low impedence at gas meter

[Guest123]

"The Impedance of the gas meter was over 100ohms".......makes no sense to me that????

Obviously you will have tested the job when you finished so dont worry about it.

 

[Monkey1984]

To be fair it might not have been British Gas it could have been National Grid Gas.

And whilst I agree in principal that the British Gas Engineers working on the gas side are trained to sell the electricians are under no obligation to sell and 99% of the time will offer advice but not sell, if the customer wants a price for a change then they will get them one.

In fact most of the time they actually keep private guys in work as they normally recommend they go with them for the work!

I know a couple of the electrical guys and there sound in my opinion.

 

[chrish_1977]

hi
we just got a call back form a client whos house we recently rewired, he said that the gas board had been down and checked the impedence when checking the gas meter and noted <100 ohms? and classed this as an issue?
we went back and did an end to end continuity of the gas bond and all was good, did our ze and all was good?
i just cant see the issue?

I had exactly the same thing, got called to a very good customer of mine as BG had been out and said the same thing, even gave him a rather formal looking bit of paper stating that the installation was unsafe due to this, on the plus side, I had just replaced the C/u and carried out a EIC so had all the readings to hand. Even should the customer when i was testing it again (just to double check for his piece of mind), he said he would ring them up and kick-off, never did hear what happened about it though

 

[IQ Electrical]

I had exactly the same thing, got called to a very good customer of mine as BG had been out and said the same thing, even gave him a rather formal looking bit of paper stating that the installation was unsafe due to this, on the plus side, I had just replaced the C/u and carried out a EIC so had all the readings to hand. Even should the customer when i was testing it again (just to double check for his piece of mind), he said he would ring them up and kick-off, never did hear what happened about it though

That would infuriate me beyond belief, some electrically incompetent gas guy questioning my fully tested and fully compliant installation.

I expect to hear a lot more of this as BG mount their cash-rich assault on the domestic market!

 

[chrish_1977]

That would infuriate me beyond belief, some electrically incompetent gas guy questioning my fully tested and fully compliant installation.

I expect to hear a lot more of this as BG mount their cash-rich assault on the domestic market!

It did to start with (thinking oh crap did i miss something, even though i knew i hadn't but its always in the back of my mind).

 

[tonys]

I expect to hear a lot more of this as BG mount their cash-rich assault on the domestic market!

There's rude awakening for the one man band domestic electrician, a branded outfit will always come out on top.

BG are doing heating installs on the decent homes project, rewires next?

 

[telectrix]

refeering to alarms being powered from the live side of the CU by BG. does this mean i can connect my central heating to the incoming side of the gas meter?????

 

[scott-fitz]

I had exactly the same thing, got called to a very good customer of mine as BG had been out and said the same thing, even gave him a rather formal looking bit of paper stating that the installation was unsafe due to this, on the plus side, I had just replaced the C/u and carried out a EIC so had all the readings to hand. Even should the customer when i was testing it again (just to double check for his piece of mind), he said he would ring them up and kick-off, never did hear what happened about it though

I'm infuriated and it wasn't even my job, the fact that they put it in writing is worse!

 

[WDMDL]

refeering to alarms being powered from the live side of the CU by BG. does this mean i can connect my central heating to the incoming side of the gas meter?????

Yes, that's perfectly acceptable, provided you fit a 20 millibar governor lol

Simon.

 

[oldtimer]

refeering to alarms being powered from the live side of the CU by BG. does this mean i can connect my central heating to the incoming side of the gas meter?????

I have been banging on about this for years and thought it was now being eradicated but instead I was asked for a second opinion as BG told the customer he needed a new CU "right Now" it was so dangerous and right away I clocked a BG alarm and yes the 1.0mm T&E was connected on the live side of the CU I explained that this cable was protected by a 100 amp fuse and even offered to move it for free on safety grounds but the customer was so spooked he said "if BG did it it must be ok" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also got called out to a womans house and she said the guy who fixed her washing machine said that he earth loop impedance on the kitchen sockets was too high so I checked them out and they were fine only to find out that it was a BG "technician" who fixed the washing machine.
So when I get calls like these now I always ask if it was a BG "engineer" who highlighted the problem because if it was I always say get it in writing first because my time is being wasted with these muppets

 

[Steve Richards]

no as it doesnt matter what side it is wired from as it can still only carry the load that is connected to it, it just means that if any work was to be carried out on the alarm the mains would have to be killed to work on the circuit. it stops the power supply being interupted



going into the mains side or load side of the c.u is just the same as going straight into the henley blocks,and it doesnt have to be for a security alarm it can be for anything, as long as it is local to the cable head.ie u could wire a 2 way d.b in 2.5mm straight from the mains as long as it has a main sw of 20 amp,so it is just the same for a f.c.u ... this was told to me bye an n.i.c trainer on a course i was on.. yes there are idiots out there not fuseing it down which is wrong but

Although preferrable to have 1 x main switch for an installation it is not against the regs to have more than 1 x isolator as long as that all "main switches" are labelled to state that there is more than 1 x main switch to isolate the complete installation.

As for the cicuit fed off the live side of the consumer unit.......having a laugh aren't you in my opinion how bloody dangerous!

As it is an alarm circuit feeding a fused spur I agree that there is no over-load risk. But and its a bloody big BUT what about under a fault condition. Using a 1.00mm cable will the earth loop impedance be low enough to operate the service fuse in the required time .....wouldn't think so! and what about the let-through energy under a fault condition... you end up with the complete length of circuit acting as a fuse. In fact a 80amp fusewire has a greater cross sectional area than a 1.00mm cable.

If you must feed it directly off the fuseboard then take it off the switched side in 6.00mm to a fcu beside the fuse board and then in 1.00mm or 1.5mm to the panel.

Regards

Steve