Earthing

Earthing is a safety feature used in properties to provide a safe alternative route for electricity to pass in the event of a problem with an electrical installation.
 
Two key points to explain earthing in your property:  

• External earthing: When a new house is built, we install a new power cable which is connected to the wider electricity network. We make sure we provide an earthing terminal to allow your electrician to safely earth the property. There are two types that we will provide. TNS-(Separate earth wire) where an earth is provided off the lead sheath of our electricity cable, or PME (Protective Multiple Earthing) using our neutral cable as a combined neutral earth. 

• Internal earthing: An electrician takes the external earth that we have provided and safely earths the inside of your property. The property owner is responsible for ensuring they have internal earthing to protect their home and appliances inside their homes.

If you think you have an issue with your earthing we recommend contacting a qualified electrician to complete some checks first. If you rent your property you should contact your landlord or housing association who will arrange this for you. Your electrician may advise you to contact us to report an issue with your earthing, such as a High Earth Loop Impedance (HELI) which is also known as a high Ze reading. If you have been advised that you have no earthing, please continue to read on further down the page under ‘Installing or Upgrading to PME’.

To help us understand the issue we need the following information from you. If you are unsure, then we recommend speaking to your electrician first who can also call us on your behalf.

• What type of earthing you currently have
• What the earth reading is (this is in ohms)
• Where the electrician has taken the reading from
• We also require an electricians report, which you can send to us once you have reported the issue to us.

Once you have this information, you will need to call us on 0800 31 63 105 or 105 (free to call from a landline or mobile, lines are open 24 hours).

What happens after you report the issue to us?

1. Our engineers will aim to visit you with 24 hours of your call.
2. Once we attend, we will assess the work we need to carry out. Depending on the work involved, we may need to arrange to visit you again. Don’t worry, we will talk you through the next steps if this is required. 
   
    

It's common for customers living in older properties to contact us about their earthing. We can provide advice about how to safely earth their property. It's worth noting that safety standards have changed over the years and the connection to the external earth was not always required. In older properties it's quite common to find no external earth installed. This does not necessarily make them unsafe, many properties have had no earth for over 50 years and never had an issue. 

If there is an issue with your external earth we can visit you to let you know if there is PME earthing available in your area. PME can be installed across most areas. However, for some areas the electricity cables will not be compatible for this type of earthing. If this is available then we will provide an earthing connection for your electrician to connect your internal earth to. We may need to visit you a second time to carry out this work. However, if there is no PME available then your electrician can arrange an alternate earthing system for you.