electricity from water tap

[John Rumm]

Depends much on what the report from the independent sparks has to say I guess - we only have a partial picture from this distance.

[meow2222]

UFH might or might not not be the cause, but it is one of the possibles, so does need attention.

NT

[mosqjos]

UPDATE:

The electrician visited and discovered that the problem was not the UFH. It was in fact (and I forgot to mention it) the demister or mirror heater.

Basically there is a demister installed behind the big mirror which is installed flushed to the tiles on the wall. Somehow there is a leakeage from this onto the surrounding tiles. Luckily it is a samll current.

I somehow did not think that this could be the cause and forgot to mention it.

In any case, the mirror heater has now been disconected from the Light circuit. I've spoken to the builders who are coming tomorrow to remove the mirror (I will need a new one) and check what is wrong.

Many Many thanks to all of you who were very helpful.

Regards

[John Stumbles]

It's the volts that jolts It's the mills that kills

[Colin Wilson]

Glad to hear you're sorted anyway :-)

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] writes

Which begs the question.. how is it the demisting mirror can affect you in that way?.

Seems worthy of some investigation. What have the makers to say about it?...

[John Rumm]

What did he have to say about the disconnected earths on the UFH?

[mosqjos]

Indeed. I have sent an email to the manufacturers regarding this point. Once I get a reply I will update this thread.

[meow2222]

Thats good news. But removing that fault doesnt make the bathroom safe, you've still got unearthed taps and/or UFH. It does of course make it considerably safer, but that's all.

NT

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , [e-mail] writes

All these frivolous gimmicks that introduce a mains shock hazard into a wet environment. The bathroom is where humans are the most susceptible to passing serious current due to being wet and standing on a wet floor with wet feet. I remember seeing the heated mirrors being sold and thinking they were such a bad idea. It appears they are.

[EricP]

We had our eyes n a nice one and were considering it. This has saved us £100+. So the OP has done us a service by his misfortune.

[tony sayer]

In article , EricP writes

Well thats not very good science!, there could be another totally separate reason why this is apparently doing what it is . It might be due to the way the "builders" have installed it let alone a fault on the device!....

[Lurch]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 19:42:03 +0100, tony sayer mused:

I did think about mentioning something along those lines but if people are so easily swayed to not get one they obviously never wanted one in the first place, therefore meaning it would be a waste of time me saying anything.

[mosqjos]

to mirrors that will be tiled to the wall. This person suggested that the demister (mirror heater) should not be stuck on top of the mirror foil (and this is exactly what the builders did). Instead a cutout for the demister should be cut on the foil or no foil should be used at all.

Since I am not an electrician, I'm not sure if this makes sense. In any case I will await the reply from the manufacturers

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] writes

So our friend has his hands on the taps supposedly at earth?. He has his bare feet on the floor so how does the or any leakage current get from where the mirror is up on the wall ,suppose theses "where" it is;) to his feet on the marble floor?..

Seems a bad case of leccy flowing uphill to me;!......

[Tony Williams]

Sifting through all the OP's remarks suggests that he has ungrounded pipework with a leakage from the AC mains to it. The source of that leakage could be the mirror, the immersion heater, or whatever, but it's the possible nongrounding of the metal things in the bathroom that should be of first concern.

Being of a suspicious/cynical nature I would not be surprised to see RCD tripping when everything is properly bonded..... which then might explain the OP's reports of 'lifted earths'.

It might be prudent to get the electrics surveyed and tested for safety by an independant electrician.

[planter]

You've missed of the other possibility - that you are a know-it all knob.

[Lurch]

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:59:27 +0100, planter mused:

I felt that was already well known so didn't feel the need to mention it. Do you know how an RCD works OOI?

[mosqjos]

The wall has marble tiles all the way to the floor. Could that be the way the current gets to the floor?

[tony sayer]

Humm... what's the conductivity of Marble then?, perhaps its got some metallic content?...

In which case it needs cross bonding;!....