Earth's required

[swampydrill]

I had a new consumer box fitted and the electrics tested, all god apart from 2 items. The earth on the incoming gas supply is of the incorrect size, doesn't say what it should be ?. Secondly, no earth on incoming water supply. The chap quoted £120 to earth both items, what's involved in this as sounds quite expensive, do i need a certain type fitting, size of earth wire required. The new consumer box was £300 fitted which was reasonable i think.

 

[davelx]

Hmm - he's not supposed to do a CU change if the Main Protective Bonding (which is what this is) is not correct - so that should have been part of the job, not an optional extra!

 

[Iggifer]

What Dave said, you're supposed to abort the board change if the customer refuses to upgrade MPB

 

[Taylortwocities]

How did he test the new board if the bonds were not in place?
Its almost the first item on the Installation Certificate....

Is he a registered electrician? which scheme.
I trust that he is going to notify the works to LABC.

 

[swampydrill]

I don't doubt he has done it correctly, on item 8 of the NAPIT certificate under main protective conductors he has said main earthing conductor is 10mm copper, protective bonding conductor is 6mm and copper, supply conductors are copper and 16mm, all both boxes ticked. He has also ticked the for gas installation but says i need 10mm earth, quoted for earthing gas to 10mm and also put 10mm on water supply

 

[swampydrill]

Regarding being registered, he is accredited NAPIT, NAPIT part P, Trustmark, IPAF, IRATA international and Comp EX. I used him as he is an electrician offshore with a relative but also has his own company a home, young but very serious sparky. I was just looking to do the earthing myself rather than spend £120, as said, the work is for installing 10mm earth to incoming water supply, installing 10mm earth to incoming gas supply, gas meter and gas riser ( flats).

 

[flameport]

main earthing conductor is 10mm copper, protective bonding conductor is 6mm and copper,

Those sizes may be acceptable, depending on the type of supply.

 

[endecotp]

no earth on incoming water supply.

That's quite serious and you should get it fixed.
Having said that, mine is also missing! But I live in a flat, and I know that there is good bonding via all the shared pipework to the neighbouring flats, and also via the gas bonding (which is present) via the boiler. So I'm not going to worry about it until I remodel the kitchen.

The chap quoted £120 to earth both items, what's involved in this as sounds quite expensive

Unless the consumer unit is very near to where the water & gas enter the property, most of the work involves physically routing the wire i.e. under floorboards etc. Presumably the guy has looked at where it would have to go and guessed how long that would take him. You may be able to persuade him to let you do some of the lifting floorboards, drilling etc. and then for him to make the connections at either end - or he might prefer to avoid that sort of complication.

 

[swampydrill]

This is an 11th floor flat as well

 

[endecotp]

11th floor? Well that is quite a significant fact. (Mine is ground floor, so basically the same as a house.)
Let's see what the real experts say.....

 

[JohnW2]

11th floor? Well that is quite a significant fact. (Mine is ground floor, so basically the same as a house.) Let's see what the real experts say.....

I'm no expert, but ... if the flat's electrical installation needs main bonding, I would think that it's probably only to where service pipes enter the flat, so not necessarily much different on the 11th (or 50th!) floor than on the ground floor. However, what with concrete floors and ceilings, structural metal etc., routing cables can be less than simple in blocks of flats!

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Flats should have bonding as if they were a separate dwelling - just in case.

Is it not likely - in a flat - that all the services enter, if not at the same place, near each other?

 

[Iggifer]

Flats should have bonding as if they were a separate dwelling - just in case.

Is it not likely - in a flat - that all the services enter, if not at the same place, near each other?

Not if the plumbers are as lazy as some round here and just run them up the face of the building.

Saw a brand new development of 30/40 higher market flats, ALL had low level gas meter boxes and ALL had their pipes run up the face of the building.

I'm particularly au fait with gas regs, but I'm under the impression piepwork in an internal riser would need to be steel, and require venting etc - so up the face in copper is cheaper and simpler

 

[ajrtd]

Or what the designer asked them to do.

 

[Iggifer]

Or what the designer asked them to do.

Perhaps. But I've been on jobs where the spec has called for internal gas work and the plumbers have somehow convinced the owner that they're not going to do it. And then didn't even fix them to the building square!