Earthing

worlds goodest teecher

I bought and renovated a secondhand house last year. There was a garage/shed with the house. It was a very small garage constructed with steel outer posts with some sort of outer sheet covering. When the work from home came in I decided to have it converted to a home office and a separate laundry room. It is connected to the circuit board in the house but seems to have it's own small switchboard.

I am fairly sure that the shed needs earthing as I am getting small electric shocks when I touch the door handle.

What can I have done to earth it? I'm surprised that electrician didn't recommend it being earthed.

Henry...

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

I bought and renovated a secondhand house last year. There was a garage/shed with the house. It was a very small garage constructed with steel outer posts with some sort of outer sheet covering. When the work from home came in I decided to have it converted to a home office and a separate laundry room. It is connected to the circuit board in the house but seems to have it's own small switchboard.

I am fairly sure that the shed needs earthing as I am getting small electric shocks when I touch the door handle.

What can I have done to earth it? I'm surprised that electrician didn't recommend it being earthed.

You sure it's not static

Turn off the electrical supply to shed and check if it stops

You could use a phase tester for that

Henry...

On second thoughts would probably be better just to get a REC out

worlds goodest teecher

Henry... wrote: »

On second thoughts would probably be better just to get a REC out

I can understand why you are recommending contacting an rec rather than giving advice.

The electrician is a difficult man to get to look into things, he was not hired directly by me, he was hired by the builder doing the renovations. He installed a new led fitting to the bathroom ceiling. This light flickers like a strobe light. He is meant to be checking it out for months.

In terms of work in the shed that he did, there was power from the house already, he installed a couple of double sockets and brought in an internet connection from the house. As he carried out work recently in this shed, should he have had a responsibility to check this?

Henry...

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

I can understand why you are recommending contacting an rec rather than giving advice.

The electrician is a difficult man to get to look into things, he was not hired directly by me, he was hired by the builder doing the renovations. He installed a new led fitting to the bathroom ceiling. This light flickers like a strobe light. He is meant to be checking it out for months.

In terms of work in the shed that he did, there was power from the house already, he installed a couple of double sockets and brought in an internet connection from the house. As he carried out work recently in this shed, should he have had a responsibility to check this?

There was the 2 options I suggested above

Static or you can do the basic of switching off and seeing if the problem goes away if you're competent

If its not static you probably need the REC anyhow

2011

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

I am fairly sure that the shed needs earthing as I am getting small electric shocks when I touch the door handle.

I would guess you have the following two issues:

1) A live conductor is making contact with something thy it shouldn’t. This is making the door handle live.

2) the installation is not properly earthed. If it was the door handle would be at the same potential as the ground, therefore you would not get a shock when you touch it. I’m not suggesting that the door handle itself should be earthed but is may be in contact with other conducive materials that should be earthed.

I think that static is unlikely unless there is something that can generate a static charge. This occurs when two insulators are rubbed together. Example walking on a nylon carpet with rubber soled shoes. Even if it was static we normally deal with static issues with good earthing practices and equipotential bonding. Static is an issue I deal with a lot in industry. We have a risk of starting when dispensing powder to reactor vessels via plastic tubing in the pharmaceutical industry.

If your electrician is not delivering a satisfactory service it is time to go elsewhere. For me solving this issue starts with an insulation resistance test on all circuits in and to the shed.

Henry...

2011 wrote: »

I would guess you have the following two issues:

1) A live conductor is making contact with something thy it shouldn’t. This is making the door handle live.

2) the installation is not properly earthed. If it was the door handle would be at the same potential as the ground, therefore you would not get a shock when you touch it. I’m not suggesting that the door handle itself should be earthed but is may be in contact with other conducive materials that should be earthed.

I think that static is unlikely unless there is something that can generate a static charge. This occurs when two insulators are rubbed together. Example walking on a nylon carpet with rubber soled shoes. Even if it was static we normally deal with static issues with good earthing practices and equipotential bonding. Static is an issue I deal with a lot in industry. We have a risk of starting when dispensing powder to reactor vessels via plastic tubing in the pharmaceutical industry.

If your electrician is not delivering a satisfactory service it is time to go elsewhere. For me solving this issue starts with an insulation resistance test on all circuits in and to the shed.

The earthing of the door if static is the issue will actually be part of the problem

Not saying it is static

High probability it's a fault

2011

Henry... wrote: »

The earthing of the door if static is the issue will actually be part of the problem

I’m not sure what you mean.