bathroom equipotential bonding question

[wildcard]

Quick question for the group...

I'm plumbing a bathroom with plastic pipes at the moment - so shouldn't need equipotential bonding (and I was going to add 1.5m plastic tails to the radiator before it hits the copper under the floor).

If I put in a chrome shower socket next to the sink - will I have to put in an equipotential circuit to all my metal fittings? (eg. sink mixer tap, shower valve, radiator and shower rail riser all to the earth terminal of the shaver socket?)

If so, & I tell SWMBO that she cant have a chrome socket and fit a plastic one - will this get me off fitting said bond?

TIA

Jim

[wildcard]

Sorry - that should have read SHAVER socket.

[Andy Wade]

[*] Corrected as directed.

No, if the said "metal fittings" are fed through plastic pipes, they won't need bonding. The chrome socket face-plate will need earthing via the earth wire in the circuit cable of course, and the shaver socket must be an isolated type complying with BS EN 60742. If there are any light fittings in the designated Zones, the circuit earths of the light and shaver socket must be locally cross-bonded. If both items are fed from the same final circuit and the connection between the two is a short cable run close to the bathroom (e.g. just above the ceiling) then the circuit earth wire in this cable provides the bond, without the need for another wire.

If bonding is needed this will not get you off the hook, no.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Your wife is interested in shaver sockets? ;-)

[Nathan Critchlow-Watton]

I was asking an electrician about this.

He said that it would be good practise to bond to the radiator in a bathroom, even one with plastic pipes.

This was because the water flowing through the plastic will conduct electricity, so the metal radiator itelf should be earthed as otherwise someone could get a shock from it.

Yours, Nathan

[Christian McArdle]

Absolute bollocks. The IEE did tests and determined that radiators fed from plastic pipework were safer without bonding, at least with 1m of plastic before metal is touched.

Isolation from earth is best. If it can't be achieved, then a good bond is next best. You want to avoid a bad bond.

Christian.

[Andy Wade]

Well he's being over-cautious. This was a controversial subject until a few years ago when, with plastic plumbing becoming more common, the IEE arranged some tests, and concluded that there was no significant risk of getting dangerous shocks via the water. Since then they've issued clear advice that supplementary bonding is not required in plastic-pipe installations. See the URL below for an article about this.

[Nathan Critchlow-Watton]

Great, thanks for the update - that makes the bonding in my bathroom a lot easier to do!

I'll print that out in case the electrician signing off my rewire questions the lack of bonding in the bathroom.

Cheers, Nathan

[David Hansen]

On 14 Dec 2005 05:53:57 -0800 someone who may be "Nathan Critchlow-Watton" wrote this:-

Well, if there are (bonded) metal pipes to the radiator then these will provide reliable metal to metal contact with the radiator, which makes bonding the radiator itself pointless. Apart from anything else the radiator itself is unlikely to introduce a potential into the room.

If there are plastic pipes to it, the radiator is equally unlikely to introduce a potential and others have pointed out how plastic pipes and the water within them behave.

The electrician perhaps recommends bonding metal window frames, or the metal in a basin waste? I have seen such horrors, perpetrated by people who either don't know what they are doing or are paid for their bogus recommendations.

There are good reasons for the IEE's recommendations, but these should not be gold plated.