- Reaction score
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Hello all,
Looking for help here as I've come across a strange call-out today. Bare with me here:
Got a call from a customer saying they had received an electric shock from their steeltech shed, not once but twice.
To give a bit of a background, there are two sheds in their back garden. One concrete and one steeltech shed. Both approx 8m from the house.
The concrete is the original shed, being installed over 30 years ago. It has a small sub-board inside, with a 10amp mcb for lighting circuit (two flourescents) and 20amp mcb for a socket circuit(two double sockets-rarely used). There's a seperate earth rod driven outside the shed too.
Sub-board is fed from the house, an old Baco 63A E.L.C.B, coming off a 38A mcb. Cable to shed is a 6sq SWA cable, buried through the garden and out to the shed. Nothing too untoward so far.
About 8 years ago, they had a steeltech shed put in, about 2-3m from the existing shed. It is at a higher elevation than the first shed as its closer to the house. An electrician took a 2.5 SWA cable from the 20A MCB in concrete shed and ran it into the new shed. But he ran it into a JB, and from there, split the feed- one direct to a metal clad double socket and the other to feed a switch and thus the light.
Here's where I got worried. Everything was working fine for years, no issues. But in the last few days, when the owner touched the steel frame or metal lock on the door he'd get a shock. When I got there I had only time to do a quick inspection for the obvious ones, screw through cable etc. I isolated power and opened up the socket, light, switch and JB. Nothing caught by a screw or anything. I did notice the steel frame wasn't bonded anywhere though. I left socket plate open and turned on power. Went from L terminal at socket against the steel frame of shed and got 230v reading. I disconnected the SWA feeding the shed at JB and still got 230v from L to steel frame. So that ruled out any issues at the accessories in the new shed.
Obviously when I killed power to the 20A mcb it killed any power in the steel shed. I checked the SWA cable where I could and all seemed to be fine. It was buried for about 2m but owner told me it had even been buried in 2 inch pipe. No digging or any civil works lately either. Nothing tripped when he got the shock. I haven't performed any testing yet, I just isolated the ELCB and 38A breaker in the house and even put down mcbs in shed.
Before I go back, was wondering if you had any suggestions at to what it could be?
Thanks all.
Looking for help here as I've come across a strange call-out today. Bare with me here:
Got a call from a customer saying they had received an electric shock from their steeltech shed, not once but twice.
To give a bit of a background, there are two sheds in their back garden. One concrete and one steeltech shed. Both approx 8m from the house.
The concrete is the original shed, being installed over 30 years ago. It has a small sub-board inside, with a 10amp mcb for lighting circuit (two flourescents) and 20amp mcb for a socket circuit(two double sockets-rarely used). There's a seperate earth rod driven outside the shed too.
Sub-board is fed from the house, an old Baco 63A E.L.C.B, coming off a 38A mcb. Cable to shed is a 6sq SWA cable, buried through the garden and out to the shed. Nothing too untoward so far.
About 8 years ago, they had a steeltech shed put in, about 2-3m from the existing shed. It is at a higher elevation than the first shed as its closer to the house. An electrician took a 2.5 SWA cable from the 20A MCB in concrete shed and ran it into the new shed. But he ran it into a JB, and from there, split the feed- one direct to a metal clad double socket and the other to feed a switch and thus the light.
Here's where I got worried. Everything was working fine for years, no issues. But in the last few days, when the owner touched the steel frame or metal lock on the door he'd get a shock. When I got there I had only time to do a quick inspection for the obvious ones, screw through cable etc. I isolated power and opened up the socket, light, switch and JB. Nothing caught by a screw or anything. I did notice the steel frame wasn't bonded anywhere though. I left socket plate open and turned on power. Went from L terminal at socket against the steel frame of shed and got 230v reading. I disconnected the SWA feeding the shed at JB and still got 230v from L to steel frame. So that ruled out any issues at the accessories in the new shed.
Obviously when I killed power to the 20A mcb it killed any power in the steel shed. I checked the SWA cable where I could and all seemed to be fine. It was buried for about 2m but owner told me it had even been buried in 2 inch pipe. No digging or any civil works lately either. Nothing tripped when he got the shock. I haven't performed any testing yet, I just isolated the ELCB and 38A breaker in the house and even put down mcbs in shed.
Before I go back, was wondering if you had any suggestions at to what it could be?
Thanks all.