Earth bonding central heating

[RichieG78]

Hi all,

Apparently there are electrical cables going across the central heating pipes beneath our living room floor. They aren't touching at the moment, but someone mentioned that the copper pipes should be earth bonded for safety should a fault occur with the wires.

Could someone help with a bit of advice/further info:

What would the work entail to do this? And what would the approximate cost be (if it's possible to give an estimate!).

Much obliged.

 

[Steve]

Not nessecary.

 

[bernardgreen]

Not nessecary.

is that NOT transporting the Loch Ness monster.

It is bad practise to have cables on top of hot pipes. But provided the cables insulation is not at risk of damage then bonding of the pipes to earth shouldn't be neccesary as the pipes will be "bonded" to earth at the boiler and other equi-potential bonding locations.

 

[RichieG78]

Thanks for the advice,

Please forgive me if I'm asking a daft/obvious question, but my understanding of this sort of stuff is basic to say the least...

Is there any way to check that the pipes are 'bonded' to earth at the boiler?

The people who lived in the house before us were, putting it politely, absolute idiots who bodged (or paid someone to bodge) every single job in the house it's possible to imagine. After 2 years of discovering their cock-ups, I'm just a bit paraniod![/quote]

 

[JohnD]

it will be helpful to put some pipe insulation over hot pipes, especially if they are near electrical cables.

if cables come into contact with hot pipes, the life of their insulation is shortened, and if there is pressure as well, it can distort and soften, and flow away from the pressure. (Though this is unlikely to happen unless the floorboard are nailed down squashing the cable and hot pipes together).

As for pipe earthing, you usually ought to find an earth wire, Green & Yellow, size 10mm (about as thick as a pencil) clamped onto the incoming gas and water pipes, near where they enter the house, and running back either to the consumer unit (fusebox) or to an earth terminal adjacent to the meter.

If the pipes are run in copper all round the house, there need not be additional bonding except in the bathroom. You can bond all the pipes around the boiler if you like (some boiler manufacturers include this in their instructions now).

But look for these G&Y cables, tell us what you find, post photos if you can (especially round the meter and Consumer unit) and we can probably tell you how good or bad it seems.

earth bonding is quite an easy DIY and inexpensive job, you do not need to be qualified or notify anyone to do it, and we can advise on how it's done.