Sky installer - Problems and Earth Bonding

Mark in Belfast

Hi guys only new hope its ok to start a new thread. Thanks!

I'am having real problems with a sky installer in my area. I rented out a new house and on the side of the wall was an almost new sky dish, previous tenant says its been up 14 months. So i took up a sky deal for 12 months subscription and new box, all the guy had to do was plug it in. I had a cheap freesat box working from the dish already, he turns up looks at the dish and says it isn't right. He then goes on that he will install a new dish, i thought this was un-necessary but as it was a free install i let him go ahead. He took the dish down and drilled a large hole in the outside wall at knee height and fed 2 black co ax cables and yellow/ green cable into the room, the cables exist and run down the wall from the dish's lnb. I trained as an Electrical engineer in aircraft so knew the cable was a 4mm earth cable and began asking the guy what was happening. He then gave a whole spiel as it was a multiple dwelling he would have to include an earth bond, new policy he stated and kept drilling holes. I had asked him to stop drilling and told him a sky dish didn't require an earth as it was earthed via the coaxial cable. He then got thick and accused me of being smart, i asked him to leave. He took, sorry pulled with force the dish down by this stage fully installed and threw it into his van, began accusing me of breaking health and safety rules. By this stage he was locked inside his van doing out an invoice. What for i had no idea, shortly he drove off and left me with a large hole in my wall, loose cabling no dish and a hole in the ground i can only assume he was looking for an earthing point. I was on the phone to sky at the time and the letterbox went. An invoice for £289.99 (price of the box) was shoved, it was torn through the letter box. I followed the guy to his van asking politely What was going on? He then muttered into his phone that i was being aggressive and verbally abusing him. He locked himself in his van and sat a further 12 minutes on his phone. Then left, What exactly do any of you folks make of that?

Was i right or wrong?

watty

You may be wrong if it is a shared dish. Or certain kind of multi-dwelling.

If the dish is ONLY for you then it seems strange, and you could be right.

The dish is insulated (and should be) from the LNB, so is not earthed by the coax. If an LNB is shared, there MUST be a barrier plate that goes to its own earth. The LNB must thus be earth separate from the coax from your box. (Quad LNB or Quattro on a Multiswitch).

If the Dish could be touched by someone "next door" from their window, then it may have to be earthed separately, in case your LNB some how shorted to Dish. (Though LNB earth should never be deliberately connected to dish metal work).

In multiple dwelling or semi-detached house the "nieghbour" is on a separate phase so the voltage is difference between phases is higher, about 380V on 220V mains. This means greater care with earthing is needed in case of equipment fault.

In fact many TVs and Set-box have no earth connection.

Also if a wall is deemed to be very insulated, such as prefab plywood rather than masonry it's normal to earth a dish to avoid static built up. Not the LNB.

kbell

Sounds like ( I could be wrong) the existing dish was being used by more than your dweling.
The guy was doing what he thought necessary, probably in his companies protocol for situations like this.
He should however have discussed the instalation with you before carrying out any work!!
By '2 coax cables' do you mean twin coax, shotgun (skinny) or two separate cables?
Along with the earth, the hole couldn't be more
than 16mm max, he would have sealed it and
provided a cover (brick buster).

I'm assuming tho the guy was a competent installer.