Gas main earth bonding has been removed
- Thread starter iep
- Start date
If, as we have ben told, it is ...
... then it surely must be regarded as an extraneous-c-p, mustn't it (regardless of any 'testing')?
Hawd the bus!! I never said the EV fitter didn't fix the issues. He double checked my earth bonding and did indeed tighten the screws in the Henley block.
My greivance is purely with the initial meter swap insatall.
It can sometimes be viewed as much with a quick glance by the untrained eye until a slightly more critical observation is made.
Things are not always as obvious as first seen.
except the cut out and meter
Fair enough, but I imagine you must be thinking of a situation in which what we have been told is not actually true, are you?
If what we've been told IS true, then there surely can be no doubt about a 'metal pipe emerging out of the ground and entering the property', can there?
Yes, sometimes it is "sleeved loosely by a plastic or metallic outer liner and on closer inspection you can envisage it not actually making a good connrction to the outer , a metered test sometimes reveals a quite high resistance value where you might have expected a low value. clearly not enough to take much current unless it actually welds in from any heating caused by the current.
That`s if it has some metallic content.
if it is plastic then the more likely to be insulating.
It it dissapears from view you have no idea what is actually out of view.
You just make a guess on what you can see.
Usually your guess is somewhere near but yet sometimes there are little surprises.
Just a few times I have asked colleagues to put an earth rod 10m away and make the tests, they lookat me in amazement but once they have made such tests , several times and by several methods, they respond "How the hell did you know that?
Obviously once I ask them their initial "quick glance" confirmation becomes a closer glance but yet they become surprised once metered tests carried out.
Never assume anything.
That`s if it has some metallic content.
if it is plastic then the more likely to be insulating.
It it dissapears from view you have no idea what is actually out of view.
You just make a guess on what you can see.
Usually your guess is somewhere near but yet sometimes there are little surprises.
Just a few times I have asked colleagues to put an earth rod 10m away and make the tests, they lookat me in amazement but once they have made such tests , several times and by several methods, they respond "How the hell did you know that?
Obviously once I ask them their initial "quick glance" confirmation becomes a closer glance but yet they become surprised once metered tests carried out.
Never assume anything.
Mind you, I have been known to discover noincommer E connection on PILC where others have actually tested but not gone to the trouble of disconnecting gas and water bonds on the installtion, they were soconvinced the readings they got did not warrant fully disconnecting bonds but my reports ended up the DNO digging up parts of gardens and small road areas , a couple of times was in neighbouring streets in a small town/village area.
I should imagine that the DNO might decide on a programme of testing in that area!
I should imagine that the DNO might decide on a programme of testing in that area!
Fair enough but, although I accept that when bonding is not necessary, to 'not bond' may be slightly safer (but see ** below), would one not usually 'play it safe'- and bond something which 'might' be an extraneous-c-p, regardless of the results of any measurements at a particular point in time (maybe extremely dry soil conditions etc.).
[** it's obviously 'not earthing' (rather than 'not bonding') which is theoretically 'slightly safer' but water/gas pipes within a property are very likely to be (unavoidably) 'incidentally earthed' (e.g. via boilers, CH controls and immersions etc.), even if one doesn't bond
Kind Regards, John
Just one thought here too.
You disconnect all bonds yest you might measure the apparent earth connection of someting of your own (which should be disconnected anyway) so any pipework you measure can only be comming from extraneous, however the question is yes it could be next doors bonding but yet it could be next doors earthing! how would you know which is most likely?
Does it matter "whose earthing" it is?
As I've said, if something (anything) conductive entering a property clearly does, or even 'just might' (under some circumstances) represent a path to true earth, one would bond it (regardless of the route of that path), wouldn't one?
Indeed yes, but it reveals itself only as "an earth" so you bond. Now them I know some do not even test at all and then some test with the bonds still connected.
Wait for that bolted fault to occour and now you are reliant on a house or two 5 doors down having a 1.5mm cpc for the boiler/immersion heater to clear that fault instead of burn out.
How many installations have an MET supplied by a conductor with about as much use as a piece of wet string in the path to earth no matter what youve got in yours..
actually I`ve seen worse than that, two electricians quite independantly.
One was happy bonding was in place (no test meter) cos he could see it leave the MET and go into the wall, other side of wall and a few feet to one side it comes out to a tenby earth clamp nd is attached to the pipework.
A few moths later the second Electrician asked me to assist on something else in that property. I was going to disconnect both ends an do a continuity test "no need" he says, I can see it go in and come out either side of that wall, it MUST be connected!"
I tested it - no continuity.
I pulled the send disappering under the plaster then a few feet along, came out as a shortish cut length and connected to nothing else, just buried in plaster. He was gobsmacked, he would not have bothered to test it!
I have seen a few instances of "Bond-Faking" and some are quite ingenious .
"It must be!" "It cant be any other!" etc etc comments seem more logical than "Lets test continuity" to some electricians.
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