Electrical Cross-Bonding

[beard]

Whilst fixing my bolier, a British Gas engineer (aka salesman?!) gave me a card advising that 'the gas installation pipe fitted in your premises does not appear to be cross-bonding to the electrical installation.' My electrical knowledge is severely lacking so I would like to know:

1) Is this a legal requirement and , if so, to what degree is it adhered to / enforced?

2) Can the work be done by anyone or does it require a approved contractor?

I strongly suspect this note may be more to do with sales than compliance!

[kbrownie]

Hi,
I think that the gas engineer has found that the gas and water pipes have not been cross bonded and as a result needs to put this on he's report, rather than trying to sell you a service.
Is it a legal requirement? that's a can of worms!
It is a recomondation, i'm of the train of thought that if your water pipes have been bonded correctly elsewhere, that boilers do have a metal plate on the underside connecting all pipes that are connected to it, so continuity should still be in place. but it's a should and the better safe than sorry brigade within me says do it! and this should be done by a qualified competant person.
Hope this has answered some if not all your questions.
KB

[sparx]

Hi,
if he means main bonding then he is refering to the fact that all incoming services (water, gas, oil, etc) must be connected by a 10mm2 earth wire from consumer unit main earth point to each service on the house side of the meter/stop valve before any branch or tee.
This has always been a legal requirement, and in the case of gas it could be either in an outside meter cabinet if fitted or immediately after the point of entry to the house.
There have been instances where people, particularly British Gas, have been quite incorrectly requiring additional cross bonding of pipes at boilers.
There is no requirement to do so in the electrical regs. & on virtually all wall mounted boilers all the pipes are mounted on a common metal gland plate internally earthed by the supply wiring so already effectively bonded!

regards SPARX