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luca10

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A plumber removed the old kitchen tap & replaced it with a new one. The old tap & its old earthing is shown in the attached pics A & E.

Pics of the new flexi hoses & isolation valves shown in the attached pics B & C underneath the kitchen sink.

There was a joined earthing connection attached to the hot & cold water copper pipes directly underneath the kitchen sink tap. The plumber removed them & said they were not needed as the connection was not achieving anything between 1 hot water copper pipe & the other 1 cold water copper pipe. He said this bit of earthing did not need to be attached again to any copper pipping under my kitchen sink plus I already have a pre existing earthing connected in pic labelled D which the wiring feeds into the electrical meter box. Is this a correct statement & does my current earthing in Pic D under the kitchen sink tap suffice as a proper bonding connection? Best to check.

Any advice & help would be appreciated. Many thanks
 

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  • Earthing Question Removed Kitchen Tap & earthing (pic a) - EletriciansForums.net
    Removed Kitchen Tap & earthing (pic a).jpeg
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  • Earthing Question New Flexi Hoses (pic b) - EletriciansForums.net
    New Flexi Hoses (pic b).jpeg
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  • Earthing Question New Isolation Valves (pic c) - EletriciansForums.net
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  • Earthing Question Existing Earthing under kitchen sink tap (pic d).JPEG - EletriciansForums.net
    Existing Earthing under kitchen sink tap (pic d).JPEG
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  • Earthing Question Removed Earthing on old Kitchen Tap Copper Pipes (underneath sink) Pic  - EletriciansForums.net
    Removed Earthing on old Kitchen Tap Copper Pipes (underneath sink) Pic e.jpeg
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Hi Luca,
Quite possibly, but not necessarily!
Presumably the earth conductor in D (from the consumer unit) is the main earth bonding conductor to the incoming water service? It has an earth clamp, label but it is the incoming water supply pipe and what distance/pipework (branches) is between it and stopcock?
There is a G/Y conductor in the picture showing the 2No new isolation valves. What is that doing?
The original installer obviously thought it was needed!
May need to put a meter on it/surrounding metalwork to establish if extraneous or not.
 
The plumber is right that you don't need bonding wires between the pipes of a combined tap assembly.

The bonding wires are used to make sure that under a fault condition you do not see a dangerous voltage between two conductive items, say the hot tap and cold tap. When you do not have separate taps there is no possibility of seeing that as the pipes are joined already.

As for the main earth wire, as you say it should go back to the main earth terminal (MET) of your home. The best way of checking it is to measure the resistance between the MET and the pipe to establish it really is well connected and an electrician would use a suitable low resistance meter for that sort of test.

However, assuming nothing dumb has been done to the wire out of sight (yes, that can be a big assumption), if the pipe clamp and related cable appears to be holding with light wiggle force then it is most likely doing its job.
 
The plumber is right that you don't need bonding wires between the pipes of a combined tap assembly.

The bonding wires are used to make sure that under a fault condition you do not see a dangerous voltage between two conductive items, say the hot tap and cold tap. When you do not have separate taps there is no possibility of seeing that as the pipes are joined already.

As for the main earth wire, as you say it should go back to the main earth terminal (MET) of your home. The best way of checking it is to measure the resistance between the MET and the pipe to establish it really is well connected and an electrician would use a suitable low resistance meter for that sort of test.

However, assuming nothing dumb has been done to the wire out of sight (yes, that can be a big assumption), if the pipe clamp and related cable appears to be holding with light wiggle force then it is most likely doing its job.


I can confirm I don’t have 2 separate taps & when my kitchen sink tap was removed the plumber removed the 2 copper pipes (1 each for hot & cold sources) replacing with 2 flexi hoses instead. The yellow/green wire definitely leads into my sole electrical meter box in my flat.

I tried to manoeuvre the pipe clamp you mention & its steadily fastened.

The earthing to this area under the kitchen sink was done about 10 yrs ago & I do recall an electrician at the time using some type of hand held device to test the test up.

There are 2 shelves in my kitchen sink. The 1st shelf in pic E you can see on the upper shelf with the 2 flexi hoses and on the lower shelf there is the earthing which is pre-existing. The green/yellow wiring pass behind the 2 isolation valves in the picture without touching anything & it’s this path the wiring route leads into behind the kitchen cupboards leading into my meter box per pic F.

As for the earth conductor in pic D (from the consumer unit) being the main earth bonding conductor to the incoming water service I am not sure. I’m not an electrician. I live in an old council estate built in 1979 so not sure where the piping and electric sources lead to/come from. The existing earthing in PIC d is attached to a hot water copper pipe feed from my thermal store I believe leading into my kitchen sink tap.
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Hi Luca,
Quite possibly, but not necessarily!
Presumably the earth conductor in D (from the consumer unit) is the main earth bonding conductor to the incoming water service? It has an earth clamp, label but it is the incoming water supply pipe and what distance/pipework (branches) is between it and stopcock?
There is a G/Y conductor in the picture showing the 2No new isolation valves. What is that doing?
The original installer obviously thought it was needed!
May need to put a meter on it/surrounding metalwork to establish if extraneous or not.

thanks for your assistance. See my combined reply to user id: pc1966
 

Attachments

  • Earthing Question Pic E - EletriciansForums.net
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  • Earthing Question Pic F - EletriciansForums.net
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  • Earthing Question Close of up pre existing earthin - EletriciansForums.net
    Close of up pre existing earthing.jpg
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By the way, what you are describing is NOT earthing, it's bonding and for an entirely different purpose to earthing.

I didnt realise. Is the current bonding set up per Picture D appear to be in order since the original bonding in picture e was removed then? My plumber did state in picture d the bonding served no purpose so he didnt replace it after my new kitchen tap install which I wanted to ascertain if what he said was indeed correct? thank
 
The earth clamp that has been left in place is incorrectly fitted, it needs to be replaced an fitted properly.
The crimping of the lug appears to have been done with the wrong tool too and should be replaced.

That plumbing is pretty bad too!
 
The earth clamp that has been left in place is incorrectly fitted, it needs to be replaced an fitted properly.
The crimping of the lug appears to have been done with the wrong tool too and should be replaced.

That plumbing is pretty bad too!

Hi Dave - what exactly do you mean when you say that the plumbing is pretty bad?
 

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