I have been round to a relatives flat and seen he has an old Wylex board with MCBs. His bathroom has no supplementary bonding from what I can see and no RCD protection for his electric shower. how potentially dangerous is this? I know the circuits are fairly short and can see main bonding in place Can only really think if the R2 values are low enough touch voltages should end up being kept low?
Is the shower made of metal ? many modern ones seem to be entirely plastic, and while they do connect the element body to ground, to trip an RCD if the element body corrodes, it is not an accessible part and given the water path length between the element and the user, it could probably be a lot more live, and not pose a hazard.
In less fussy parts of the world, it is common to heat water with an element in a way that the live hot metal is directly immersed. So long as the water stays drinkably pure, there is negligible shock risk, despite visitors calling them suicide showers..
Big clive took one to bits a while back…
The wiring is often a bit rough by UK standards, this is typical. It is not dangerous to the natives, nor to the careful visitor.
I suggest the original poster need not worry to much, unless it looks worse than this.
Mike
Is the shower made of metal ? many modern ones seem to be entirely plastic, and while they do connect the element body to ground, to trip an RCD if the element body corrodes, it is not an accessible part and given the water path length between the element and the user, it could probably be a lot more live, and not pose a hazard.
In less fussy parts of the world, it is common to heat water with an element in a way that the live hot metal is directly immersed. So long as the water stays drinkably pure, there is negligible shock risk, despite visitors calling them suicide showers..
Big clive took one to bits a while back…
The wiring is often a bit rough by UK standards, this is typical. It is not dangerous to the natives, nor to the careful visitor.
I suggest the original poster need not worry to much, unless it looks worse than this.
Mike
