The Old Meterman Chestnut Turned Up Again Today .

[ProDave]

What cable is the outgoing cable from the box to the garage?

 

[Lurch]

but out of all that, my only complaint is there is no green / yellow tape / sleeving on the black earth. what happened there?!

He'd used all the stripey tape up on the kitchen downlights!

 

[kerching]

What cable is the outgoing cable from the box to the garage?

'Free/leftover cable' i think!

 

[Essex1]

I think the work is fantastic.

 

[apprentice87]

Hi Andy, Guess I ran out of Green/Yellow tape that day!!

Hi Prodave, The cable is 16mm singles, that i just happened to have had here already. Most convenient that was!!

Hi Kerching, Yes, you were correct, it was just cable i had here!! I will be replacing them sometime, they were only supposed to be temporary!!

Hi Essex, Thanks for that, i did try!!

john...

 

[Andy™]

disgrace. you should be ashamed of yourself. now go get some green / yellow tape!

no pics of the other end?

 

[apprentice87]

Hi Andy, other end is just a great big wall mounted socket so i can draw off power to finish off the shed!!

john...

 

[Essex1]

We have had DNOs refuse to provide earths in steel cabinets/feeder pillars and we are left to TT them. Try to use GRP whenever possible now.

 

[apprentice87]

That was a concern i had... I know a bloke that used to work for the old SWEB [is an airline pilot now!] and he said that if i did not make provision for earthing the thing itself, that the DNO would refuse to connect it.

On the other hand i was a bit concerned, as i knew that the supply would be TNCS. In the event it was up to them, i would have just had to undo a nut and disconnect the earth connection to the pillar.

A while later different DNO people told me that now, they would not provide an earth to metal framed buildings full stop... As it is, they did provide an earth, and, if due to their crappy tncs system with its cheapo cable the entire thing DOES become live, [this was a worry and something i had considered] then i hope they got insurance!! They provided and earth, and thanks to the ESQCR, they have to maintain it now!!

What they do with street lamps then?? There is a steel one of them at the end of my front garden??  Is it safe to pee on it??? [Joke!!]

john..

 

[Andy™]

its very common for street lighting to be TNCS

 

[apprentice87]

Ah!!!! Good!!! Looks like my planning was right then!!

Thanks Andy!!!!

john....

 

[Essex1]

I would guess that street lighting has it's own TT back up by means of the column root.

 

[NozSpark]

Well... TNCS is rodded every now and then anyway

 

[Sidewinder]

I would guess that street lighting has it's own TT back up by means of the column root.

Very often the column root is coated in "bitumen" for corrosion resistance.I was suprised when testing a few how well insulated they are.

A former subbie of mine, who I mentored has since moved into the Local Authority Public Lighting team, and now onto their I&T team for public buildings.

He re-iteratd this recently when describing a fault he had seen.

He tried to do an IR test from the column to "earth", the old screwdriver in the ground job, and got a very high reading.

So be careful what you hope for!

As you say GRP gets around this.

Our local DNO in this region is quit happy to provide and maintain a reliable earth connection.

 

[Andy™]

as above, although they are usually 2+mtr into the ground, they are galvanised and usually painted / coated at the bottom so they are not in as good contact with earth as you would think they are

 

[Tony S]

I did some tests on a rust proofing paint we used for furnace inductor bodies.

A 1Ft square of aluminium foil applied to the steelwork as the paint dried. 5 minutes at 5KV DC and I was bored!

It even stood up to a single point puncture test.

I was well and truly fed up when I had to grind the aluminium off and re-spray the patch.

As SW said, don’t think because it’s buried in the earth it is earthed.