currently refurbing an old house.
Had a sparky on the job to quote me for installing a new consumer unit During his inspection he said that he couldn't locate an earth cabl coming from the mains feed. No sign of earth entering from anywher else. Where can I run a fresh earth cable from too my new consumer unit?
Cheer
-- brian
If there is no earth terminal provided by the electricity supplier (and they don't have to provide one) then it is the customer's responsibility to provide an earth. This would be an earth rod outside the property, in which case your earthing would be described as TT, and you will probably need a split consumer unit with a 100mA time-delayed main RCD and a 30mA RCD on the socket circuits.
The sparky should install the earth rod and test and certify it for you.
It may be worth asking the electricity supplier (the regional electricity distributor, not whoever sells you the kilowatts) if they can provide you with an earth.
Owain
Depending on the type of incoming supply, you might be able to get the electric co. to provide an earth - although it depends on a couple of things, such as availability of an earth on their network, type of premises (farms with livestock, and premises fed off the same network as a farm with livestock - I believe it can change the line characteristics), and it may be a chargeable job.
Ask him if he knows what an earth rod is.
In message , Colin Wilson writes
It's worth pointing out here that it was quite normal in older installations not to have earthing back to the supply. The water pipe was typically used as the earth and the consumer unit earthed to that. This was exactly the system we had in the old house we lived in previously. This isn't acceptable now.
As sort of the rewire I did I contacted the supplier and they provided an earth terminal - in our case it was earthed to the sheath of the supply cable.
There is a bit in the FAQ on earthing systems,
I'd read that and then ask the sparks what he recommends doing about it. If he can't give a sensible answer find another one.
:-)
-- Adrian C
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian C saying something like:
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