No earth connection - am I missing something ??

[BOULTON]

Hi all,

My Girlfriend has just had her 150 year old house valued (in the centre of Leeds), in which it was pointed out that there didnt appear to by any earth from, the consumer unit to the "service fuse?".

I've had a look at the Consumer unit and whilst all the circuits are earthed, there is no earth wire going anywhere from the consumer unit. Whose responisbility is the earth supply to a domestic premises?
Can I call my electricity company? or am I missing something?

I've looked through the forum and seen the terms "TT, TN-s or TN-C-S"
But i'm not sure how to tell, as there is are only two wires from the fuse to the meter to the CU.

Any assistance would be greatfully recieved.

Boulton

 

[ZenStalinist]

Check on here as to what earth connection you have... Note that the system may be old and you could have no RCD on the TT system, this would need rectifying. Is there an Earth rod anywhere?
First, if it has not been done already, have an electrician to a Periodic Inspection Report. This should alert you to any hazards and violations.
If you then find out you have no Earth, you should contact your REC (see bottom) and ask them if they can supply an Earth, if they cannot, you should get an Earth rod installed and RCD protect all circuits appropriately by an electrician. I wouldn't reccomend it for DIY unless you are *very* experienced with electrics and have lots of equipment, which I suspect is not the case.

REC: In case you don't know, Regional Electric Company. The REC is responsible for providing a connection to your local distribuition grid. RECs include NEDL, YEDL, SP Distribution, SEEBOARD, etc. rather than Vigrin Enegry, British Gas, Npower etc.

 

[plugwash]

from what he says it sounds like he has no earth AT ALL

ring the rec and tell them you suspect there is no earth

they should give you an emergency visit that way

 

[BOULTON]

Plugwash / ZenStalinist,

Many thanks for your replies. looking at the four diagrams the only one that it possibly could be is TT, as there is definitely no earth connection between the Consumer unit and service fuse / meter. (there is no RCD between the consumer unit and the meter either)

Unfortunately due to the consumer units location I cant quite tell if there are any earth cables that could possibly lead to an earth rod, is there any way I could test this with a multimeter?

Is it the local rec's responsibility to supply an earth connection to a householder and if so do you know if it costs? (the reason I ask is the house is going up for sale in the next couple of weeks and I 'd like a quick and cheap (and of course safe . . . ) solution.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Your DNO will tell you what sort of supply you have. I'd be very surprised if it was TT.