UK imagine you have discovered a water pipe in a bathroom

[D_electro]

Q. imagine you have discovered a water pipe in a bathroom that has been repaired at some previous time using a plastic connector


-So I am a little confused about this question because, I am being asked to explain why this situation can be dangerous also.
how can you "remedy" the situation.

at the moment I am a trainee electrician and i cant figure out how to answer this i know its to do with earthing/bonding but I don't know of a way to fix it

 

[telectrix]

Q. imagine you have discovered a water pipe in a bathroom that has been repaired at some previous time using a plastic connector


-So I am a little confused about this question because, I am being asked to explain why this situation can be dangerous also.
how can you "remedy" the situation.

at the moment I am a trainee electrician and i cant figure out how to answer this i know its to do with earthing/bonding but I don't know of a way to fix it

think about the lack of bonding to the copper pipe one side of the connector, and whether or not this could cause injury.

 

[timhoward]

It will be a situation where supplementary bonding is required due to no RCD protection, or extraneous conductive parts exist.
If a bonding clamp is the wrong side of the connector it leaves the other part of the pipe unbonded.
Now, how might you fix this?

 

[DPG]

Also consider why it might be an idea not to hold the two copper ends in each hand until you have done some testing.

 

[Legionista]

someone can explain why this situaction can be a dangerous?

 

[snowhead]

A fault on one side and bonded on the other, what could the POTENTIAL issue be??

 

[M1_Ghost]

I'm doing the exact same course, and my answer to question 1 was that the main issue at hand is that the equipotential zone has been broken. There are now many risks, but the main one is that there is a risk of potential differences existing within the extraneous conductive parts. Another issue mentioned two pages before in the book is that there is also a risk of corrosive current to the metal pipework as there is moisture in or around the pipe; which could lead to corrosion within the metal pipework later down the line.

As for how to remedy the situation, only god knows. If you got the answer, please let me know. Thank you !

 

[DPG]

I'm doing the exact same course, and my answer to question 1 was that the main issue at hand is that the equipotential zone has been broken. There are now many risks, but the main one is that there is a risk of potential differences existing within the extraneous conductive parts. Another issue mentioned two pages before in the book is that there is also a risk of corrosive current to the metal pipework as there is moisture in or around the pipe; which could lead to corrosion within the metal pipework later down the line.

As for how to remedy the situation, only god knows. If you got the answer, please let me know. Thank you !

Not sure about the corrosion thing.

To maintain continuity (if it was deemed necessary of course) you could use two earth clamps and a short length of g/y.

 

[Cankeredlamentations]

I imagine the situation comes up often nowadays, especially if people have extra radiators installed, bathroom renovations where plastic push fits connectors are used to join onto exiting copper pipework, repairs for burst pipes where a section of copper pipe work is removed (thinking the classic screw/nail through the pipe) and patched with plastic connection, the continuity of existing bonding would be broken.

 

[timhoward]

I imagine the situation comes up often nowadays

It’s also increasingly common for all circuits in the special location to be RCD protected allowing supplementary bonding to be omitted.