Pipe bonding question...

[amfisted]

Afternoon all

I've just adjusted some pipework in the bathroom after the water board removed an internal water meter. The pic below ( which is on its side) shows the bonding partially reinstated, but unfortunately I didn't take a picture before removing it to replace the pipes. Should the pipe on the right hand side, the one with the earth strap, be connected via another strap to the pipe on the left, the one above the stopcock? The cable and clamp above the stopcock is hanging loose, not secured to any pipework, and the earth cable on the other pipe enters the wall behind the pipes.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I think it rather depends where the two green and yellow wires go.

If the one that is connected properly goes to the Main Earthing Terminal, I would say that is all that is needed.


The other - loose - one might serve a purpose but can't tell from the internet.

 

[Stuckinarut]

Is that stopcock your incoming main (as in turn it off and water stops flowing everywhere supplied by mains)? If it is then it needs to be connected to the main earthing terminal as mentioned above.

Usually fitted above the main stopcock before any branch off.

What material is the incoming water main?

 

[EFLImpudence]

The stopcock is irrelevant. It is the pipe emerging from the ground which requires bonding.

 

[amfisted]

Thanks for the responses. The stopcock is on the incoming main from below ground and the pipework is all copper. The pipe that goes out of sight top left is the feed for the toilet cistern, nothing else.

 

[Stuckinarut]

The stopcock is irrelevant.

Why is it irrelevant?

It is the pipe emerging from the ground which requires bonding.

The pipe without the stopcock?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Ok. In tat

Thanks for the responses. The stopcock is on the incoming main from below ground and the pipework is all copper. The pipe that goes out of sight top left is the feed for the toilet cistern, nothing else.

Ok. In that case the loose connection should be connected properly and the wire go to the MET.

Can you determine where the wires go?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Why is it irrelevant?

Because it is. It is the pipe emerging from the ground which requires bonding.
The stopcock being higher or farther away doesn't matter; the pipe emerging from the ground should be bonded.

The pipe without the stopcock?

Apparently not from what we have now been told.

 

[Stuckinarut]

Because it is. It is the pipe emerging from the ground which requires bonding.
The stopcock being higher or farther away doesn't matter; the pipe emerging from the ground should be bonded.

Ah, understood. That’s just where I normally see bonding - above the stopcock, is that wrong then if the incoming is copper?

 

[amfisted]

Ok. In tat

Ok. In that case the loose connection should be connected properly and the wire go to the MET.

Can you determine where the wires go?

All I can tell you about the wire is that it enters the wall behind the pipe. An EICR was completed by a qualified spark in 2022 and the installation was given a clean bill of health. Nobody has touched the bonding since—until today, that is. I’m struggling to remember—hence my OP— but I think the loose clamp and cable on the left may have been attached to that pipe, just above the stopcock, and then to the pipe on the right where the secure clamp is.

 

[Stuckinarut]

I think what may have happened is the bonding on the pipe on the right goes to the MET, the other was cross bonded, or vice versa and the main earth bonding has gone back in the wrong place.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Well, just fit the loose wire properly. The pipe will join(bond) them anyway.

 

[EFLImpudence]

That’s just where I normally see bonding - above the stopcock, is that wrong then if the incoming is copper?

Strictly speaking - yes although that is what the regulations state.

If the stopcock were plastic or the joints insulating then the incoming pipe would not be bonded by a wire on the internal side of the stopcock .