The following is an excerpt from P65 of The Electricians Guide to The Building Regulations......its the Green Book published during the time of the 16th Edition:
Broken PEN conductor. Under very exceptional circumstances, the supply PEN conductor connection to an installation could be lost to a failed joint. Where the phase conductor remains unbroken, a risk of electric shock from exposed-conductive parts and extraneous -conductive parts could forseeably arise. In most installations, the main equipotential bonding plays an important role in protecting against the danger from the loss of a PEN conductor.
So lets imagine that your supply has a broken PEN conductor, somehow the digger in the road managed to sever the PEN but left the phase in tact (haha). Your water supply is MDPE, and the gas board have just upgraded your meter (current practice of shoving a plastic sleeve through your old metal pipe, and then changing to iron or copper). You have a split load board. Is there any chance any safety features will activate? Are all your radiators live? Will you get a belt of the toaster etc etc??
Broken PEN conductor. Under very exceptional circumstances, the supply PEN conductor connection to an installation could be lost to a failed joint. Where the phase conductor remains unbroken, a risk of electric shock from exposed-conductive parts and extraneous -conductive parts could forseeably arise. In most installations, the main equipotential bonding plays an important role in protecting against the danger from the loss of a PEN conductor.
So lets imagine that your supply has a broken PEN conductor, somehow the digger in the road managed to sever the PEN but left the phase in tact (haha). Your water supply is MDPE, and the gas board have just upgraded your meter (current practice of shoving a plastic sleeve through your old metal pipe, and then changing to iron or copper). You have a split load board. Is there any chance any safety features will activate? Are all your radiators live? Will you get a belt of the toaster etc etc??