Why I do not like PME Systems

[Plouasne]

I once had a panic phone call from a client,she kept getting electric shocks from the taps

The reason for this was SWEB had just re-laid the electric service to the properties in the road, and the cable jointer had transposed the phase and neutral, and the property being a PME electric system, with the earth being bonded to the neutral (now the phase and so live) at the cut out, this turned all the cross bonding into an electric circuit

The SWEB emergency call out fitter was so shocked that he did not touch the installation until he had his supervisor visit the job, the last I heard was that the jointer was still cable jointing!!

On another point regarding earthing, if replacing a metal cold water storage tank with a plastic one, it would pay to check, and cross bond all the metal pipework coming from the tank to make sure that the earth is continuous

 

[Bernie2]

Good point Plouasne we don't seem to cover electrical much in the Plumbing industry and we should at least cover the basics.

Lets be honest we do come into contact with it a lot. And the dangers of not cross bonding are obvious enough. Although in the 17th IEE Edition we seem to be going more over to RCD's now.

The danger is of course, that may make us think a system is okay, because its got an RCD on.

But an RCD is only one of the safety features that must be used.

 

[Plouasne]

Bernie,

If you look at the link's, you will see that these people teach as part of the course, electricity, which is what should be taught in the UK, all the courses, for full training, are around 688 to 830 hours long, a good six months full time at the training centre

F.L FORMATION : Formations en alternance et formations continues dans les domaines du gaz, du chauffage et des énergies renouvelables. Centre de Formation en Bretagne à St Carreuc 22

This link shows part of the training school

F.L FORMATION : Formations en alternance Technicien en sanitaire, chauffage, électricité, pompes à chaleur et énergies renouvelables. Centre de Formation en Bretagne à St Carreuc 22

The modules to either keep up to date or become an installer of different fuels, are a lot shorter 2 to 5 days, but these are for an experienced person