Earth

[cjh555]

I've just had a nasty experience with a new appliance where the body turned out to be live. An engineer duly turned up and without so much as looking at the appliance announced that our electrical circuit was not earthed!

Being somewhat shocked by this I took the socket cover off to find the expected green and yellow cable duly in place.

I suspect the engineer was either drunk or incompetent as the fault seems to be intermitent - I would expect it to be constant if the socket was not earthed??

Getting round to my question, what is the normal resistance on an earth? The engineer has recorded a value of 2 Ohms.

 

[andy]

2ohms is high. should be lower than 1. do you have an RCD?

 

[IanDB]

Just because there's an earth on the socket doesn't mean to say that there is continuity all the way back to the consumer unit earth point.

You should have resistance of less than 0.1ohm to be safe. But you can only check this with the correct equipment - a multimeter won't do it.

I suspect the engineer was either drunk or incompetent as the fault seems to be intermitent

I don't see how the fact that you've got an intermittent fault is anything to do with the guy who came to check it.

Never mind checking it - get it fixed. It's dangerous.

 

[cjh555]

Thanks.

Don't worry, Hotpoint are sending a replacement and the original was unplugged after I received the shock.

In terms of checking the continuity of the earth, how is this done - is it a case of inspecting the cable back to the distribution board?

InN answer to the other question, no there is no RCD fitted.

 

[andy]

Thanks.

Don't worry, Hotpoint are sending a replacement and the original was unplugged after I received the shock.

In terms of checking the continuity of the earth, how is this done - is it a case of inspecting the cable back to the distribution board?

InN answer to the other question, no there is no RCD fitted.

it has to be done with a continuity tester. at the CU, take the 2 earths and check the resistance thru it

 

[dw3101]

Id also get an electrician or competent person to fit you an RCD asap..next tme it maybe fatal..

Also an inspction of your wiring wouldnt go a miss

 

[brown-nought]

Getting round to my question, what is the normal resistance on an earth? The engineer has recorded a value of 2 Ohms.

How did he measure it?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I've just had a nasty experience with a new appliance where the body turned out to be live. An engineer duly turned up and without so much as looking at the appliance announced that our electrical circuit was not earthed!

Probably on the grounds that if you did have an earth, then a live-earth fault at the appliance would trip the breaker...

 

[Damocles]

Though, for example, the wiring in the appliance could be ******ed up rather than that in the house.