electric box that has a any kind of standard clamp) and the second ground cable that has a weird loop on it's end. Both of these loops are connected with a screw to the same metal plate.

Next on the fixture itself there is a transparent PVC cable with 3 exits. All 3 of them are identically wired. One of them has a green stripe. This striped cable goes back into a copper clam, that is in contact with the metal plate, to which there are both of the ground cables attached. Plate and the clam together are separated from the remainder of the construction by a plastic holder for the PVC(black holder)

Now here is where 2 of my main problems come:
1) How can I determine which one of the remaining 2 transparent cables is the neutral and which one is hot, so I can connect it with the electric box in the celling. Does this lamp care, which cable is connected to hot and which one to neutral.
2) What do I do with both of these ground cables.

Current standing assumptions:
1) The transparent cable with the green stripe from the PVC cable is the ground cable for the lamp. Since probably the previous owners of the fixture also didn't have a ground cable in the electric box, the electrician who installed the fixture made a different kind of protection measure:
Namely the ground cable goes from the lamp into copper clamp, then to the plate and then these 2 wires are missing some kind of Protective element X, that would soak up the excess charge in case of a short circuit. What is this element X, so I can buy it and deal with the ground cables.
2) The fixture doesn't care about the hot neutral. That is very unlikely as I couldn't find anything like this on the forums.

Before I go on and install the fixture I would like someone with experience to answer these questions, so I don't accidentaly burn down the flat.

Thank you

 

[westward10]

Unless the cable protruding from the wall has a ground to connect those green/yellow wires you should not fit it. This is a UK based forum predominantly but it is worldwide so unless someone on here is more au fait with German requirements then I can only judge from what we would do in the UK.

 

[FlashyFeeds]

Unless the cable protruding from the wall has a ground to connect those green/yellow wires you should not fit it. This is a UK based forum predominantly but it is worldwide so unless someone on here is more au fait with German requirements then I can only judge from what we would do in the UK.

There is a super basic light bulb connected to it. Simple hot to hot and neutral to neutral. Sadly the landlord is a dick and unless he manages to kick out every tenant out of the house, he will not do full renovations/rewiring, it's an old building in an area that is in the Early stages of gentrification.

 

[westward10]

You could try stripping the cable back to see if there is a cut off ground but if there is no ground we cannot advise you to fit the new light.

 

[brianmoooore]

You need to find a double insulated light fitting. This will have a symbol on it consisting of two squares, one inside the other, and will not require an earth connection.

 

[FlashyFeeds]

You could try stripping the cable back to see if there is a cut off ground but if there is no ground we cannot advise you to fit the new light.

So I made a bit of progress here. I was able to detect which cable on the light fixture is hot and which one is cold using multimeter and some tests with the circuit and I marked them accordingly. 100% certain I did it correctly.

You need to find a double insulated light fitting. This will have a symbol on it consisting of two squares, one inside the other, and will not require an earth connection.

Is there a way to tweak the existing light fitting to achieve the same result?

 

[westward10]

That light requires a ground so no it cannot be "tweaked" unless it is totally redesigned.

 

[DanMcLiverpool]

So I made a bit of progress here. I was able to detect which cable on the light fixture is hot and which one is cold using multimeter and some tests with the circuit and I marked them accordingly. 100% certain I did it correctly.

I feel like you're entirely missing the point of what westward's trying to advise. You're kind of wasting your time unless you are able to ground this light fitting. You can work out which core is which and get 'working' (i.e. the light on) but without it earthed it is an accident (a horrible accident) waiting to happen. If you're not able to earth this, you're taking a risk fitting it.

 

[brianmoooore]

Is there a way to tweak the existing light fitting to achieve the same result?

Definitely not! Return the light to where it came from, bin it or install it somewhere where there is an earth wire.

 

[FlashyFeeds]

Definitely not! Return the light to where it came from, bin it or install it somewhere where there is an earth wire.

I did get a double insulated for my flat and installed it. Thank you for the advice. Do you know what to do with the lamp from my question? I am still not sure about these 2 ground wires. My gf wants the posted lightfitting at hers and she has the ground wire in the electric box.