Equipotential Bonding

[mwsharp86]

Can somebody please advise?

We recently had our gas meter moved to a box outside our house after the service was found to be leaking. The company that did it have sent somebody round to do the bonding from the new gas outlet pipework to our fuse board but the route he's said he has to take I really don't want him to do as this would mean drilling more holes, I've had enough of the amount of disruption this job has caused already. A friend has mentioned they could do it by installing an earthing rod and wouldn't need to go through the house, is this possible?

 

[westward10]

No an earth rod is not suitable it needs to go to the main earth terminal.

 

[Octopus]

In 1 word NO

The whole point of equipotential bonding is that all "surfaces" are connected to the MET / fuse board.

Not sure your friend understands this.

 

[Richard Burns]

I would agree with the above an earth rod would make thing possibly more dangerous rather than safer.

There may be alternative routes for the cable to take to get back to the main earth terminal. If the gas was already bonded and the meter has not been moved far then perhaps running a short cable and joining on to the old bonding cable would be less disruptive. Another option would be to run a cable outside the house if there is a route available.

An additional consideration is that if the gas meter has been moved and a new supply pipe has been installed then it is likely that this pipe would be MDPE (yellow plastic) and the gas meter may no longer require bonding as it may not be an extraneous part, however this would need to be verified and it is often difficult to convince gas installers that bonding may not be necessary.

 

[ruston]

The bond could follow the route of the new gas pipe to where it is connected to the existing if that would help ,and if the gas meter and the CU were in the same cupboard the problem is solved.

 

[the pict]

In my experience gas fitters want to "bond" everything without knowing how to or what it actually means,trying to explain is pointless

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Can somebody please advise?

We recently had our gas meter moved to a box outside our house after the service was found to be leaking. The company that did it have sent somebody round to do the bonding from the new gas outlet pipework to our fuse board but the route he's said he has to take I really don't want him to do as this would mean drilling more holes, I've had enough of the amount of disruption this job has caused already. A friend has mentioned they could do it by installing an earthing rod and wouldn't need to go through the house, is this possible?

This nonsense comes from those who think the requirement is to earth the gas service, bonding is a different thing altogether and your friends suggestion will actually increase the danger bonding is intended to reduce. As already suggested, if you can get verification that the new service is plastic bonding may not be required.

 

[johnduffell]

Even if you do need to bond it, you should do it where the copper pipe enters the building, although gas people prefer to see it in the meter box. Doing it where it comes inside might save a bit of drilling.

 

[Simonslimline]

Can somebody please advise?

We recently had our gas meter moved to a box outside our house after the service was found to be leaking. The company that did it have sent somebody round to do the bonding from the new gas outlet pipework to our fuse board but the route he's said he has to take I really don't want him to do as this would mean drilling more holes, I've had enough of the amount of disruption this job has caused already. A friend has mentioned they could do it by installing an earthing rod and wouldn't need to go through the house, is this possible?

I take it your friend is not an electrician then!

Hope you get it sorted without too much disruption.

 

[mwsharp86]

Thank you all for your help.