On Monday, 17 February 2020 15:07:36 UTC, John Rumm wrote:
On 17/02/2020 12:24, tabbypurr wrote:
On Monday, 17 February 2020 03:26:14 UTC, John Rumm wrote:
On 16/02/2020 18:49, tabbypurr wrote:
On Sunday, 16 February 2020 15:44:19 UTC, John Rumm wrote:
On 15/02/2020 17:54, tabbypurr wrote:
On Saturday, 15 February 2020 09:59:41 UTC, Robin wrote:
On 15/02/2020 08:35, tabbypurr wrote:
On Friday, 14 February 2020 11:08:57 UTC, Dave Plowman
(News) wrote:
In article , TimW
wrote:
There was an ancient (1950s) steel pipe bringing
mains water into my house under the front room and
then up in the cup'd under the stairs. There there
was a stop cock and it went into copper pipe and onto
the copper a large sleeved earth wire was connected
with a tag on saying "Do Not Remove".

The steel pipe was leaking so I have taken it all out
and replaced with blue plastic pipe. Was looking at
the earth arrangement and wondering if I need to
earth the wiring in another way, into the ground or
something, or are we still earthed through the water
in the plastic pipe out to the outside world?

It was common many many years ago to provide the earth
via the water pipe. Not so today. Get your leccy board
in to sort it out.

It's nothing to do with the leccy board.



Meanwhile what might help Tim is to know that the relevant
function of "Electricity Boards" was transferred as part of
the privatisation of the industry to distribution network
operators (DNOs). As John has already pointed out they can
and do deal with earthing - although they may charge (and
will require main bonding to be up to current requirements
before they supply PME).

https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/electricity/earthing

The job required is on the OP's installation, not a job for
the DNO on their equipment.

Well its both... You could wire up your installation as if it
were TN-C-S, but that would not be a sensible thing to do if
the DNO had not constructed or upgraded the local distribution
network to support it.

all that's required is to equi bond the water pipe. AFAIK
suppliers don't provide neutral earth terminals on non-PME
supplies.

Yup sorry, I think I misread that last post slightly. Assuming in
the OPs installation its confirmed as the supply being PME, then
indeed all that is required is replacing the missing bond.

My comment above is the more general version - that if the supply
status is unknown, the enquiry wit the DNO may be the only *sure*
way of establishing if its safe to make use of the suppliers
neutral for the local earth.

(The type of cutout does not tell you much since they often the
same type for all TN supplies - the only difference being whether
the internal link joining N & E is fitted).

There are a lot of noncompliant supply incomers around, but they were
all compliant at time of installation. Eg 30A rated, touchable live
parts, dp fusing, asbestos etc. To the best of my knowledge it has
never been compliant to provide a neutral earth from a non-PME
supply, hence I would not expect to ever see a non-PME neutral earth
connection in this country. If you want to check with the DNO you
can, but is there any realistic basis for the claimed need to?

Say you wanted to convert from TT to PME. If your cutout installation
predated the network upgrade but was otherwise of an appropriate type,
then you would need to check with the DNO prior to fitting the missing
link (or more likely having them fit it)

Are you saying some sparks were in the habit of fitting a supplier's neutral to MET link on TT feeds, and using only that for the house's earth system? If so I wasn't aware one could buy the links, nor that sparks were being so irresponsoble.


NT