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:
Reporting an issue with your earthing
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.
Here's a quick recap of the steps involved
Installing or upgrading to PME (Protective Multiple Earthing)
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.
Electrical equipment without PME
Electrical equipment with PME installed
We need 10 working days from when we have processed your request to get someone to visit you.
We will visit you at no cost to check if PME is available in your area and to discuss your options. Please note that you will need to arrange an electrician to complete the final connection from our PME terminal so please check prices with an electrician for this.
You can request a PME check by registering or logging in to our Smart Enquiry portal which also allows you to submit multiple applications and track the progress of any existing applications. All incomplete application forms will be automatically saved to your dashboard, so you can always come back to them later.
Free to call from a mobile or landline phones. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm.