• Firstly surely this is a good example of poorly trained meter fitters causing what could  of been a deadly fire as it was its only a meter that's been damaged if it had been in a building we could be looking at fatalities or severe property damage. If this isn't a wake up call for the meter installers then what will be. Secondly I remember when they changed a link box in the next street, the old one went bang in a big way. I went and looked at the work and they had put a nice shiny copper rod in the ground linked into the box with a bit of green/yellow. None of the houses in my street are PME aalthough one flat at the end of the road is. I measured the neutral earth voltage here and its around 0.02 volts normally I once saw it at 0.6 volts. Thanks for reading this guys 

Kelly Marie Angel said:

I went and looked at the work and they had put a nice shiny copper rod in the ground linked into the box with a bit of green/yellow.

So is it the more, the merrier?

If you have an intake at some distance from a house, should you put in a rod in the vicinity of the intake, and another one at the house?

the idea of PME is pretty much the more the merrier, and round here when replacing underground joints they tend to do this, almost every time, and lay the rods in the trench so when it is back filled it connects but no  hammering needed.

Here is a photo of when they first upgraded connection to 3-phase, and included the earth rod, What I don't understand is how once they have connected the property as PME, then, because of a Ze greater than the PME limit, they can then pick up the protective conductor from back at the earth rod link to neutral, several metres away, instead of at the customer neutral link , and then call it TNS ??

Here is a photo of when they first upgraded connection to 3-phase, and included the earth rod, What I don't understand is how once they have connected the property as PME, then, because of a Ze greater than the PME limit, they can then pick up the protective conductor from back at the earth rod link to neutral, several metres away, instead of at the customer neutral link , and then call it TNS ??

It is not helped by the photographer's shadow, but those two pieces of G/Y appear to be separate. The piece which is attached to the rod goes adjacent to it before forming the lazy S, but I am not convinced that the other part is attached to anything.

However, assuming that the two pieces of G/Y are joined, the rod does not stop it being TN-S if there is no N-PE link at the new junction.. The original cable looks rather like PILC, so if the G/Y is attached to the lead sheath inside the junction box, all well and good.

PILC takes me back to my early 20's when I moved from BTH/AEI switchgear apprenticeship to the CEGB, initially on the tools. Cable tunnel HV PILC cables often sprung a leak (mostly stresses over supporting brackets), so out with the blowlamp, tallow and moleskin to wipe in a repair.

I'm not sure where the G/Y connects in the JB, but I have included that question in a letter to the DNO, but assumed to the neutral else ( as it was intended to be PME before they found Ze slightly too high), any benefit might fall into insignificance with all the lead over a long distance being in contact with the ground.

Sorry about the shadow, it was just taken by the digger operator to remind him just where the JB's are in case he needs to revisit for any future works, and he remembers the G/Y's were both connected to the earth rod when he covered it up. Sadly, can't see the connections on the earth rod as he knocked some muck in as moving around the trench.

OldBoy said:

blowlamp, tallow and moleskin

Sounds like plumbing, or even coach-building. 

Yes, it did come in useful over the years with DIY lead plumbing at least.