No earth from supply company

[dmcclymont]

Hi, About to move into a house with an earth rod as the only earth point (and that looks bad!)

Planning to replace it with a few earth rods with proper protective covers and at least 10mm cables back to the consumer unit, units itself seems to be non-RCD with wire fuses so I plan to replace (or have replaced) with MCB'a and perhaps 30ma overall RCD switch for all circuits.

Does that sound a little safer or am I missing something? Would the elec company `check` the earth once it is fitted?

Ta.

 

[has]

you need an electrician to check the rod with the proper test equipment. Your supply is presumably TT where the earth rod is your responsibility not the REC.
On the consumer unit side your better off with a split load board. 100m/A time delay RCD for lights, imersion, boiler etc and 30m/A for sockets, shower etc.
but as I said above, best to get a proffesional in.

 

[dmcclymont]

Thanks for that, I intend to get a sparks in to tell me what to do (years out of the trade!), then do the `grunt work`, and get them back in to test and such. Bit of an easy `beer money` job quite frankly for someone I hope.

Thanks again!

 

[mapj1]

The other method is an insulated incoming main switch, then split to two normal RCDs, one for power one for lights. This prevents a total darkness problem caused by a faulty applience.
No earth should com near the live until it is downstream of an RCD. The earth rod impedance will be 20-100 ohms depending on the wet ness, and is completely incapable of blowing any fuse, so an RCD as the first thing in the chain of any circuit is a must.
Or you could ask your supplier if they can provide a PME earth, which is derived from the neutral, but this is only possible if their wiring is good enough.

 

[dmcclymont]

On inspection the entire installation is on a 100ma seperate mains switch so I intend a split load CU with 30ma for sockets etc and just a mains switch for the lighting - hence leave it on the 100ma!

 

[dmcclymont]

Hmmm, it has three earth rods but only two are connected, and one is connected with bell wire

I will reconnect all three, the oil pipe is copper and underground for at least 2 meters so I guess that helps as well. Also there are two seperate metal water mains into the property so hopefully I suspect the earthing should be okay (or at least okay to trip a RCD!)