No earth bonding

[dylan_diy]

My wife has been told by an electrician who was at our our house to install some sockets in our newly built conservatory that there is no earth bonding to our water pipe and that he could not find any other earthing for our system!! I am not sure if it was that he couldn't find it or if we really don't have any? Our house is not all that old, was built in the late 70's or early 80's. What should I do?, the electrician has (quite rightly) not connected the conservatory circuit to our mains (left me to do it). Is this a job I can tackle myself?? (the earthing that is, not connecting the sockets)

 

[davy_owen_88]

Connecting main/supplementary bonding and main earthing conductors is not a notifiable job, but it's very unlikely that you have the test equipment to verify that you have done it well enough to meet the standards of BS7671.

Do you know what earthing arrangement you have?

I would get the electrician back and have him do it - it's not something you should risk doing badly - no offence intended.

 

[JohnD]

Can you post a pic showing your meter and incoming service head, and the consumer unit (fuseboard).

You have not told me anything to make me think your electrician is an excellent fellow. How did you select him?

 

[dylan_diy]

Can you post a pic showing your meter and incoming service head, and the consumer unit (fuseboard).

You have not told me anything to make me think your electrician is an excellent fellow. How did you select him?

Will post a pic tonight, we didn't choose him he was contracted by the builders of our conservatory

 

[dylan_diy]

Connecting main/supplementary bonding and main earthing conductors is not a notifiable job, but it's very unlikely that you have the test equipment to verify that you have done it well enough to meet the standards of BS7671.

Do you know what earthing arrangement you have?

I would get the electrician back and have him do it - it's not something you should risk doing badly - no offence intended.

No offence taken, I am not sure at the moment about the earthing arrangements, as I am at work. I will take a look tonight.

If I do need an electrician to come out and do the work, whats involved and how much £'s would we be looking at?

 

[davy_owen_88]

It's just a case of running some cables between the metal service pipes entering your property and the main earth terminal of your consumer unit. And then another cable between the main earth terminal and your means of earthing (varies with earthing arrangement).

The tricky part for you will be performing the tests required to ensure automatic disconnection in the event of an earth fault.

I have no idea of the cost as this varies greatly with location, electrician, distance between services/CU, problems with cable runs, etc. Ask friends/family for recommendations or get atleast 3 quotes.

 

[sm1thson]

if i were you i would do the bonding etc (if you feel confident after reading up) then get the electrician back to finish his job, ie make the connection + test it +the earthing, as if you had earthing in the first place he would need to test it was suitable so it isnt extra work for him (if you do it right).

as has been said a lot of electrical work is now notifiable to building control (or a registered spark must be used), the new circuit for the conservatory comes under this, the bonding does not so you can legally do that.

 

[dylan_diy]

One other thing I should mention is that we have a support contract with British Gas for our sockets and wiring etc. Is this something they should have picked up on when they did the initial site survey, do I have any comeback to make them retrofit the necessary earthbonding??

 

[dylan_diy]

Here are the pics of the meter and the only earth bonding that I could find, which was connected to the gas pipe. The water supply comes into the house via a plastic pipe to a metal stopcock.

http://www.albionimages.co.uk/test/meter.jpg

http://www.albionimages.co.uk/test/meter1.jpg

http://www.albionimages.co.uk/test/sign.jpg

Apparently the spark said the earth cabling wasn't rated high enough (too thin). Any thoughts suggestions on the rest of it?

 

[JohnD]

I'd like to see some pics round your consumer unit and incoming pipes as well. But it looks fairly straightforward. You have a modern Protective Multiple Earth (PME or TNC-S). this needs to be connected to to your Main Earthing Point (usually inside the Consumer Unit) with 16mm Green & Yellow. And the MET needs to be connected to your incoming Gas and Water pipes with 10mm G&Y.

This is not notifiable work and you can easily do it yourself at low cost. the electrician will have to test it before connecting the new circuit, but this is not much of a job. as the wires and clamps will be open to inspection it is not particularly likely to go wrong or be difficult to test or rectify. It might take a bit of time grobbelling about on the floor and getting dirty.

We can give more guidance on how to do it.

I dont think there's any chance that your maintenance contract will cover modernising and upgrading of your earth wires. Most likely they met standards that were current at the time they were installed, and are probably still safe, but now out of date. they are unlikely to have become faulty due to wearing out.

 

[thetman]

When you guys say upgrade the main earth connection (the one that connects to the DNO cable head). How do you access the earth terminal without removing the cover from the cable head.