Confused!

ja1986

Hoping someone can help me here. Im staying in my father in laws house with my kids and when we moved in the electric shower wouldn't work. I hired an electrician to fix it but he couldn't because the inside was blown. As he was here he checked the sockets and he was getting 200 ohms. Told me the house wasn't earthed. I relayed this to the family and they said it is earthed and he must be trying he's luck.

I had a boiler man out to service it and while he was here he checked the ohms and it was 200 again. He said the house isn't earthed or there's a fault in the lines.

I have a friend who's an electrician and he asked me to check a few things at home. He asked me to push the test switch to trip the sockets and if it tripped it should be earthed and could we see if the earth lines were in the fuse box. They were and it tripped. He said I should get someone to run a fault loop impedance test.

Iv contacted someone to do this and the said it will be 350 euro for test and cert and any fault resolution will be more. Does this price sound right?

Also a bit of history of the house. This house was wired years ago by my partners uncle who's a handyman but not an electrician, they didn't need a cert back then so the house isn't certified. They also cemented over the rod and the access point to check the copper cable. They are convinced the house was always earthed and something must be wrong within the house.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

corner of hells

ja1986 wrote: »

Hoping someone can help me here. Im staying in my father in laws house with my kids and when we moved in the electric shower wouldn't work. I hired an electrician to fix it but he couldn't because the inside was blown. As he was here he checked the sockets and he was getting 200 ohms. Told me the house wasn't earthed. I relayed this to the family and they said it is earthed and he must be trying he's luck.

I had a boiler man out to service it and while he was here he checked the ohms and it was 200 again. He said the house isn't earthed or there's a fault in the lines.

I have a friend who's an electrician and he asked me to check a few things at home. He asked me to push the test switch to trip the sockets and if it tripped it should be earthed and could we see if the earth lines were in the fuse box. They were and it tripped. He said I should get someone to run a fault loop impedance test.

Iv contacted someone to do this and the said it will be 350 euro for test and cert and any fault resolution will be more. Does this price sound right?

Also a bit of history of the house. This house was wired years ago by my partners uncle who's a handyman but not an electrician, they didn't need a cert back then so the house isn't certified. They also cemented over the rod and the access point to check the copper cable. They are convinced the house was always earthed and something must be wrong within the house.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

You really need to get a registered electical contractor to see the house.

sparcocars

Pressing the test button on the rcd will only prove that the rcd itself is working and not whether the earthing is up to standard in the house.

Sounds like there is no neutralising link installed. This would be the case in a tt installation but there would be a main rcd covering the complete installation.

In the more common tncs system a neutralising link is required in order to provide a low resistance path for earth fault current levels high to operate protection in a timely manner.

Given that you said it wasn't an electrician who did the wiring then i would definately say there is no neutralising link installed.

You are going to need to hire a registered electrical contractor to complete these works.

ja1986

OK thank you both so much.

Risteard81

Depends whether this is a TT (Direct earthed) system or a TN-C-S (Neutralised) system.

ja1986

Risteard81 wrote: »

Depends whether this is a TT (Direct earthed) system or a TN-C-S (Neutralised) system.

And would I know this by checking something at home myself or is it up to the electrician to confirm. Thank you

Cerco

Just be practical and don’t put yourself or your children in danger. You are obviously concerned and the fact it was wired by a handyman should be enough to convince you to get a RECI to check it out. Try and get some recommendations for someone in your area and don’t delay. It is too serious to procrastinate.

ja1986

Cerco wrote: »

Just be practical and don’t put yourself or your children in danger. You are obviously concerned and the fact it was wired by a handyman should be enough to convince you to get a RECI to check it out. Try and get some recommendations for someone in your area and don’t delay. It is too serious to procrastinate.

Ya I agree thanks so much.

ja1986

Hi I have a registered contractor calling this evening to run the loop test. Am I right in saying that this test will tell me exactly what's wrong with the house?

2011

ja1986 wrote: »

Hi I have a registered contractor calling this evening to run the loop test. Am I right in saying that this test will tell me exactly what's wrong with the house?

It will aid the REC to assess the situation. A complete survey will be necessary to be able to give you the full picture.