Bonding a towel rail

[amatureleccy]

Have just installed a new towel rail and am wondering about where to attach the bonding.

The towel rail has two copper pipes coming up out of the floor. Can I just connects the pipes together under the floor and then run the earth cable to the fittings in the room that are already bonded.

What I am trying to avoid is having unsightly earth cable in visible areas.

Thanks.

 

[giblets]

What I am trying to avoid is having unsightly earth cable in visible areas.

You and 90% of the rest of the population! Some of 'em don't even want to see pipes!

Some towel rails have bonding points fitted to them. Might be worth asking the same question in the Leccy section.

 

[Paul Barker]

The towel rail doesn't have to be bonded. If the pipes come from outside the bathroom in copper they do. If they are just copper drops they don't.

If they do come from outside the bathroom in copper and you can confirm continuity you can bond them in an adjacent airing cupboard. They have to be bonded to each other and to any other copper services that are in the bath/shower room and the protective conductor of any electrical appliances in zones 1, 2 or 3(within 3 meters of bath or shower door). use 4mm csa. If there are no electrical appliances take the bonding to the light fitting cpc.

middle of next year bathroom lights and electrical applainces will be suplementary protected by rcd instead of suplementary equipotential bonding. Some electricians in this town are working to those regs already. . I would continue with bonding and provide the soon to be required rcd protection also until the new regs apply whence I would take off the bonding..

 

[Taylortwocities]

middle of next year bathroom lights and electrical applainces will be suplementary protected by rcd instead of suplementary equipotential bonding. Some electricians in this town are working to those regs already. . I would continue with bonding and provide the soon to be required rcd protection also until the new regs apply whence I would take off the bonding..

The new regs have not yet been completed nor agreed and there is no certainty over any part of it until it has been published as BS7671 2008.

FFS Those electricians working to the draft are daft. In particular they are supposed sign a certificate for each piece of work that they do that says
"....I CERTIFY that the said work for which I have been responsible is to the best of my knowledge and belief in accordance with BS 7671 : 2001, amended to 2004. "

There is no option to certify that the work complies with somthing that has not yet been ratified or might be ratified at sometime in the future.

 

[Paul Barker]

Quite right.

 

[Doctor Drivel]

The towel rail doesn't have to be bonded. If the pipes come from outside the bathroom in copper they do. If they are just copper drops they don't.

If they do come from outside the bathroom in copper and you can confirm continuity you can bond them in an adjacent airing cupboard. They have to be bonded to each other and to any other copper services that are in the bath/shower room and the protective conductor of any electrical appliances in zones 1, 2 or 3(within 3 meters of bath or shower door). use 4mm csa. If there are no electrical appliances take the bonding to the light fitting cpc.

middle of next year bathroom lights and electrical applainces will be suplementary protected by rcd instead of suplementary equipotential bonding. Some electricians in this town are working to those regs already. . I would continue with bonding and provide the soon to be required rcd protection also until the new regs apply whence I would take off the bonding..

Does this mean no bonding in a bathroom at all if an RCBO is fitted on the lighting circuit? An RCBO can just virtually replace the MCB. Can it?

If there is a whole house RCB, is there no need for bonding at all? Even now, not next year.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Right now bonding is necessary, period. When the new regs come out it may be different, only maybe.

By the way, there should not be a single 30mA RCD as the main switch in an installation. This would count as a single point of failure and is against regs.

 

[Doctor Drivel]

If the rumors are correct, by just fitting an RCBO on the lighting circuit, this would eliminate the bonding around the bathroom - which is probably the most misinterpted piece of reg ever. Just fit an RCBO on the upstairs lighting circuit and all is sorted.

 

[RF Lighting]

NO IT ISN'T

The 17th edition is still in DPC form, and therefore everthing written within it might or might not happen.


You MUST work to the CURRENT edition of BS 7671, regardless of what rumours you may have heard.


Have you read the 17th edition DPC? RCDing the bathroom lights does not guarantee compliance with the proposals within the 17th edition

 

[Chri5]

Deep breaths guys, R F is spot on- It's like saying the motorways will be lifted to 80mph in 2009 and getting caught doing it now and saying

"well it will be legal soon, so what's the problem?"

I think we all have a handle on 17th and will all be future proofing current works. I have been bonding and providing whole house socket distribution on RCD for a while. Last few jobs I've done bathroom lights and shaver points as a dedicated final circuit.

Customers round here like the idea of some future proofing and if your doing a complete rewire job, it makes sense.
Bonding is required under current spec and goes in until someone let's me know otherwise.

 

[Doctor Drivel]

The 17th edition is still in DPC form, and therefore everthing written within it might or might not happen.

What is likely to happen?

 

[Doctor Drivel]

Last few jobs I've done bathroom lights and shaver points as a dedicated final circuit.

What do you mean here? A circuit with its own MCB at the CU?

How will this future-proof the installation?

 

[Taylortwocities]

What is likely to happen?

What is likely to happen is that a new version of the regs will be agreed and published. At that time we will then comply with the new regulations.

What is likely to happen is that the LOTTERY draw tomorrow will select seven numbers. Do you reckon you can predict what the numbers will be?
Are you prepared to sign a document saying that these will be the numbers? I thought not.

 

[RF Lighting]

The 17th edition is still in DPC form, and therefore everthing written within it might or might not happen.

What is likely to happen?

I don't know. No one does. Thats the point we are all trying to make.

The only people who know what is likely to happen are the people at the IET

 

[JohnD]

If the rumors are correct, by just fitting an RCBO on the lighting circuit, this would eliminate the bonding around the bathroom - which is probably the most misinterpted piece of reg ever. Just fit an RCBO on the upstairs lighting circuit and all is sorted.

Quite apart from the need to follow regulations currently in force, I think you are forgetting the bathroom with an immersion heater in it; a shower pump or an electric shower, a shaver socket on a spur, an infra-red heater, or a central heating pump.