House Electrics

Lucy and Gerry Image
11/06/2012 - 09:22

Can anybody advise how to create earthing for house with 2 core electrics as some appliances I have bought here require earthing, cooker & water heater. Where to buy components for earthing?

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"earthing for house with 2 core electrics ............, cooker & water heater. " Is your power supply up to dealing with the power requirements of these appliances? - You probably only have a 3kW  supply, and if you brought the cooker and water heater from UK [for example] they would probably exceed the system's power availability

There should be a earth wire from the fuse box. You may need to open it up after switching it off to check. Look at the feed in to the fuse box to see if there is a green/green-yellow earth into the input supply. If you remove the wall socket cover you should also be able to see if that has a earth wire as well. Not a very good answer Penny if the appliance is not earth isolated, you could be encouraging them to electrocute themselves!!!

Would certainly not normally use a washing machine on a unearthed supply. unless it was double insulated. You could make the whole water supply live and it has happened, through a earthing fault. RCD would possibly cut it off quickly, but may get a shock before

If your cooker and washing machine are close to each other, and if they are not too far away from the fuse box (and if there is a green and yellow wire in the fusebox), then one safe solution could be to connect (directly into the fuse box) a heavyweight extension cable with a couple of 3pin sockets. Many things these days are double insulated (they will generally only have two wires coming out of them, a blue and a brown) - but washing machines and normal sized cookers normally do require an earth to be safe.

I have a similar problem. When we had some extra sockets installed, the electrician told us that the fusebox where the power supply came into the house was not earthed, and that it needed to have an earth wire from the fusebox down the outside wall and into the ground. As the house is on the first floor, and there is a concrete flight of steps leading up to it and a pavement made of solid slabs of stone at the bottom, this seems like a complicated and expensive undertaking. Is it really necessary? We only have a water heater and lighting that use electricity.

Youneed to go to an electrical dealer to get an earth rod, drive it into the earth about a metre away from the house. Connect a 6mm earth wire to it and then to the fuse box - job done.  If you live anywhere near us in Tuscany (Piazza al serchio) I will do it for you.  By the way I am an electrician.

Hi, Thanks for the feedback unfortunately we live miles away from you in Le Marche but I am happy to do whats necessary to get our electrics safe. The appliances I have purchased in Italy are cooker and water heater of which neither are connected to the mains at the moment due to the warning supplied "THIS APPLIANCE MUST BE EARTHED" so we still have no hot water :(  obviously the sooner the better for getting the water heater installed. Where can I get the necessary earth rod from? you have stated an electrical dealer do you mean BRICO or somewhere similar? Our house has a 6KW mains (upgraded from 3KW) 2 wires exit F/N and then the electrics go all over the place from a junction box to the ground floor and upstairs(typically Italian) on 1st floor there is a small RCD box but all cables are sunk into the wall and thats it no sign of an earth supply.

I have bought a few items of white goods from the UK and they work ok here on only 3KW supply.  I admit though you have to work out what on with what!

I have bought a few items of white goods from the UK and they work ok here on only 3KW supply.  I admit though you have to work out what on with what!

The earth won't be a 'supply' as you call it i.e. from the ENEL box. It will run back out of the house from your fuse box as others have said. I find it hard to believe that your house has been wired without it as I cannot understand why any electrician would do any wiring and leave it out. 

Thank you Molinello. Unfortunately I am in Basilicata, but thank you for the advice, and thanks to Lucy and Gerry for raising the issue. Hope you get it sorted soon, it must be miserable having no hot water!

Try the electrical shop just opposite the garage in Amandola, on the road to the hospital and also the ferramenta just below him. One of those should be able to help you out with what you need, or tell you where to get the required.