Bonding
What is bonding?
Earth bonding is the act of connecting all metallic objects – such as metal gas and water pipes – in a house, to ‘electrical earth’. Which in the most simple terms, means connecting all metallic objects to a system that would allow electricity to travel back into the ground, if there is ever an unusual current.
The main reason for ‘earth bonding’ is safety.
A fault in an electrical appliance may lead to all, or some, metallic objects in a room becoming ‘live’ – someone could get an electric shock by touching say, a radiator. In order to fit your chargepoint safely, your home needs water and gas bonding to be present. The only exception is where the pipes that feed the gas or water supply are plastic.
There are two ways to check whether your home has exist-ing bonding. First, you can usually locate bonding by looking for a yellow and green cable fastened to a pipe by a metallic clip. Either near your main water stop tap or at the gas meter. Or, if you can give us a copy of your latest electrical certificate so we can check for you
What if ChargedEV tell me my bonding needs to be installed or upgraded?
You’ll need to find a qualified electrician to install this for you, just ask them to install your gas and water bonding. We’re happy to help you arrange this and will chat with any electrician on your behalf if you provide their contact information to us.
The Technical Bit
Where gas and water bonding is required, it must be fitted in 10mm. This is to ensure your home has an electrical system which meets 18th Edition British Standards. If you don’t have a typical gas supply to your home or you have oil heating, please send us your latest electrical certificate so we can check for you.
If you’d like to talk to our technical experts directly about this is any more detail, please call 03300 431 852