EICR reports

FreeBear

Yes, the gas pipe should have an earth bonding.
Yes, you need a modern consumer unit to replace those fuse boxes for a number of reasons.

• Currently no RCD protection.
• Earthing arrangement to the black fuse box looks to be questionable.
• Red/black insulation showing - Should have the outer white/grey insulation all the way in to the box.
• Feed to the (black) fuse box from the meter looks to be well under sized.

Miniature circuit breakers are much more preferable to old fuses (either replaceable fuse wire or actual fuses). It is not uncommon to find incorrect rated fuse or wire being used, or even worse, some random scrap of wire.

chrisw

But if you don't have an actual fuse handy:-

Ectophile

The gas pipe should be bonded. That's to guarantee that the gas pipework is at the same earth voltage as everything else in your home. If a big fault happens, there's no single "earth" voltage. Instead, different things that are supposed to be at the same earth voltage won't be any more. Connecting everything together with green&yellow wires solves that problem. This should be an easy fix, as the gas pipe is so close to the main earth terminal.

There's no point in bonding the water if it comes in through a plastic pipe.

Ectophile

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038026#Comment_82038026

That all looks like PVC to me. I would only replace it if it's damaged.

But some of the wiring there is pretty shoddy and should be re-done properly.

HUMBUG

Another engineer visited for free today.

He will :

1.Change my bathroom ceiling lights to LEDs made of insulated material with no metal casings.

2. Sort out the bonding issue to Gas Supply.

3. Bonding to CH pipes may already be in place because of the earthing connection in boiler.

4. Unsure about bonding to the water pipes.

He said there was no point changing the fuse box using the existing wiring, plus RCD's can be easily tripped by any old appliances I have such as an old washing machine. He couldn't see any other way than mini-surface trunking for the lights (as no access from upstairs neighbours polished floorboards). Also , because I have vinyl floorboards , mini-surface trunking would be required for wall sockets . My whole property would be a spider-web of ugliness.

The other option he said was to do nothing because even if I did the mini-surface trunking , a new owner of my property (if I sold it) would probably rip it all out anyhow.

The big problem is my Electric Shower unit which I've already paid £171 to replace the old one at 9.5kw . He says the only way to put in a new 10mm square cable (to replace the old 6mm square cable) is via mini-surface trunking over the tiles (ie. my bathroom is fully tiled top to bottom). It can probably have it's own RCD unit fitted before it feeds into a new fuse box separate to the main fusebox.

If I didn't want mini-surface trunking in the bathroom , he suggested I fit a 7kw shower instead .

HUMBUG

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038992#Comment_82038992

With regards the plastic pipe , that is only for a section of my water pipes because the rest are copper. I have the mains stopcock outside the property where an underground lead pipe feeds about 12 ft into my property's internal stopcock. Then a blue plastic pipe feeds from the internal stopcock all the way to my kitchen and interconnects with the copper pipes that feeds the mains pressure to my kitchen cold water tap, my cold water tank, my central heating expansion vessel and my shower unit.

So I must get the water copper pipe sections bonded.

Ectophile

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82039582#Comment_82039582

Any metal pipe coming into the house needs to be bonded*. So that would be the bit before the plastic section. Pipework after the plastic section, that's entirely within the house, doesn't have to be.

*Unless an electrician has tested it and it's not actually connected to the earth. So an oil or LPG line may or may not need bonding, depending on where it runs outside the house.

FreeBear

Any metal pipe coming into the house needs to be bonded*. So that would be the bit before the plastic section. Pipework after the plastic section, that's entirely within the house, doesn't have to be.

But if you are adding bonding to the pipework under a boiler, an extra clamp and short bit of wire isn't going to cost much.

HUMBUG

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038099#Comment_82038099

Is there a need for my whole house to be rewired before a new fuse box is installed , if the EICR insulation resistance and impedance values are deemed safe and if the bonding issues are fixed?

Ectophile

A good electrician should test each circuit as part of the process of installing a new consumer unit. If the tests are fine, or if a problem can easily be fixed, then there's no point in rewiring that circuit.