My flat does not have any mains earth supplied to my meter from outside, by the power/network supplier. Flat is a traditional 1884 Scottish stone-built tenement building, 2nd floor.
Two questions:
1) Is the supplier obliged to provide one? If not, how much would it reasonable cost to pay them to install?
2) Do I need one? My I have earth bonding to the gas and water pipes which I guess can work as an earth. But is that safe? Does that mean the pipes might be conducting electrical discharge and be dangerous for anyone touching the pipes of the whole
They may not be able to supply an earth and therefore not obliged to supply one. If they can supply an earth then it is usually free (IMHO in England)
Yes you do need a proper earth. You may have to supply your own and make sure your electrics are up to standards required for a TT supply Have a read of
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?title=Earthing_Types> A picture of the incoming supply and meter would help a lot.
I dunno about Scotland, but 'they' will charge for this in London. IIRC, about 300 quid.
The snag comes if and when the external bits of these pipes are changed to plastic. Assuming they are not already. But using them as an earth hasn't complied with regs for a long time.
The intention of bonding supply pipes together is to ensure that the consumer side of those pipes is bonded to your electrical earth, not to use the incoming supply pipes _as_ your electrical earth.
Do you know which reg. to quote etc? The usual way round here (South London, old house), is a clip to the outside of the riser. And they charge a vast amount to fit one.
FWIW, this doesn't sound right. If your supply is of any age, I'd expect it to be wired in singles (single cores) from a rectangular duct or round conduit in the close. As you're 2 up there is no way that you could provide an earth by any other means so I would expect them to provide an earth if you tell them it is missing. Anyway, let us see the pics and it should become clear. Try to see where the cables are coming into your flat.
When a leccy man came to my house to quote for some work he noted that the water supply was not "earthed" and added some extortionate charge to the quote for doing it.
I said "did you not notice that the pipes in question are plastic" and he sheepishly took it off again.
someone here to talk sense is great, thanks for your help so far guys. Just looking in the shared junction box I can see how my nieghbour has connected an earth wire to the box, and that there is not much work involved in connecting an earth cable from my flat to the box (3 meters). But I think legally I must use the supply company to make the connection, is that right?
I should've added that, my flat is on the left of the box, so the red
black cables coming into the box on the left are mine, no green earth cable. My neighbours red, black and shiny new earth cable are on the right, It seems the earthing in only to the metal box, which i guess is earthed through the conduit going downwards.
Here is where spelling is very very important. meter - the thing with spinning dials that measures how much leccy you've used metre - a unit of distance being approximately 39 inches.
Looking at the picture it looks like the supply supplies an earth, there's a black, red and green coming in from the bottom; the red going to a set of fuse heads, the black to a common block, and the green to an earth tag, then all three continuing upwards; with consumer read+blacks going off to the sides.
It looks like your neighbour has connected their earth to the case, not to the earth tag, and is relying on the case providing an electrically sound connection to the earth tag. Earths really need to be made to a single connection and not rely on intervening metalwork for their connection.
No reg I am afraid. There maybe something in the ESQCR.
When I have called to have the earth terminal supplied in the past I have never been asked for money (I now usually just do my own earth connections). Of course they refused when the supply was TT, but they were able to tell me over the phone it was a TT supply.
As there are just 2 outgoing supplies there I am assuming that this box is just serving your floor. Looks like incoming supply at the bottom, through feed to upstairs, with neighbour's feed to the right and yours to the left?
The neighbour's earth looks undersized btw, it should be the same size as the solid green that's passing through the box.
It does look a bit scary and it makes me wonder where the earths on your internal wiring are going to you.
Given the age of the fusebox I wouldn't be surprised if you find that you have lead sheathed rubber insulated cable terminating without an earth at the fusebox. This is bad as by now the rubber insulation will be brittle and will not be possible to add an earth to it.
If it were mine I would switch off the fusebox and remove the cover to investigate and see if there is any earthing but be aware that despite the box being switched off this may expose bare live parts. If you have any doubt as to your competency then do not do this. As you have access to your fuse in the close then you could isolate your supply there too but take care as the old fuse carrier may be brittle. Again, if you have doubts then don't touch it.
If you do have old lead sheathed cable then think about re-wiring, you are on borrowed time with it.
Btw, the 'direct link' option is more universally usable than the one you provided but it did the job.
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