More dodgy work from a contractor....

[Lee697]

This one gave me a shock.
I was replacing a 4' fluoro fitting the other week, turned it off, checked wiring with a non-contact tester, and was rewiring the new fitting in when I got a nice solid AC shock off the earth wire. Yep - the earth was sounding off to my tester now..... I flipped the main switch and finished it off, everything seemed fine.....
My sparky dropped over yesterday and did some testing - 100V AC or so between that earth and neutral, earth to active was reading 130V AC. In the fuse panel traced the earth wire back, and yep, it was open circuit. He noted the guy who had wired the fuse box had bonded the earths together by bundling them up (at least 25mm thick), wrapping some copper around the outside with a few spits of solder. When he gave the earth in question a tug it pulled straight out of the bundle..... When properly bonded down everything was in spec, on that circuit anyway.....
This was from a (seemingly) pretty reputable mob too.....

[GlennSprigg]

Yep.  I've never trusted 'Bundled' Earths or Neutrals, for that reason. Not only can you not guarantee
what some shoddy person has done, before, but wiring can not be easily separated  during rewiring.
Always use separate Earth & Neutral bars, with the Earth bars having 2 screws per tunnel. They have
separate larger tunnels for the Main-Earth to Ground, and an easily identified M.E.N. (main earth neutral)
link cable to the Neutral bar. If there is no room for them? then the pseudo Switchboard box is not an
approved one, or home made.  Treat Earths, with more importance than everything else!!   

I had a confusing scenario many years ago, where 2 Neutrals were twisted together, but not connected
properly to the other Neutrals. (3 phase switchboard in a factory).  They were for 2 different lighting
circuits, on 2 different phases. They would only come on, if 'both' lighting systems were turned on !!
With 415v across 2 circuits in series, instead of 240v across each circuit !!  Was hard to find!!   

[Lee697]

Cheers.... He's coming back to unbundle them and properly bond them all separately, and then check all the home outlets...