Electrocution in a rented Gloucestershire home

It appears from the article that the installation earthing wasn't properly installed or/and maintained as a breakdown in the heating elements insulation should have activiated the ADS.

IMO, It then suggests the property had not been properly maintained for several years..


Legh

The report says that the electrocution was caused by a lack of an R.C.D. and a lack of bonding. I suggest that it was due to a lack of earthing of the heating element. If an earth  fault occurred then automatic disconnection would have occurred by the protective device if correctly sized and installed. Obviously an R.C.D. would have helped but was not essential for automatic disconnection. Bonding may have helped also to maintain a common Voltage on metallic pipework, but was not essential if good earthing was present. Possibly the heating element split and raised the container to a high Voltage and the poor man connected between the live oil pipe and the ground. Very sad indeed and avoidable.


I have seen split sheathed immersion heaters still working in copper water tanks, when no R.C.D. was present to disconnect the supply. With proper earthing no damage was normally done. It was only when the immersion heater element finally broke and failed to heat the water was the fault reported, and a new heating element fitted.


Z.

If it was a TT installation without a RCD and a earth rod then, as I have seen in the past, all the pipework would be at 240 volts without the circuit protective device opening.


Andy

Indeed Andy,

                           but who would connect up an installation in such a dangerous and criminal way? Even with an old water pipe earth a V.O.E.L.C.B. would have been installed years ago. And many of those still work.


Z.

The Beeb's version. I do not know what the 'ek the 1992 reference is about. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48112342


Z.

More likely there was supposed to be  CPC, but for some reason it was broken  or detached at a joint along the way, rather than there never was one - I suspect a good installation gone bad, rather than one that was deliberately mis-wired.

It is not unknown for example for TN-s supplies to go high Z on the earth and not be noticed until the water main is changed for plastic,.

It is also possible that it was a TT setup without either an RCD or VOELCB. There are still far too many about. There are several solutions, particularly with the rollout of smart metering which will hopefully hi-light the missing ones. Policing the seals properly would give the Meter Operator / DNO the chance to give all new installations / re-wires the once over; beefing up Part P legislation and enforcing it properly; or introducing a licensing scheme along the lines of Gas Safe. 


Regards,


Alan.

I don't quite see the relevance of rental. ?