British Gas- bad earth

[atm84]

So my mother in law has had BG round to service the boiler and as part of the service they now carry out a check on the earthing.

My mother in law informed me that the BG engineer went round the sockets in the house with a meter and wasn't getting a earth reading at the sockets.

I've gone round and believe it or not there does not appear to be a main earth at the consumer unit. There just appears a live and neutral.

I've got a socket tester and plugged it into a number of sockets and all three lights lit up and sounded to say that live, neutral and earth is present. Obviously I know this is not a reliable way to test for an earth but just trying to explain.

Now I cannot believe that there is no earth to the house. A large extension was built in 2002 and surely something would have been picked up then.

There is no bonding to the gas or the water other than cross bonding between the hot and cold pipes at the sink.

Ill upload some photos in a bit.

 

[Engineer54]

=snowhead;914335]Re phone;

Shared service had the same pair of cables going to each of 2 houses.
To initiate the outgoing call the earth and 1 line was used, but speech was over both lines, each house used a different line.

To receive a call, the ring voltage occoured between earth and 1 line and speech then over both lines.

Only 1 house could speak at once, but the other could listen in.

(or very similar to that as it's over 46 years since I did basic Telephony training at the GPO).

Re the water earth, yes it could

That's pretty much exactly how the old GPO shared line worked!! lol!![

 

[Geordie Spark]

Re phone;

Shared service had the same pair of cables going to each of 2 houses.
To initiate the outgoing call the earth and 1 line was used, but speech was over both lines, each house used a different line.

To receive a call, the ring voltage occoured between earth and 1 line and speech then over both lines.

Only 1 house could speak at once, but the other could listen in.

(or very similar to that as it's over 46 years since I did basic Telephony training at the GPO).

Re the water earth, yes it could

Yep! I remember the party line we had well. We shared with an old couple 3 doors away where the wifey would have endless conversations with her daughter which we cold hear every time we tried to make a call. Then she made the whole deal worse by not putting the handset on the hook properly so we could hear her chuntering to her old man.

She was never happy to answer the door to us when we had to go to tell her to put he bloody thing back on the hook so we could use it - it was like somehow it was all our fault and nothing to do with her!

The whole problem was the fact the exchange was so very overloaded and the (then) GPO wanted to build a new one but every site they proposed was blocked by the local council who then complained to the GPO about the poor telephone service in the area! Catch 22 strikes again.

Eventually GPO acquired the Co-op shops next door to the exchange, knocked them down and built and extension to the exchange on the site.

It was wonderful - all the party lines were ditched and we all had our very own lines and the exchange had room to spare for future expansion.

Then almost overnight the new-fangled Digital Age exploded on us and all the almost brand new equipment in the exchange was binned and replaced by pieces of electronic stuff a fraction of the size which would have just about fitted into a Portacabin never mind the old exchange as it was.

So here we are over 20 years down the line with a huge telephone exchange with all it's necessary equipment occupying a broom cupboard and coping very well and floor after floor empty and doing nothing - AND we don't have our Co-op any more!

 

[Toby Kuhnert]

Anyone from Suffolk?

which part of suffolk? I'm in North Essex

 

[atm84]

West Suffolk, Mildenhall. Prob a bit far for you.

 

[atm84]

Well it turns out the stranded 4mm wire is actually in fact the earth.

So if the bonding from the rod to the MET should the board be upgraded to a 17th edition board?? Some ppl think it doesn't require as it met the regs when it was installed.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Well it turns out the stranded 4mm wire is actually in fact the earth.

So if the bonding from the rod to the MET should the board be upgraded to a 17th edition board?? Some ppl think it doesn't require as it met the regs when it was installed.

Hi atm84

don't quite understand what the above is asking.

 

[atm84]

If you do work on an installation then the new work must meet 17 edition regs. If the Main bonding and Main earthing is improved then should the consumer unit be upgraded to meet 17th edition also?

 

[trev]

Not necessarily, the circuit you work on has to be brought up to current regs but that could be done a number of ways.

 

[atm84]

So what would you suggest when the earthing and bonding is upgraded? Should the consumer unit be upgraded as well?

 

[trev]

You can't force people to get work done mate, all you can do is advise but as long as the circuit you're working on complies then you're good to go.

 

[polo1]

Tel's given you the answer - if other work is done it needs to meet the 17th Ed - that however, does not necessarily require a replacement consumer unit

 

[trev]

tel's given you the answer

eh?

 

[atm84]

You can't force people to get work done mate, all you can do is advise but as long as the circuit you're working on complies then you're good to go.

I didn't say anything about forcing anyone to get work done. I was merely asking if the main earthing and bonding is upgraded does the consumer uni need to be upgraded to meet 17tg edition?

 

[atm84]

tel's given you the answer

eh?

What you on about?

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I didn't say anything about forcing anyone to get work done. I was merely asking if the main earthing and bonding is upgraded does the consumer uni need to be upgraded to meet 17tg edition?

No of course not! Don't be silly!