On 2017-08-12 14:56, Dave Howorth wrote:
Again, yes and no. Most houses are supplied by an underground supply that includes live, neutral and CPC (earth), grounded as you say at the source. But some houses, mostly a lot of those supplied by overhead wires, only have two incoming wires - live and neutral. The neutral is earthed at the supply and in some cases is fed to the house as both neutral and earth. In other cases it is fed only as neutral and the consumer must provide their own earth using a ground spike.
I have my doubts about that. In Spain (I doubt that Britain is that different in this respect) there are only two wires entering the house, live and neutral, no matter if it is underground pipes or aerial. The Earth wire is tied to a metal rod (or several) "nailed" on to the earth. Using the water system is no longer permitted (because not all the pipes are metal, because it can cause corrosion, because voltages can develop...) Tying the earth to the neutral I consider dangerous. There is no redundancy. But we should keep all replies on the offtopic mail list only. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)