The earth wire is a crucial part of the home electrical system and is designed to protect against electric shock. Power and lighting circuits should also be protected by a safety switch (RCD) which will detect if any current flows to earth.
If faults occur in the electrical system, the electricity will flow to earth by the shortest and easiest path. The shortest path is through a circuit breaker or fuse, which will break the electrical circuit. The earth wire should help stop electricity passing through your body if a bad accident occurred.
The earth wires from power points, lighting points etc join to a main earth wire, which is attached to a metal electrode (metal stake) driven into the ground. Although in many cases in Perth the older properties the earthing system may be connected to a water pipe.
If your property is fairly old, it’s worth having a Perth electrician to inspect/test the installation, we often see lighting circuits without earths and sometimes even power circuits. Below are a list of suburbs that we often find these problems:
Victora Park
Como
Manning
burswood
Bayswater
Cannington
Bentley
Belmont
midland
freemantle
It is important that the earth wire is correctly wired and working properly, and that all appliances and building wires are in good condition. If an earth wire within an appliance is not connected and a loose active wire touches the metal casing, electrocution may occur.
Call Megalite today for more advice on earthing systems, we are located in Como, and are very experienced Perth electricians!