Earthing

fluke-it

If a house is plumbed in plastic piping does the bathroom sink need to be earthed?

davelerave

do you mean the taps?.is there much copper or copper to sink.

fluke-it

Yes Taps. No there is no copper to be seen, just plastic piping, I don't think it should need an earth?

davelerave

that won't need any bonding

fluke-it

ok, thanks for that.

urban cowboy

Correct me if im wronge here, but is the idea of earthing the bath or sink not to provide a path of least resistance for current in case an electrical appliance falls into the water and not have the current run through the the person in the bath or sink

bertie1

urban cowboy wrote: »

Correct me if im wronge here, but is the idea of earthing the bath or sink not to provide a path of least resistance for current in case an electrical appliance falls into the water and not have the current run through the the person in the bath or sink

By earthing the bathroom taps you will be inducing a fault onto them , assuming the sink is not metal . Where is the fault going to come from?

urban cowboy

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By earthing the bathroom taps you will be inducing a fault onto them , assuming the sink is not metal . Where is the fault going to come from?
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surely by earthing the taps does not induce a fault onto them. If a fault was to occure in the electrical system the fault would go to earth via the earth wire. The same as current can travel through water. Im probably been overly cautious by suggesting to earth a bath, but in theory, if an electrical appliance should fall into the bath would the current not be better able to flow to earth. Or have i got this totally confused..

bertie1

I thought the question was about the sink not the bath. If the bath is plastic standing on a timber floor with no electric shower , by earthing the taps you could induce a fault on the taps if say you had a broken neutral on the ESb side of the installation as all the current in a neutralised installation would be travelling on the bonding conductor via the earth rod to return to the transformer it originated from. However if the bath is a metal bath you must earth it .

davelerave

urban cowboy wrote: »

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By earthing the bathroom taps you will be inducing a fault onto them , assuming the sink is not metal . Where is the fault going to come from?
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surely by earthing the taps does not induce a fault onto them. If a fault was to occure in the electrical system the fault would go to earth via the earth wire. The same as current can travel through water. Im probably been overly cautious by suggesting to earth a bath, but in theory, if an electrical appliance should fall into the bath would the current not be better able to flow to earth. Or have i got this totally confused..

the idea is equipotential bonding (not earthing).to bond together exposed or extraneous metal work thereby creating a safe working zone .pipes fed in plastic won't introduce a voltage into the bathroom so aren't bonded.For all plastic systems it's an earth-free zone which is safer again.that was the theory last time i checked but i'm open to correction on the latest regs etc.
As far as direct contact in a bathroom goes (touching a live wire while touching a tap etc. with the other hand )the earth-free tap will reduce the dangerous fault current while for the bonded/earthed tap you would be depending on an rcd(theres new regs i think to cover this dangerous situation in bathrooms).that's the best of my understanding on this