I'm not sure if the Regs allowed separately bare earths.

[SparkyChick]

Is this an issue.

Providing the cables check out fine then no, it shouldn't be.

Sounds like your biggest issue is potentially the earthing.

 

[westward10]

Aluminium conductors in this country is common for distribution cables but for small scale stuff it became popular when copper prices rocketed in the 70s/80s and yes SC I have some off cuts. BICC (British Insulated Calender Cables) is the most common manufacturer to be found and it can be hard to spot as the aluminium conductor was copper clad so it appears to be copper. The chances of a lead sheathed cabled produced for UK use having aluminium conductors is less than zero although they may appear to be as they will be tinned copper.

 

[SparkyChick]

All the ali stuff I've worked on here has been plain vanilla aluminium, didn't realise there was a copper clad version.

I remember seeing them putting new sub-mains in when one of my schools was being renovated. Big honking 3P+N SWA cables with quarter segments of aluminium in those oh so lovely colours.

 

[MFS Electrical]

Bring back red yellow and blue

 

[westward10]

Copper clad was generally restricted to the small scale T&E cables, it was made by placing an aluminium bar in a copper tube and stretching it to produce the conductor. Often only realised today when the conductor keeps breaking, common sizes were 1.5 solid and 4.0 stranded.

 

[freddo]

I have seen a few lengths of copper clad aluminium, I have some 7/.029 here somewhere. I have only once seen a house wired with solid aluminium cables, horrible stuff just breaks off when disturbed.

 

[westward10]

Some more of my samples from the garage SC, this is 1.5 copper clad aluminium T&E.

 

[westward10]

I have seen a few lengths of copper clad aluminium, I have some 7/.029 here somewhere. I have only once seen a house wired with solid aluminium cables, horrible stuff just breaks off when disturbed.

I suspect the 7/.029 is actually 4.0mm as I am pretty sure although not certain it was never produced under imperial sizes.

 

[sham]

Do I need to be careful is I was to do live ZS test as the earth is all over the place

 

[MFS Electrical]

I suspect the 7/.029 is actually 4.0mm as I am pretty sure although not certain it was never produced under imperial sizes.

I have not a clue what that means imperial is complete gibberish to me

 

[MFS Electrical]

Do I need to be careful is I was to do live ZS test as the earth is all over the place

Definitely I’d be tempted to do it on no trip to limit the current

 

[westward10]

Give an inch people take a mile.

 

[davesparks]

Definitely I’d be tempted to do it on no trip to limit the current

Why do you say that?

 

[MFS Electrical]

Why do you say that?

The bonding isn’t exactly satisfactory And when doing ELI certain meters can pump up to 26A down the earth that would hurt like hell and might have some bad consequences... I’d be wanting to do a full range of dead tests first before doing a Zs

 

[davesparks]

The bonding isn’t exactly satisfactory And when doing ELI certain meters can pump up to 260milliamps down the earth that would hurt like hell and might have some bad consequences... I’d be wanting to do a full range of dead tests first before doing a Zs

0.26A? A normal Zs test should be more than that!
This is why we carry out dead tests before live tests and the regulations specify this order.

Anti-trip tests regularly give incorrect readings and are not a good replacement for a standard efli test,

 

[MFS Electrical]

0.26A? A normal Zs test should be more than that!
This is why we carry out dead tests before live tests and the regulations specify this order.

Anti-trip tests regularly give incorrect readings and are not a good replacement for a standard efli test,

I did at first say 26 amps but i edited it and I don’t know why I changed it to be honest

 

[MFS Electrical]

I do agree that the high current test should be used wherever possible but without the appropriate bonding in place and so much bare earthing conductor around it may give rise to a dangerous situation

 

[MFS Electrical]

I’d disconnect the bonding and the bare earths from the board and do an R2 on the bare earth from the end at the board to ensure its complete and then again at the bit your going to connect into and to the board itself and then the pipes themselves just to rule out that the bare earth was coming from elsewhere I reckon if you do that you’ve pretty much proved beyond reasonable doubt that the earth is suitable and actually coming from the CU and not the pipes or anywhere else.

I did hint at doing the dead tests first several times throughout the thread as well

 

[sham]

I did hint at doing the dead tests first several times throughout the thread as well

If I do an ZS through calculation, then I will not really need to do a live test do I ?

 

[MFS Electrical]

If I do an ZS through calculation, then I will not really need to do a live test do I ?

Technically yes but I still prefer to do a Zs test