Key point:

To ensure complete safety, no earth bonding cables that are fixed to any structure, especially any pipework in the home unless they are going to be replaced at some stage, maybe after some plumbing work. The paragraph below will explain why this is so and why the cables are so important. An SW1 Plumber is trained to deal electric shock.


If you ever have the opportunity to look at your gas meter or maybe your incoming water supply pipework it should definitely be the case that you see a green and yellow wire connected to the pipe, you may ask yourself what job does it do? It is called an equipotential earth bonding cable. They are connected to water service pipework on entry to the house and also on pipework in rooms such as your kitchen and bathroom. SW1 Plumbers can advise on this. Whenever a water, gas or fluid carrying pipe comes into and also passes out from the building there is a potential for stray electrical currents, resulting from faulty electrical equipment. Should this happen and you touch a pipe which is affected by an electrical fault (or the pipe is live!), you will receive a shock or maybe worse. So these stray currents need to be diverted safely to earth through a specifically designed electrical route, a bonding wire of 10mm minimum size is attached to the pipework at the point of entry/exit of the building. This in turn is connected to the main earth terminal in the consumer unit. In addition to the bonding wires making a connection to the incoming services, there needs to be additional supplementary wires linking together all the metalwork within wet areas, such as the bathroom and kitchen etc. This will ensure that everything within the zone is at the same electrical potential, which is designed to prevent users of any appliances or equipment receiving an electric shock.



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