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Big difference between the pragmatic answer, that the neutral is derived from earth where the supply enters your house, and the real world answers. The neutral is a return path for current. You would absolutely need to sleeve the neutral with yellow/green sleeving at the visible ends to have a chance of passing regulations. I'm struggling to see what danger it poses to anyone encountering the wiring along it's run.
One thing it might change is resistance which might affect breaker operation, my guess is that would be too small to have that effect though.
It's not something that professional electricians are going to recommend you do though. Lingering in the back of my mind is the worry that the cable may break down further or you may have a bigger risk of a live screw or nail somewhere.
Lastly the regs probably don't permit it somewhere.
Airhead-
Yeah - i remember when pulling the cable through holes in the roof joists that i pinched it - i was too lazy/fucked off with life at the time to properly check so i'm assuming i broke the outer insulation and the grey cables insulation which means its now touching the earth.
@Nef - my worry is yours - the cable is looped under PIR insulation sandwiched between it and the ceiling - so my mind thinks fire risk?
I really can't bring myself to re-do the ceiling though
there is a lesson here somewhere
terlg
To the sparks on here - i managed to damage the bathroom fan three-core and earth cable when redoing our bathroom. So when i came to wire in the fan it the moment you turn on the light it shorts. Theres continuity between the grey (used as a neutral and the earth) so assumed i pinched it.
The fan works with no issue just on the humidistat (so without a switched line triggered from the light) but ideally we'd have both.
Is there an issue using the earth as the neutral if the fan doesn't need to be earthed (class II) - i'm sure it's not allowed, but pragmatically whats the risk? I'm not keen on ripping down the ceiling and insulation to recable...