Suppliers Earth TN-S

[Roger]

Is it ok for you to connect to it ? earth clamp to sheath.

I had a call tonight and a customer could not reset his RCD so no power at all.Ok fixed the fault unlpugged the kettle and it reset as soon as we plug it in it tripped so power all restored.Bid disadvantage of having 1 RCD for whole house.
Double checked earth loop and got over 8.2 ohms on 32amp ring main and thought it could be a loose connection so did cooker socket and got 7.92 for a 40 amp MCB.
Nice bit of 10mm cable on gas and water but no EARTH at meter head,no MET nothing.Had board changed about 10 years ago he said.
All the houses roughly the same in the street all built same time so popped next door and they had a TN-S.Soldered to a wide strip of woven braided steel strap.
So fitted a clamp on cable sheath ,16mm to a MET and 16mm to CU and gas and water connected ,rechecked and got 0.62 ohms on ring so happier now.
I am amazed that it had no earth at all and had been like it for years.It has even had a new digital meter fitted and you would have thought that the meter fitter might have noticed.
No cup of coffee as kettle knackered but £10 tip for coming out.
Should i inform DNO ?

 

[Daveyboy]

Biggest advice I can give to anyone is be persistant with the dno, they kept on giving me different numbers and fobbing me off. In the end when I spoke to a new lady I said "this is a very dangerous situation and needs to be sorted!!!!! oh by the way what is your name?" then to my surprise she said I will put a call out for you ref no......
with in half an hour nice old bloke turns up & bobs your uncle. He did say that they are not obliged to make a connection and could quite rightly charge me for a pme upgrade but as I got a good reading off the sheath he made my day.
I'm now going to earth the metal service head aswell.

Before After


I learnt a valuable lesson- in my own very house!!! test ze with main earthing conductor disconnected from main earthing terminal before I change a CU. I tested zs at the socket & got a very good reading & thought all was hunky dory when I was only getting a reading through the water and gas pipe.

 

[aptsys]

Result!

 

[pennywise]

Biggest advice I can give to anyone is be persistant with the dno, they kept on giving me different numbers and fobbing me off. In the end when I spoke to a new lady I said "this is a very dangerous situation and needs to be sorted!!!!! oh by the way what is your name?" then to my surprise she said I will put a call out for you ref no......
with in half an hour nice old bloke turns up & bobs your uncle. He did say that they are not obliged to make a connection and could quite rightly charge me for a pme upgrade but as I got a good reading off the sheath he made my day.
I'm now going to earth the metal service head aswell.

Before After
View attachment 5940 View attachment 5939

I learnt a valuable lesson- in my own very house!!! test ze with main earthing conductor disconnected from main earthing terminal before I change a CU. I tested zs at the socket & got a very good reading & thought all was hunky dory when I was only getting a reading through the water and gas pipe.

Just as a matter of interest why is there no supply neutral in the meter above the cut out? Apologies if I've seen it wrong

 

[aptsys]

The neutral inside those meters is a solid link - the meter only uses the neutral for measurement of voltage and phase angle. Since the tails go back into the cast iron enclosure, it was probably easier to just take the neutral from the cut-out.

 

[pennywise]

cheers