Main Earth bonding to lead gas pipe.

[chris French]

OK, faffed about now running my earth bonding cable from the gas meter in the cellar to the CU elsewhere.

Just need to finish the connections. The connection to the gas meter is with lead pipe, converting to iron just within 600mm of the meter.

There are some suggestions on the web that you shouldn't bond to lead pipe with a standard clamp. Presumably the idea is that the pipe may squash? Though my experience with lead water pipe is that the stuff is so thick that tightening an earth clamp isn't going to have any impact on the pipe.

Alternatively each end of the pipe is swaged onto either a brass stubb at the meter or a iron (I presume) stub at the other end. I could bond there or just at the beginning of the iron pipe.

Any comments? or am I just being a fusspot :-)

[Andy Wade]

On-site guide, page 29, Table 4.2, note (iii) answers your questions, I think:

"Where practicable the connection to the gas [etc.] service should be within 600 mm of the service meter, or the point of entry to the building if the service meter is external and must be on the consumer's side, before any branch pipework and after any insulating section in the service. The connection must be made to hard pipework, not to soft or flexible meter connections."

[chris French]

Ah, thanks Andy. I did look in the OSG but must have not read it properly.

Taking it to mean Lead = soft I'll make the connection I think to the brass stub by the meter. Seems to be a better prospect than clamping round a bit of iron pipe in damp cellar.

[Tim Watts]

chris French wibbled on Tuesday 04 May 2010 23:39

Clamp to the iron pipe? That's what I'd do, assuming that's on your side, not the street side.

[Andy Wade]

Seconded. Don't worry about going a few cm beyond the recommended 600 mm distance - "where practicable" covers that. Use an EC15 or EC16 earth clamp, not the EC14 which is for dry indoor conditions only.