no earth

[Guitarist]

Stroppy, if you're that close to your local tranny, fit an MET in your house, then run a 16mm cable from it to said transformer and bolt your cable onto it. Cover it over with dead leaves and other general detritus.
Should give you the best Ze in the area.

Don't forget the rated breaking capacity of your equipment is only 6KA though...

 

[Silly Sausage]

Haha...isn't there another thread going about that very subject?!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Stroppy, if you're that close to your local tranny, fit an MET in your house, then run a 16mm cable from it to said transformer and bolt your cable onto it. Cover it over with dead leaves and other general detritus.
Should give you the best Ze in the area.

or the nearest lamppost....just wrap it round...a bit of a twist to get it tight....

 

[Stroppy]

how did you guess?...the cable ends were a bit scratchy mind on the way out but...
well, thats what i was told anyway....

If you had done the job properly and crimped on some round lugs poor Mumsie wouldn't have got scratched!!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

If you had done the job properly and crimped on some round lugs poor Mumsie wouldn't have got scratched!!

i think you`v been watchin too many reruns of the cristal maze....

 

[Stroppy]

Challenge Ch 125 18:00 weekdays. Brilliant! Interceptor is good too, bit of 80's nostalgia.

 

[Engineer54]

My gas pipe is definitely straight in the ground, as I can see it - its an ancient iron/steel thing that disappears into the earth. Anyway, I disconnected the bond from the gas pipe and still got 0.46, but then it ocurred to me: as the pipe is connected to appliances which have their metalwork earthed, am I not getting a parallel path through their CPC's? I'm not going to the trouble of disconnecting those, or the bonds on the water pipe or central heating as they are under the floor and a pain in the arse to get to. I'm getting more confused about this by the minute!

The more I think about it I think it is the gas service, as (a) it is a metal pipe going straight into the ground, and (b) the gas-main in the road goes right past the transformer within about 2 metres of it.

Testing the MET without the twig got me 0.35.

May be you can, but if it's iron pipe it will definitely have a wrap below ground (Used to be a grease impregnated tape, which i can't remember the name of at the moment). What you can see, is where it hasn't been properly wrapped after up-stand connection by the original gas fitters. The same will go for the copper pipe, that probably been tee'd of an old main line lead wrapped pipe.

Far more likely that a neighbour or neighbours have had a PME upgrade, and your seeing the results from the bonded services from those properties!!. But you have to remember that your metal service connections, are bonds (as they are in the other properties) and not a recognised earth electrode. So while it is improving your TT system to TN values, it's not really the best place to be!!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Challenge Ch 125 18:00 weekdays. Brilliant! Interceptor is good too, bit of 80's nostalgia.

i remeber that interceptor thing....could never get into it though...
i always thought annabel croft needed a tail though

 

[Geordie Spark]

May be you can, but if it's iron pipe it will definitely have a wrap below ground (Used to be a grease impregnated tape, which i can't remember the name of at the moment). What you can see, is where it hasn't been properly wrapped after up-stand connection by the original gas fitters. The same will go for the copper pipe, that probably been tee'd of an old main line lead wrapped pipe.

Far more likely that a neighbour or neighbours have had a PME upgrade, and your seeing the results from the bonded services from those properties!!. But you have to remember that your metal service connections, are bonds (as they are in the other properties) and not a recognised earth electrode. So while it is improving your TT system to TN values, it's not really the best place to be!!

Denzo Tape maybe???

Not sure myself to be honest - it's just a name that's lurking in a dark corner of my mind.

 

[Stroppy]

I do realise that the services are not there to be used as an earth, and the difference between earthing and bonding, which is why I started all this: testing the effectiveness of my earth twig. I will see if I can get PME'd, which would be the better option, otherwise I'll get some chunky rods and start driving them into the mud-bath that is my garden.

One day I'll get under the floor and individually test all the pipework and find which one is the culprit, but for now I CBA!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Denzo Tape ???

EVIL stuff!

 

[Stroppy]

Is that the unbelievably sticky stuff? If so it nearly pulled my hand off once!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Denzo Tape maybe???

Not sure myself to be honest - it's just a name that's lurking in a dark corner of my mind.

yep...denzo it is...
plumbers used it a lot for pipework in contact with building substrates....

 

[Geordie Spark]

Is that the unbelievably sticky stuff? If so it nearly pulled my hand off once!

Yes, it's extremely claggy ............ it's like sackcloth soaked in diahorroea and smells like it too.

 

[Engineer54]

Denzo Tape maybe???

Not sure myself to be honest - it's just a name that's lurking in a dark corner of my mind.

Yes, that sounds about right!! lol!! As others say, really horrible stuff to work with, but it works. Must have been around now for 60 odd years or so now, under various names and variations etc!! lol!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Yes, that sounds about right!! lol!! As others say, really horrible stuff to work with, but it works. Must have been around now for 60 odd years or so now, under various names and variations etc!! lol!!

Oh yes it works very well.

I remember my Dad making some clothes posts for my Mum to tie her washing lines to. He made them out of steel pipe that he nicked from work and he wrapped the lower part that was going to be buried with Denzo.

That was in 1950 something and those posts were still there in 2008. That's the year when Mum died and I sold the house, so they're probably still there for all I know.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Yes, it's extremely claggy ............ it's like sackcloth soaked in diahorroea and smells like it too.

i hope you havn`t been making comparisons Geordie....lol....:biggrinjester:

 

[Geordie Spark]

i hope you havn`t been making comparisons Geordie....lol....:biggrinjester:

Not recently Glen.

 

[ackbarthestar]

Ofcourse, as a temp measure a water main is much more reliable than dodgy reading Ra on an electrode, however it could be replaced with plastic, so any pemenent matalic stucture that is soundly connected to earth and in your opinion doesnt deteriorate is acceptable as a reliable earth in aTT system.

I must admit that if any upgrading to the water system took place where the old lead water mains was cut off in the road you would still have anything up to 30m of buried lead pipe in the ground.
This now being obsolete would make a very nice 'twigg' and then on used as the earth electrode for the installation. One would assume that RCDs/RCBOs were in place if the Ra was too high.........

I've just managed to get a front row seat - you can stuff the pop corn !

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Not recently Glen.

ah...keeping ones nose clean then i see....