High Ze reading

**Strickers** · 08-03-2010

I have recently re-wired a property with T-N-S earthing to find out that the Ze was 13.41ohm. I checked all the supply have to the spilt concentric incomer that looked pretty new. All connection were ok so i rang norweb. The question is does the DNO have to supply an earth to the property? An electrician i know said that the can just make to sort it yourself with an earth spike.

Cheers Paul

P'S before i left i put a 30ma RCD between the tails and the consumer unit
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**SirKit Breaker** · 08-03-2010

Last time i came across similar problem i called YEDL on behalf of the customer, they sent an engineer within the hour and PME'd it.

Cheers............Howard

**pevvers** · 08-03-2010

Originally Posted by Strickers

The question is does the DNO have to supply an earth to the property? An electrician i know said that the can just make to sort it yourself with an earth spike.

Yep, there is a possibility that they can say that, or they could PME or fix the fault in the cable. The question has to be though, do you feel lucky?

Another question would also be how comes you didn't check the Ze before rewiring the property though, I thought that the first thing to do would be to check whether there was an adequate earth in line with reg 131.8.

But at least you've left it safe which some people wouldn't have done....

**Baal** · 14-03-2010

The Supply company has no obligation to supply an earth however if an earth has been supplied, there is an obligation to maintain it.

I came upon a similar situation a few months back and the DNO were out within 2 hours and found the fault after a further 2 hours.

Ze 16.7 Ohms originally, 0.25 Ohms on completion!