We just had a bloke round from Scottish Gas to fit a new meter. I was
out at the time but he told my wife that there was a current flowing
through the earth connection from our fuse box to the gas pipe. He
didn't seem to mind working on the system and said not to bother when
my wife offered to turn off the electrics before he started working.
However she's now worried about whether or not there's a problem with
the electicity supply.

Is this something I need to be worried about? We've never had any
problem with shocks or the like from any of the pipes in the house.

Thanks

wrote:
We just had a bloke round from Scottish Gas to fit a new meter. I was
out at the time but he told my wife that there was a current flowing
through the earth connection from our fuse box to the gas pipe. He
didn't seem to mind working on the system and said not to bother when
my wife offered to turn off the electrics before he started working.
However she's now worried about whether or not there's a problem with
the electicity supply.

Is this something I need to be worried about? We've never had any
problem with shocks or the like from any of the pipes in the house.

Thanks

You mean "Scottish Power Manweb"? if you had currant flowing through the
earth I think you would know about it. :-)
--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Or "current". :-)
--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

wrote in message
ups.com...
We just had a bloke round from Scottish Gas to fit a new meter. I was
out at the time but he told my wife that there was a current flowing
through the earth connection from our fuse box to the gas pipe. He
didn't seem to mind working on the system and said not to bother when
my wife offered to turn off the electrics before he started working.
However she's now worried about whether or not there's a problem with
the electicity supply.

Is this something I need to be worried about? We've never had any
problem with shocks or the like from any of the pipes in the house.

Thanks


It MIGHT be simply a small potential, caused by one of a number of reasons,
existing between the consumer unit earth terminal and the pipework but it
could be something much more serious such as failing insulation on an
appliance in the house. If you are not au fait with, or equipped for,
carrying out a proper electrical system test I suggest you get a
professional in to investigate. Don't cross your fingers and hope.

wrote:
We just had a bloke round from Scottish Gas to fit a new meter. I was
out at the time but he told my wife that there was a current flowing
through the earth connection from our fuse box to the gas pipe. He
didn't seem to mind working on the system and said not to bother when
my wife offered to turn off the electrics before he started working.
However she's now worried about whether or not there's a problem with
the electicity supply.

Is this something I need to be worried about? We've never had any
problem with shocks or the like from any of the pipes in the house.

Thanks


I dont know if he was right or not, one can draw that conclusion
wrongly. If he is, it may be nothing of any significance, or it may be
live to earth leakage that may increase at any time, adds to your bill,
and may cause something to burn.

If it were mine I'd put a clamp ammeter on it and see what the current
is. If it turns out to be a big fat raisin it might need sorting out.
Then, with no-one else in the house, I'd disconnect the bond and see
what pd is across it. Then a picture should emerge as to whats going
on. Dont do the disconnect/measure if youre not sufficiently skilled
though, as it could make normally safe objects live.


NT

wrote in message
ups.com...
wrote:
We just had a bloke round from Scottish Gas to fit a new meter. I was
out at the time but he told my wife that there was a current flowing
through the earth connection from our fuse box to the gas pipe. He
didn't seem to mind working on the system and said not to bother when
my wife offered to turn off the electrics before he started working.
However she's now worried about whether or not there's a problem with
the electicity supply.

Is this something I need to be worried about? We've never had any
problem with shocks or the like from any of the pipes in the house.

Thanks


I dont know if he was right or not, one can draw that conclusion
wrongly. If he is, it may be nothing of any significance, or it may be
live to earth leakage that may increase at any time, adds to your bill,
and may cause something to burn.

If it were mine I'd put a clamp ammeter on it and see what the current
is. If it turns out to be a big fat raisin it might need sorting out.
Then, with no-one else in the house, I'd disconnect the bond and see
what pd is across it. Then a picture should emerge as to whats going
on. Dont do the disconnect/measure if youre not sufficiently skilled
though, as it could make normally safe objects live.


NT
The fitter should have just strapped out the meter with a temporary bond,
how would he know ?

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:44:04 +0000 (UTC), "powerstation"
wrote:




NT
The fitter should have just strapped out the meter with a temporary bond,
how would he know ?

