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A little known piece of information for home and property owners is something called Earth Loop impedance.
When an electrician visits your home, for any electrical work which includes extending circuits, Fuse board upgrades, and the Periodic Inspection / Electrical Installation Condition report (EICR) The electrician will carry out an Earth loop Impedance Test amongst other testing of the circuits.
It is carried out to make sure that, should a fault occurs in an electrical circuit, the electrical fault current will be strong enough to set off the circuit protection. If this fault current is left undetected, circuits can overheat and catch on fire.
With electricity it takes the path of least resistance to the ground. Different properties in towns, villages, or even out in the country side have different “Earthing arrangements. So too do Shops / Offices / Warehouses / factories etc. Through these the Electrical earth wiring arrangement in buildings are often connected to the ground. In electrical terms this will be referred to as an earth return circuit. The earthing cables / earthing rods are there for electrical current to pass through when a short circuit happens.
The electrician will measure with their equipment the resistance of how an electrical current to assess the earthing by its path. The resistance in the earthing cable / arrangement needs to be low so that the fault current can travel down into the ground without causing damage to the system.
In some cases the resistance of this earth return circuit is too high. The electrician will find that the earth fault current may be too low to be detected, and the fault current will continue to travel around the main circuit – causing a short circuit.
Circuit protection by the means of Circuit Breakers, and RCD’s will detect issues along the earth wires – often called Circuit Protective Conductor (or “c.p.c” which is a system of conductors (cables) joining up all together all exposed conductive parts, which includes earthing Conductors equipotential Bonding, sockets / Switches & light fittings. The Circuit Protection devices will switch off should, and when the current is detected.
However should the resistance is too high, the circuit protection may not operate at all. As a user of electrical items you may not notice any issues, however over a period of time your equipment around you my start to deteriorate (stop working or catch fire). Often we can be called out when a property has fluctuations in current – the light flicker, appliances start to go wrong, or don’t even work.
If you care about your home / property, you care about the safety of your family, or employees, you should care about the ongoing quality of the electric circuits,
In order to prevent overheating and fires, the loop impedance needs to operate at a certain level. The only way to maintain this optimum level is with regular electrical testing & inspection..
An impedance check is essential for ensuring safety in your home / property. Overheated circuits and damaged wiring are a real recipe for disaster. If your leave the circuits unchecked, you could be having a fire in the near future, wondering where you went wrong.
Short circuits can occur in any type of dwelling. So should you be a homeowner, landlord, or letting agent, we encourage thorough electrical testing throughout you’re the property. Electrical Safety is nothing to mess around with – whether you’re at home or at work, and the testing carried out by a trained, & Qualified Electrician – not a DIY Novice who has bought a cheap multi-meter off the internet.
During a resistance test, the Electrician will use a specialised calibrated testing meter, to inspect the earth return circuit. The Electrician will do this by plugging the testing machine into a power socket or supply source.
The Electrician will carry out 2x earth fault loop Impedance measurements. This will be the external impedance (the Ze) and the total system impedance (the Zs). The Zs is a sum of the external resistance, the phase (Positive / +) conductor resistance, and the earth conductor (c.p.c / Green and yellow cables) resistance.
Bright Spark Electricians use electrical testing devices that operate a with a low electrical current. The electricians take their readings at this level so that we don’t trip the RCD attached to your circuit with the added electrical activity. However should at testing device trips the circuit protection, it could mean equipment needs to be replaced or alterations to the circuits may be required.
Some of our testing is carried out with the power on, however all the equipment will be needed to be unplugged, from the wall sockets. Other parts of the testing requires the electricity to be switched off as we don’t want our electricians carrying out the testing to be electrocuted.
Depending on the size of the property, and distribution boards, the electricity may be off from around an hour to a number of hours.
When testing we need clear access to the Consumer unit / fuseboard so we can open it up, and get to it comfortably as our electrician may need to have their hands in there for quite some time.
Our electrician will also need access to the electricity meter and the big Black fuse where the cable comes into the property.
Our electricians will also need access to Sockets, and switches, so if there are cupboards / Cabinets filled with items, or lots of ornaments on the top, these will be needed to be able to move away with your assistance. If we find we are left to move ornaments, we lay these down on soft furnishings near by to avoid any damage, but do not actually log the original positions of the items on the furniture.
In simple truth YES, some items can be left plugged in until the essential tests are carried out, and as soon as the tests completed can be plugged back in. Althouogh our electricians are brilliant, they cannot always remember which of a multitude of plugs were plugged in or even switched on as unfortunately testing up to 2-3 properties a day, all plugs look the same after a while.
Should you have any questions about impedance testing or electrical safety, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today. If you want to ensure your Home or Property is as safe as possible, call us for your FREE QUOTE for our testing services.
The costs for Testing are calculated from the number of circuits / fuses / Circuit breakers in you Consumer unit, so a photograph of one of these is usefull for us to provide a FREE QUOTATION
If you are unsure then there no reason to delay. Bright Spark Electrical services genuinely care about safety in your Property, so please contact us to visit your property and perform a series of tests in one easy appointment.
Telphone: 01892 531728
Or
Email: karen@brightsparkelectrian.co.uk
So who would've thought an electrician could have sorted a hot water problem? Well, after a plumber left us with an expensive bill and still no hot water, we called Bright Spark in the hope that they could at least tell us what the problem was. Lo and behold, within 30 minutes, Karen has given us hot water..............excellent service as ever from Bright Spark – thank you
What is really great about Bright Spark Electrical is that they communicate well and get the job done precisely exactly as agreed and bang on time. The job is thoroughly discussed beforehand, you know who is coming and when and have a full list of the parts to be installed. They perform tasks efficiently with no mess. They have done jobs for me in Tunbridge Wells, both in the Culverden Down area and at High Brooms and I would recommend them
Thank you for attending my “Emergency Call out” there was smoke coming out of my socket. I telephoned at least 15 electricians after 7:15pm (in the evening) when we discovered the smoke coming out of the Socket. Their phones not even being answered. The next on my list was Bright Sparks, who were the only ones to answer the call - literally within a couple of rings, and was answered by a lovely lady who reassured me that help would be on the way. The Call was sent to your emergency electrician who called back within 15 minutes, and was able to attend within the hour, and fix the problem. Thank you. Excellent Service
Karen and her team of "Bright Sparks" are wonderful to deal with and needless to say know their negatives from their positives with just a dash of earth . I would recommend their services to anybody.
We used Bright Sparks to resolve some electrical problems. They succeeded where previous electricians failed! We found them to be reliable, courteous and fairly priced.
