General > General Technical Chat
Power cuts and electric shocks
tautech:
--- Quote from: engrguy42 on March 29, 2020, 10:10:32 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 09:33:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: G7PSK on March 29, 2020, 08:07:58 pm ---Every thing is bonded, up until a couple of years ago we had our own earthing via the usual rod in the ground but one day when playing with the scope I realised we no longer had a very good earth so I called an electrician who moved the outgoing earth wire from the rod onto the company incoming earth. We have a pole just 30 meters from the house where our power comes from and at the base of that is a large earthing plate as well an earth line going back along the overheads.
--- End quote ---
Big mistake !
Reinstall a dedicated earth extending down into the watertable.
--- End quote ---
I'm curious...anyone know what code is in the UK for residential earthing?
--- End quote ---
Does that matter when mongrels are going around stealing the copper earth cabling from Powerco's installations ?
Your PE installation is your first line of defence against the risk of shock. Period.
engrguy42:
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 10:23:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: engrguy42 on March 29, 2020, 10:10:32 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 09:33:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: G7PSK on March 29, 2020, 08:07:58 pm ---Every thing is bonded, up until a couple of years ago we had our own earthing via the usual rod in the ground but one day when playing with the scope I realised we no longer had a very good earth so I called an electrician who moved the outgoing earth wire from the rod onto the company incoming earth. We have a pole just 30 meters from the house where our power comes from and at the base of that is a large earthing plate as well an earth line going back along the overheads.
--- End quote ---
Big mistake !
Reinstall a dedicated earth extending down into the watertable.
--- End quote ---
I'm curious...anyone know what code is in the UK for residential earthing?
--- End quote ---
Does that matter when mongrels are going around stealing the copper earth cabling from Powerco's installations ?
Your PE installation is your first line of defence against the risk of shock. Period.
--- End quote ---
My question was surrounding whether the original electrician was following UK code or not. And I'm curious what exactly is required in the UK. So yes, it matters to me. And it's also why I suggested he contact a good electrician to make sure he's okay.
As far as people stealing copper, while that may be true in very limited cases, I sincerely doubt it has any relevance whatsoever to someone getting shocked in their home. Generally they steal rolls of uninstalled copper during construction, or short lengths of copper they cut by hand. While that can affect safety in the station, it's otherwise irrelevant here.
Though if you have any actual cases in which this has occurred I'd be interested to hear it.
Monkeh:
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 10:23:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: engrguy42 on March 29, 2020, 10:10:32 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 09:33:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: G7PSK on March 29, 2020, 08:07:58 pm ---Every thing is bonded, up until a couple of years ago we had our own earthing via the usual rod in the ground but one day when playing with the scope I realised we no longer had a very good earth so I called an electrician who moved the outgoing earth wire from the rod onto the company incoming earth. We have a pole just 30 meters from the house where our power comes from and at the base of that is a large earthing plate as well an earth line going back along the overheads.
--- End quote ---
Big mistake !
Reinstall a dedicated earth extending down into the watertable.
--- End quote ---
I'm curious...anyone know what code is in the UK for residential earthing?
--- End quote ---
Does that matter when mongrels are going around stealing the copper earth cabling from Powerco's installations ?
Your PE installation is your first line of defence against the risk of shock. Period.
--- End quote ---
No, not period, it depends on the method of earthing and protection you use. Rods are really, really crap, frankly.
That said, his electrician shouldn't have touched anything without verifying the type of earthing facility available (which may be 'none').
tautech:
@ engrguy42
Sure if the code was followed but the house occupant was still shocked without a clear source then the the powerco's PE or the UK code is flawed.
New installations here are megger tested by the powerco inspector before they are livened and a local electrician should also be able to do a megger check as a sanity check that an earth is sound and if not add further pegs or longer ones to get to the watertable.
In a shower like the OP's wife the source of the shock could come from via a faulty electric hot water heater (improper or broken earth) and best advice would be to return the PE installation to local and check all PE bonding.
Here in NZ, 25mm2 copper droppers down poles to the transformer earth field installations have been stolen so frequently the powerco's now use a copper coated soft steel dropper for the earth and tag label it as 'Not Copper' !
blacksheeplogic:
--- Quote from: tautech on March 29, 2020, 10:52:07 pm ---local electrician should also be able to do a megger check as a sanity check that an earth is sound and if not add further pegs or longer ones to get to the watertable.
--- End quote ---
When I had the house rewired they replaced the rod as part of completion. Don't know if that was because of some compliance issue with the existing or just part of their their process when doing this work.
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