Pet wrote:
Andy Wade wrote:

snip
For further (fairly technical) background on why the wiring regulations are
as they are I recommend Paul Cook's Commentary - see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0852962371/ (and note the updates
published at http://www.iee.org/Publish/WireRegs/updates.cfm).

HTH

Thanks for your time Andy.
My concern arose after getting a 120v shock from our microwave oven
whilst leaning against the stainless drainer to remove some blinds.

The socket the Microwave was plugged into had a fractured Neutral (not
connected) so, the 120v from the microwave case screw could have been
far greater than a "tingle" if the sink had been bonded?

And, If it were bonded, would such a neutral fault/shock have tripped
the RCD? as on this occasion it didn't.

My feeling is that supplementary bonding wouldn't have made any
difference in the above case.

The sink will almost certainly be pretty solidly connected to your
wiring earth because of the requirement to bond to incoming water main.
Even if that bonding wasn't in place there's a fairly good chance that
the sink will be connected to earth by the pipework anyway. The only
way that the sink could be (relatively) isolated is if it had all
plastic plumbing, in that case you'd be better off it it *wasn't*
bonded in the above scenario.

The real cause of you getting a shock would appear to be that the
earthing on the microwave had failed. If its case had been correctly
connected to the wiring earth you wouldn't have got a shock regardless
of the state of the neutral connection. I don't really understand how
your 'fractured neutral' caused the microwave to be live.

--
Chris Green