electric on all the copper plumbing in the house

[MTerzi]

I wonder if theres any good experienced electrician out there that can help me in enfield EN2 area with a problem. Im getting light electric shocks from all the taps (copper plumbing) in the house when i stand barefoot. even when the the main fuse is switched off. The shocks are very mild. I had an electrician come over but he couldn't fix it. The DNO did some test on the main power cable and the readings were fine according to them. If you are around Enfield please contact me.

 

[littlespark]

If I wasn’t paying for electricity, I’d just put up with a slight tingle. Wear rubber shoes when on the tiles.

Why have they connected it like that? Direct off the fuse, not through the meter?

 

[westward10]

Is what they have done temporary.

 

[Electro-tech]

I look after a Business Park & a few people reported a slight tingle when switching the light on in a corridor with a concrete floor. I did not experience a tingle. The only way I could measure the true voltage was by placing a wet cloth on the concrete with a metal plate on top. I tested between the metal light switch & the floor plate & I got around 4 volts. I changed the switch & it was okay. I guess the voltage was tracking through, although no visible signs of damage or excessive wear. The lighting circuit was on a RCD Protected Panel.

 

[MTerzi]

I look after a Business Park & a few people reported a slight tingle when switching the light on in a corridor with a concrete floor. I did not experience a tingle. The only way I could measure the true voltage was by placing a wet cloth on the concrete with a metal plate on top. I tested between the metal light switch & the floor plate & I got around 4 volts. I changed the switch & it was okay. I guess the voltage was tracking through, although no visible signs of damage or excessive wear. The lighting circuit was on a RCD Protected Panel.

Did you still get the tingles when the main power switch was switched off? Because that's the case with me.

 

[Aaron b]

Is the incoming water service plastic? You could have a a plastic section of pipe installed to isolate the pipework from both the dno and true earth if it's not.

 

[Electro-tech]

Did you still get the tingles when the main power switch was switched off? Because that's the case with me.

From memory, I did not test with power off. I know this isn't helping, just confirming what TimHoward quoted regarding True Earth.

 

[UNG]

Is the incoming water service plastic? You could have a a plastic section of pipe installed to isolate the pipework from both the dno and true earth if it's not.

Looking at the earth bar in the CU it would suggest that the gas and water is bonded

 

[westward10]

@MTerzi are you saying the DNO installed that cable because if they did you need to be contacting them. For them to connect a cable like that is very bizarre, it isn't being metered.

 

[pc1966]

The choice of a Hager board is good, but the installation of the SWA is awful!

Not only the really odd aspect of the meter being bypassed, but there is primary insulation exposed in the meter box and no apparent sign of the armour being earthed. Length is not obvious either, if it is under 3m so OK to directly connect, or longer so a switch-fuse should be there in the meter box (which would also allow an opportunity for a gland, as the metal CU did).

None of this would alter the OP's original issue, but it is a touch worrying to see.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

The fact that you get the tingles with the main switch off means that your own installation is pretty much guaranteed not to be the cause. Post 2 by @pc1966 hits the most likely nail on the head, a difference between the incoming CNE voltage and local true earth. When you felt the tingles, were you standing on a concrete floor?

That cable from the meter box is utterly bonkers. Are you sure it was the DNO who installed it and not someone whose experience is in 'loft-based horticulture?' Armour floating, unsheathed cores exposed, Inadequate support, possibly no SF for >3m, and the minor detail of missing out the meter. Did one guy do the outside end and another the inside, so that they each thought the relevant meter was at the other end? I'm at a complete loss to explain it otherwise.

 

[LastManOnline]

When the electrician removes the earth thats coming in from the outside it solves the problem but again that earth has to be connected

And theirin almost certainly lies the issue.I do not believe there is an electrical problem as such.The issue lies with the "high" neutral(several volts above "true earth,not unusual).As the neutral and earth are connected together in a TNCS system,the earth wire is transporting the neutral volt drop around the home.
Not an issue usually in modern homes but tiles on concrete delivers a much lower resistance than wooden flooring.
Inserting plastic pipes in the main metallic services may work but only if there are no class 1 appliances connected to the plumbing (which is unlikely)

 

[westward10]

No link in the service head.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

No link in the service head.

Disconnecting the main earth at the CU apparently stops the tingles, but if there was no link in the head then it wouldn't make any difference as it would already be disconnected. The capacitive leakage on that length of SWA probably couldn't deliver enough current into the MET to be felt, when also shunted to earth by the CPCs of the rest of the installation and anything extraneous and bonded.

 

[Vortigern]

So then it is something the DNO have not picked up then. Need to get them back and get rid of the cable you or your "electrician" put in before they arrive. It is a crime to abstract electricity which is what you are doing.

 

[MTerzi]

@MTerzi are you saying the DNO installed that cable because if they did you need to be contacting them. For them to connect a cable like that is very bizarre, it isn't being metered.

No The DNO replaced the main wire but left the final connections to be done by the electrician that messed up badly he is coming in tomorrow to correct his fault with the meter.