Ring main with no earth ring!?!

michaelw6 · Dec 20, 2016

Today i did a board change was one of them all in one eicr fix on site board changes "you know the ones that always go wrong".
Well the issue was the house ring.
i had 0.44 live 0.44 neutral and no earth ring.
I have put this circuit on a B32 61009 RCBO.
now how do i stand with the earth as its not to regs with regards sizing so theoretically if a fault develops it would not carry the load fast enough to trip.
I have had every point off in the house trying to find and tightened all up but no fault so it must be a joint under the floor. laminate down so floor coming up is a no go.
i thought about putting on a 20a but there are 20 sockets covering the whole house inc kitchen. so it may over load.
i thought about splitting ring but as i cannot find the fault how can i split ill have more sockets with no earth then...
So ive gone around and zs tested all sockets i have an earth max zs was 0.73ohms and the rcbo is max zs of 1.16ohms i believe so its well within tripping times.
Any more Ideas you recon it will be ok to leave just make a note of it on cert???

Andy78 · Dec 22, 2016

michaelw6 said:
as said in my first post its not fixable im afraid i cannot find it.
there are so many radials off the ring there must be quite a few JBs under the floor which is not accessable as its laminate flooring. if this was an easy fix i would not of asked for help!

Well if it's a mish mash of JBs like you suspect then splitting into 2 radials may be a bigger nightmare than actually fixing the fault. To do either option though you need to find the fault.
Are you saying you have totally split the ring down at every point, mapped out the cable runs through continuity testing, and you still have an open cpc when connected into a ring and no idea which portion of cable has the broken cpc ?

Octopus · Dec 22, 2016

michaelw6 said:
as said in my first post its not fixable im afraid i cannot find it.
there are so many radials off the ring there must be quite a few JBs under the floor which is not accessable as its laminate flooring. if this was an easy fix i would not of asked for help!

Surely you know between which 2 points there isn't continuity of R2?

7029 dave · Dec 22, 2016

As above you must have R2 on one half.?I take your point with the jb's under the floor.If the leg has been cut in half that is a big mistake. When I broke in under any floor used to splice the cable, so continuity was not broken.

michaelw6 · Dec 22, 2016

Andy78 said:
Well if it's a mish mash of JBs like you suspect then splitting into 2 radials may be a bigger nightmare than actually fixing the fault. To do either option though you need to find the fault.
Are you saying you have totally split the ring down at every point, mapped out the cable runs through continuity testing, and you still have an open cpc when connected into a ring and no idea which portion of cable has the broken cpc ?

Pretty Much i may have lost my way a little but it seemed impossible and i was just chasing my tail. getting late needed power on. im letting them know im gonna have another go at the testing with a clear head.
i think my only option is two radial circuits.