Earthwire found disconnected outside

[Davelinks]

Recently moved into house and have found a disconnected braided bare earth wire just outside the front door which is connected at the other end to what I think is an earthing rod by the wall.
Being a 1965 built house am thinking that it was used to earth an aluminium metal front door frame? Would this more than likely be the case as in more recent years a upvc door frame has been installed so no longer required?
I'm thinking of removing the wire totally..

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It could well be an earth rod used by the old telephone system. Post a photo.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It would not have been necessary for "earthing" a door.

Whether someone did that is obviously unknown.

 

[Taylortwocities]

It may have been in use in the past and is now not needed because the mains supply has been upgraded.
Post a photo of the incoming mains supply showing the supply fuse. Where the supply cable comes in from the street.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It may have been in use in the past and is now not needed because the mains supply has been upgraded.
Post a photo of the incoming mains supply showing the supply fuse. Where the supply cable comes in from the street.

It used to be normal to bring the phone drop wire in via the front door, to enable the phone to be located in the hall. Some phone circuits back then, needed a local earth connection via an earth rod and the obvious place to fit an earth rod, was near where the cable entered - the front door.

Almost certainly a redundant phone earth rod, but let's see a photo to confirm it.

 

[ericmark]

As said the party line with a phone used an earth connection, with my parents house a steel rod, and the wire was bare, multi-core, around 3 mm² far too thin for a TT earth wire for power.

However there was a time when we did go mad with earth wires, even earthing metal window frames, the problem arises when it earths some thing else as well, I know my parents house did have an earth, as a lad I made a mistake and ruptured the 13 amp fuse, so there was a good enough earth to do that.

However some 15 years ago I came to work on their house, and found there was no earth, I will guess earthed with water pipes, and the supply changed to plastic, but I only became aware of it when another electrician had tried to use the GPO earth as main earth.

We are told change of occupant we should have an EICR done, not sure I want to rely on the one done on this house, he referred to a redundant fuse box in ceiling void, which was still active and supplying most of the house.

A plug in tester like this with loop test, will not show if the earth is good enough, but it will show if an earth exists, there is also a version with a RCD test, note needs to have a loop test, in the main it shows if loop better than 1.9Ω and the pass mark for a socket is 1.37Ω and incoming supply 0.35Ω but proper tester costs around £200 but the plug in costs £50 other option is to hire a proper tester.

But if the £50 tester passes the sockets likely you do have a good earth. But don't use one without a loop test, they don't do a good enough earth test.

 

[bernardgreen]

If the supply comes into the house near the front door then a ground rod by the front door could be ( was) the ground rod for a Voltage Operated Earth Leakage Breaker ( VOELB ) which measures potential difference ( voltage ) between the "Earth" wiring inside the house and the Ground outside the house. If this reaches 50 volts then the breaker operates. These are no longer used ( though some may still remain in service ) They have two "Earth" terminals, one for the internal earthing and one for the ground rod.

https://www.dses.co.uk/index.php/free-advice/191-the-voltage-operated-earth-leakage-circuit-breaker

 

[ericmark]

There's a blast from the past, forgotten about the ELCB-v.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Need photos. No photos = guessing game.

 

[FrodoOne]

As said the party line with a phone used an earth connection, with my parents house a steel rod, and the wire was bare, multi-core, around 3 mm² far too thin for a TT earth wire for power.

Through all my working life I was employed by the "Telephone Company" in Australia, which was (originally) the Post Master General Department (PMG), equivalent to the British Post Office (BPO).
After WWII there was an increased demand for telephone services, which resulted in a shortage of existing spare "pairs" in the existing telephone distribution cables to install new "services"
Until larger cables could be laid, to (partly) overcome this, what were (I think) called "Duplex Services" were installed.

They were not "Party Lines" since there was a "Relay Set" installed at one of the premises concerned which "switched" one line into operation on a "first-come, first-served" basis, so that a 'private" conversation could be had.
The other "party" was disconnected and could not make or receive calls while the "Duplex Line" was in use by the initial "party".
(At that time, virtually all telephone equipment used in Australia was of British design and (often) manufacture. Hence, it was probably the same type of equipment referred to by ericmark)

(At one point, the PMG was testing a Swiss designed "Line Concentrator" capable of serving 50 "Subscribers" on 10 circuits in a similar manner, but I do not know if any were placed into service.)

The "Duplex Relay Set" depended for its operation on a separate "Earth Return" circuit.

The point of this is that a "technician" was called to the premises of one such a "Duplex" subscriber, who had complained that they were experiencing "drop-outs" during their 'phone calls.
Initially, the "tech" could not find anything wrong with the set-up of the equipment and spent quite some time investigating.
Eventually, such a drop out did occur and, at the same time, he noted that a train had pulled out of the suburban railway station quite near to the premises concerned.
He waited until the next train pulled in, set up a test call and, when that train pulled out the "drop-out" re-occurred.

He then went to the railway station concerned, looked down at the tracks and noted that one of the rails had a crack at one of the "welded" joints.
He "drew the attention" of the rail authority to the fault in the "bonding" of the return path of their 15 kV DC "supply", the train line was repaired and the "drop-outs" in the Duplex Service ceased.

The fault had been caused by "Circulating Currents" in the Earth/Ground/Soil in the vicinity of the "bonding fault".

 

[ericmark]

Thank you @FrodoOne interesting, with out party lines you could pick up phone and hear other party talking, the Falkland went to having up to 6 people on one phone line so you had a phone number Stanley 450 four rings, and the connect house would know for them by how many times the phone rang.

I remember phoning from the UK and the UK telephone operator questioned the 4 rings bit, and when she did put it through the Falklands operator said she is not home at moment she is at name house I will put you through there, no such thing as a secrete on the Falklands.

As to the railway fault, it seems still a problem, where the DC used can stop RCD's working in near by homes.