Poor or no earth in my property
I am starting to see more of this as utility companies during their service of the central heating system highlight a poor or no earth connection to the property.
Why is this ? Unlike cars house electrics do not get checked every year and utility companies are now getting proactive to drive more revenue where they check the earth connection to ensure that it is within limits.
Does it matter?
Yes this is a safety matter so if an electrical appliance or the house electric develops a fault you need the fuse or circuit breaker to trip and disconnect the electricity in the optimum time.
No problems then my electricity supplier will sort this yes ? Not really when privatisation was set up the obligation to supply whats known is a good earth within the required limits was omitted so some may charge for this service.
How to I get this checked out ? Your supplier will want an actual reading from a calibrated meter as some utility companies test equipment only indicate a Pass or Fail status.
What is the procedure for resolving this ? First of all get as much information from your utility company i.e. where is the poor or missing earth ,can they supply an actual reading ? Then you need to call your supplier who will take customer information from you.
Why can I not get someone like you to manage this for me ? Good point but the mechanics of the system is your supplier will only deal with you and not any third party. Although they may request that you get your own electrician to investigate at the first instance.
This seems a bit complicated why can’t my supplier sort this out ? Its all down to resources and ownership of equipment so the supply cable,fuse,meter etc is owned by your supplier and basically there responsibility stops their so if they attend to re-instate the earth they may not connect the consumers (your) earth cable to the fuseboard / consumer unit.
So where do you get involved ? Depending on the fault you may need 2 visits one to confirm the utility companies finding and the other to connect your main earth cable to the new earth supply.