On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:01:14 +0000, John Rumm wrote:

You sure?

Yup.

What about a lighting circuit? Or is that on a RCD as well (which in
itself may represent a significant injury risk)?

On 100mA, in a bungalow, and I've got emergency lighting.

What about all your neighbours circuits - you sure they are all RCD
protected? Or are you sure there is no stray earth connection to a
neighbouring property via a shared water or gas main or even a bit of
structural steel work?

My neighbour is 100m away. Water main is plastic. I've got a 25m
copper pipe running to it in contact with the ground. My mains earth
is bonded to it, & to another two 1.5m spikes 20m apart.

What about when a daft JCB driver puts a bucket through the supply and
causes a fault to earth on the supply side of your RCD, still happy you
will be safe?

He'd have to be digging up in the air ;-)

The technical content of BS7671 was not written by a bunch of guys with
nothing better to do, who just get out of bed one day and thought of
jolly ways to keep the electrical contracting trade busy. There is
generally very solid reasoning to back up these concepts, but some of
this stuff is quite subtle.

I realise that, but perhaps over cautious in this day of RCDs? I'm not
against bonding stuff together, mine is, but it's the fanatical way it
is supposed to be done with earth wires connected behind the sink etc.

--
Nigel M