Sky dish earthing device

patman99

Recently it was agreed to allow the installation of communal Sky dishes on each individual block of flats where I reside. One of the blocks (4 flats) decided to take up the offer. Whilst their was no issue with the contractors installing the dish, they did insist that the install could only be done if the flat owners agreed to pay £200 for some kind of electronic grounding system to protect the dish (and presumably the Sky boxes attached to it) from lightning strikes.

My question is, have they been taken for a bunch of mugs, or is such a device required on communal installs?.

g_attrill

This post says that communal dish systems must be earth bonded, so they are probably correct:

http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/electrical-wiring-theories-electrical-regulations/17150-testing-earth-bond-sat-dish.html#post135593

kev_min

No, they have not been taken for mugs.

It is a requirement to provide an earthing bar at the distribution point in such systems to avoid the situation wherby a fault in one flats equipment making their equipment live can be passed via the coaxial cable to other users.