Current procedure is that most people involved in meterwork are issued
with a device commonly known as a voltstick which is specified to
indicate a contact voltage of 50v or more. The reason why these are
issued is that there have been a number of recent deaths and serious
inuries involving gas workers involved in meter work. We can speculate
as to why this is so. My thoughts are that it is becuase of the
upsurge in diy electricians and poorly trained/unqualified people
doing electrical work which leads to current flow on piping/earthing
systems.

As Gasmen are not electricians they are advised to test pipework where
they are working with the voltstick. If it glows there is a procedure
in place for informing the customer.

An inspection would then be advised to confirm/isolate the fault. The
use of continuity bonding leads should ensure that there is no risk of
injury to the engineer when he changes the meter.

As i say,in years gone by,bonding leads were thought of as almost
superfluous/not needed but these days they are a definate MUST becuase
the number of incidents has risen sharply.




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tarquinlinbin wrote:

As i say,in years gone by,bonding leads were thought of as almost
superfluous/not needed but these days they are a definate MUST becuase
the number of incidents has risen sharply.

During meter changes, sure, and temporary connections can be clamped on
by the person doing the work. For daily domestic use they are of little
significance.

NT

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 14:43:39 +0000, tarquinlinbin wrote:

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:44:04 +0000 (UTC), "powerstation"
wrote:




NT
The fitter should have just strapped out the meter with a temporary bond,
how would he know ?

Current procedure is that most people involved in meterwork are issued
with a device commonly known as a voltstick which is specified to
indicate a contact voltage of 50v or more. The reason why these are
issued is that there have been a number of recent deaths and serious
inuries involving gas workers involved in meter work. We can speculate
as to why this is so. My thoughts are that it is becuase of the
upsurge in diy electricians and poorly trained/unqualified people
doing electrical work which leads to current flow on piping/earthing
systems.

As Gasmen are not electricians they are advised to test pipework where
they are working with the voltstick. If it glows there is a procedure
in place for informing the customer.

An inspection would then be advised to confirm/isolate the fault. The
use of continuity bonding leads should ensure that there is no risk of
injury to the engineer when he changes the meter.

As i say,in years gone by,bonding leads were thought of as almost
superfluous/not needed but these days they are a definate MUST becuase
the number of incidents has risen sharply.


Increasingly the water main is plastic so if the main earthing terminal or
(earth rod on a TT supply) is disconnected the gas main becomes the only
effective earth path. If there are a couple of leaky non RCD protected
appliances let alone one wired up wrong, the removal of the gas meter
becomes a serious hazard.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

Increasingly the water main is plastic so if the main earthing terminal or
(earth rod on a TT supply) is disconnected the gas main becomes the only
effective earth path. If there are a couple of leaky non RCD protected
appliances let alone one wired up wrong, the removal of the gas meter
becomes a serious hazard.

Gas mains are often plastic too

John Rumm wrote:
powerstation wrote:

Gas mains are often plastic too


Often when this is the case, the final pipe to the customers house is
still metal though.

Or in our case, although the gas pipe is plastic all the way into the
house, the plastic runs inside the old metal pipe.

Chris

--
Cut along the dotted line to reply

In article ,
Chris wrote:
Or in our case, although the gas pipe is plastic all the way into the
house, the plastic runs inside the old metal pipe.

Same here - wonder how they manage it as it appears to be a tight fit.

--
*I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 11:02:52 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Chris wrote:
Or in our case, although the gas pipe is plastic all the way into the
house, the plastic runs inside the old metal pipe.

Same here - wonder how they manage it as it appears to be a tight fit.
The polyethylene gas pipe (new plastic one) is commonly 20mm diameter
for most domestic properties and will therefore easily feed up a
typical old 1" bsp steel service pipe. The threaded end of the old
steel pipe is then fitted with a new service head adaptor which
connects to the new plastic pipe. The annualr space between the old
steel service and the new plastic service is filled with a special
filler which is pumped in in liquid form and then sets due to chemical
reaction between the constituents. In difficult situations, i.e old
steel services which have bends,there is another material known as
flexserve which is a kind of corrugated PE pipe which can be fed round
bends more readily with the aid of special tooling. The internal
termination is similar.



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