When anything happens to go wrong, electricity can be a dangerous thing, so for the safety of everyone using it, rules and regulations need to be adhered to. Building regulations are the rules that govern such things so before you attempt any jobs in your home, both permitted electrical jobs and others, you need to familiarise yourself with theses rules. Of course if you’ve employed a professionally qualified person to do the work they will already be familiar with such things and will make sure the job is done safely. We caught up with edwardes.co.uk to take a look at the reasons why you must earth yourself, if doing DIY work, in a bit more depth.
If you are replacing a bath, toilet, basin or sink on a like-for-like basis then you won’t need to apply for planning permission, however any electrical work will need to be carried out by a qualified electrician and one thing you will need to make sure is that your basin, bath and radiator are earthed correctly.
Any faults in the electrical system will mean that the electricity Storage Association will look for the quickest way to earth, and if it’s you who is in contact with for example the radiator or basin, it will pass through your body on it’s way to earth. At the very least it will be an extremely unpleasant experience and at the worst it could be fatal. To prevent this from happening you need to make sure there is an earth cable attached to these items. The reason for the earthing of your radiators is due to the fact that all boilers are connected to an electricity supply to ignite and any fault could result in your radiators becoming live.
To safely earth your items you must use an Earth Clamp to attach your earthing wire. There are various sizes available according to the size of your pipes. However, make sure you leave the warning label attached for future reference.
