Gas main earth bonding has been removed

iep

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We had new elec and gas meters installed a couple of years back. Both meters are in the garage and the gas main passes through the garage along a wall. I was just tidying the garage and noticed that the earth bonding that was attached to the pipes as they entered and exited the old meter have been removed and tucked away by the guy that swapped the meter over. As a result, the exposed copper gas main is no longer bonded to the main earth.

Is this allowed?
 
Probably not but if the feed from the ground is plastic then it might be...
 
There is a problem if a current is passed through a gas pipe, causing it to melt, so any earth connected to a gas pipe needs to be at the correct side of the insulating block/pipe so with a loss of PEN excessive current will not run through the gas pipe.

We see reports of metal theft being blamed for explosions like this
1764413256481.png
where someone has stolen the copper used to earth the PEN, but if the current did not go through the gas pipe to start with, it would still not have happened.

So one assumes the installer knew what he was doing, and there is a reason why the earth cable is not connected, but there is no harm phoning your energy supplier and asking, but don't refit it yourself.
 
. I was just tidying the garage and noticed that the earth bonding that was attached to the pipes as they entered and exited the old meter have been removed and tucked away by the guy that swapped the meter over. As a result, the exposed copper gas main is no longer bonded to the main earth.
Do you mean it had two wires from the meter to the main earth terminal?
 
A photo says a thousand words...

Although if it cannot get so many out it would really help others to understand the situation more :)
 
Sorry, I don't have pic, I reconnected it.

We're on a PME system, there's no ambiguity, we need the gas main earthe bonded. It's an exposed metal pipe that emerges from the ground and runs the length of the internal garage wall (past the meter FFS). It is almost guaranteed to be at a different earth potential than the incoming supply and was always previously bonded prior to the meter swap.

This stuff really does do my head in. I'm not allowed to work on certain sections of my house wiring (for fairly understandable reasons) but, frankly, I'd actually do a better job than half the jokers that I have to hire as a result.

Rant over.
 
The Electrician who I had install our EV charger this weekend confirmed it needed to be earth bonded. He also found that the main incoming leads from the meter were not tightened down in the Henley Terminal Blocks that feed the consumer units. This stuff is really dissapointing.
 
OK I will accept the word of your eletrician that it should be bonded (is an extraneous-conductive-part) because they should know.
Not all pipework is needed to be bonded unless less it is. That might sound strange to some.
If bonding is needed it is safer to have it, if it is not needed it is potentially safer to not have it.
If it is not exactly clear whether it is or is not, plus if that is deemed likely to change from needed to not needed throughout say the seasons or because of likely changing conditions then a judgement call has to be made.

Having said all of that I would usually bond anyway even if I deem it not strictly absolutely nessacary at most times and I would be inclined to consider changing readings over time intervals.
Generally that is the safer option but not always and in some circumstances it could be safer not to bond.

I just wante to see that you had taken reasonable steps to ascertain that and blindly followed any myths. By asking someone who should know so well done you.


Well that is my opinion and there may be other opinions.

As one famous contributor used to say "Everbody is entitled to my opinion" ;)

As an aside, although I have retired I did take charge recently of works by others and I verified visually and by proper testgear readings that the incomming gas supply was not an extraneous-conductiv-part yet there was a boiler there with an earth supply which would make it earthy and the water supply was temporary but the likelihood was that it would become earthy in the near future one a permanent supply was done so I decided that all considered the gas supply was very likely to need the main bonding in the very near future and decided that it should be main bonded and leave it to a future electrician to decide if they wanted to disconnect it.
I do not think there was any other option I could reasonably do!
 
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You would like to hope an EV installer would fix easy and dangerous things when pointed out to them. All of 10 mins to sort.

Don’t they have some basic checks / forms to fill in.

Says a lot about the ev cowboys too
 
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Well if it was like that when they were on site they probably should fix it and its probably fair for them to chrge you a small fee but if they were not present when you asked it might mean a visit to verify and correct sothat fee might be more. Fair`s fair.
 

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