no earthing or bonding conductors

[petedel]

Hi all, a friend of mine asked me to have a quick look at her electrics as she had been told by the gas engineer that there was no evidence of protective bonding at the gas meter.

I looked in the cupboard to find a met with only two cables attached, one green/yellow and one just green, the house had two consumer units both with six breakers in and these cables run to each of the cu's.

I cant see any bonding to gas or water, on a side note there doesn't even appear to be a stop tap on the water as when her boiler was changed they had to shut the supply of in the street.

Spoke to british gas who confirmed supply as PME and quoted £40 to come out and attach earth conductor.


Am I able to just open up the neutral link and connect a cable from here to met, or does the fact that fuse is sealed prevent me from being allowed to remove and isolate. then add bonding

 

[shagbite]

have you checked to make sure the incoming pipes are NOT plastic? if they are, they don't need bonding.

 

[shagbite]

you need to be 100% certain that there's pme available, if you're going to connect into the neutral link.

 

[petedel]

no ive not checked the incomers but would have assumed would still need bonding due to metal pipework being an extrenuous conductive part (I know ive spelt it wrong). the main concern is the lack of an earthing conductor

 

[petedel]

British gas the, supply company, have confirmed its a pme supply.

 

[Engineer54]

First things first, ....Are you a qualified electrician or a so-called DI?? If you're not then i suggest you're friend employ a qualified electrian to sort this situation out.


You do ''NOT'' go making you're own earthing connections to a DNO's supply cut out!!

 

[shagbite]

British gas the, supply company, have confirmed its a pme supply.

does this give you 100% confidence? have they been out and confirmed it, or was it someone over the phone?

listen to '54 - you're best off forking out the forty quid.

 

[dave274]

£40 quid is peanuts, why is getting british gas to do it even being debated. for less than the cost of a night out she can have her installation made safe.

 

[oldtimer]

Tell her she has been caught out by a British Gas CHURNER remember BG is owned by a private equaty company who is sales driven so this happens every day where some poor old biddy gets told she could be dead because the gas pipe is not bonded I was called to one where the pipe was bonded as the pipe entered the building in the garage 1 metre away from the meter.

My advise is tell BG you want it in writing plus that you will bill them if they get it wrong or you have found they have deceived you one example being one of my customers was told that they could not support his boiler for parts as it was more than 10 years old. I told him that all boiler manufacturers must guarantee parts for 10 years after the manufacture of the boiler has ceased. So when the BG salesman called and prompted by me he asked if the service guy was on a commission plus he would expect them to confirm in writing that they no longer had parts for his boiler.

After 2 days they said well Emmm yep the service guy was on a commission and surprise surprise it looks like we can get parts for your boiler and they still have not put this in writing . This from a company who warns you that your calls will be recorded for "Training Purposes"

 

[shagbite]

no ive not checked the incomers but would have assumed would still need bonding due to metal pipework being an extrenuous conductive part (I know ive spelt it wrong). the main concern is the lack of an earthing conductor

i'd be bonding the internal pipes anyway - if they're run anywhere near electrical services you have to provide fault protection. but if it can be confirmed that the incoming pipe is plastic, then it's not going to introduce a potential. try testing the resistance between the pipe and the MET - this should tell you if it's extraneous (although you would have to allow for supplementary bonding etc.).

 

[Octopus]

Hi all, a friend of mine asked me to have a quick look at her electrics as she had been told by the gas engineer that there was no evidence of protective bonding at the gas meter.

I looked in the cupboard to find a met with only two cables attached, one green/yellow and one just green, the house had two consumer units both with six breakers in and these cables run to each of the cu's.

I cant see any bonding to gas or water, on a side note there doesn't even appear to be a stop tap on the water as when her boiler was changed they had to shut the supply of in the street.

Spoke to british gas who confirmed supply as PME and quoted £40 to come out and attach earth conductor.


Am I able to just open up the neutral link and connect a cable from here to met, or does the fact that fuse is sealed prevent me from being allowed to remove and isolate. then add bonding

Please tell you are NOT going to do this??

By the sound of your posts you clearly don't understand equipotential bonding.

 

[Engineer54]

Please tell you are NOT going to do this??

By the sound of your posts you clearly don't understand equipotential bonding.

What's the betting he will,.... and probably already has!! lol!!

He hasn't been back since confirming (as he thinks) it's a PME connection!!

 

[shagbite]

What's the betting he will,.... and probably already has!! lol!!

He hasn't been back since confirming (as he thinks) it's a PME connection!!

well, the little old indian lady at the call centre confirmed it's PME, so it's full steam ahead!!

 

[petedel]

54, no ive not made any connections. just offered what help I could by visual inspection. Shagbite, no I don't 100% trust british gas and now agree that they should come and do the connection, that way no one can point the finger if its not pme

 

[shagbite]

good lad.

 

[petedel]

how common is it to find no earthing conductor in old terrace houses? im unsure how old the installation is and there are no labels at all on either of the cu's and both have wylex push in breakers there was a reading of I think 0.71 ohms from the met to the gas meter which is approx 4 metres away

 

[AndyL]

Not sure what's missing here. Are BG coming to fit an earthing conductor or main protective bonding?
If it is an earthing conductor and it is PME I would think that is their responsibility free of charge!!

 

[petedel]

Andy, its an earthing conductor that needs fitting by BG. there is also a lack of protective bonding but imo im competent to be able to run the cable under the floorboards and clamp onto pipework and before anyone says it, yes I do have test equipment