Earths can be dangerous

I wish he would try it.

I'm not wasting more time on that oaf, but just wondering whether we should be moving on to a 'post-earth world' for other reasons. The original reasons for earthing appliances don't apply anything like so much any more, so maybe... maybe....there's an argument for saying the balance of risk has shifted to the extent that earthing should no longer be regarded as essential? And might even be positively dangerous? Not my field, so I can't form a worthwhile view on it. :-/

Of course. But are those reasons still as compelling as they were 60 or

Something to do with phone boxes, he said. I'd have thought a phone box (traditional type) would form a protective Faraday Cage for anyone inside anyway.

No, but they're still compelling in the end. Lighting circuits might make sense to go to 2 core - lighting just isn't anything like as much risk as sockets, and RCDs take away most of the shock risk. OTOH the cost of 3 cores isn't much. With CFL & LEDs now near universal it might also make sense to reduce ampacity. Also double insulation isn't needed in a floor-ceiling cavity. In extremis one could therefore run lighting circuits on bell wire with 1A MCBs with reasonable safety.

But socket circuits still shock & kill people. RCDs don't always function & don't protect against all shock scenarios. Earthing can disconnect power long before anyone touches a faulty appliance.

Fast forward to the future when the CU watches every load for abnormalities & insulation is continuously monitored - earthing will cease to have any real use then. But we don't have good enough protection in place yet.

NT

Moaning about somebody and not saying who they are is ridiculous.

Earthing can also provide a path from live to ground. You need live AND ground to get a shock. No earths at all, impossible to be shocked indoors.

Don't you have RCD's in your part of the world. Take the earth off the appliance and you could get a 13A shock instead of 30 mA one.

You are very unlikely to get a 13A shock.

It *could* conceivably be done. Pull your foreskin back, stick your knob in the mains socket whilst standing in 6" of water in a kids' paddling pool that's well grounded. But a situation like this arising accidentally is highly unlikely IMV. I mean, an insurance claim citing circumstances like these would almost inevitably warrant further investigation.

You get the same current with or without an RCD. The RCD only trips it quickly. If its working and it might not be as few people ever test them and they do fail. What was the last time you tested that they worked?

but that is 6kV