Grounding the bath in the apartment is necessary to ensure the safety of life. The bathroom is a place of increased danger, since it is most likely to get an electric shock. This occurs when electrical appliances such as water heaters or washing machines interact with water. So that this does not happen, it is necessary to ground the bath.
Grounding Essence
Each of us must have experienced electric shocks at least once in a lifetime. Someone experienced a strong charge, someone not. But in any case, the feeling is not pleasant. In addition, they are simply life threatening.
For example, you might feel a slight tingling sensation in that part of the body that comes into contact with water. This is also considered a shock, only a weak charge. Occurs due to the fact that somewhere the integrity of the wiring or its insulation is violated. Since water is a good electrolyte, it passes current to us. We feel it like a tingling sensation.
However, at any moment, this tingling can turn into a powerful blow with a strong charge that can even take a person’s life. Therefore, at the slightest sign that the wiring in the bathroom is broken, grounding in the bathroom should be done as soon as possible. This is necessary to divert hazardous electricity to the "earth", and not to your body.
So why ground the bathtub in the apartment? Undoubtedly, most modern equipment manufacturers provide for the issue of grounding in advance. For this, electrical appliances are equipped with special grooves made of metal.
The essence of grounding the bathtub in the apartment is the fence of the electric current that appeared on the body, and its conclusion to the ground. In this case, this current will not be harmful to humans.
What is the importance of grounding?
Why do you need to ground the bath in the apartment? The answer to the question is quite simple and lies on the surface. It has been known since school that water is an excellent electrolyte. Water, in all its aggregate states, is available in the bathroom, so this place in the whole apartment is the most dangerous.
It would seem, how can it harm something that is not connected directly to electricity? However, it can. Everything that is in the bathroom and does not apply to electricity is capable of conducting current or generating it on its body. These are sewer and water pipes, batteries, bathtubs, sinks, etc.
In order to avoid unpleasant and dangerous consequences, they carry out the grounding of the bathtub in the apartment. This helps to prevent the formation of charge on the housings of units located in the bathroom in the event of any breakdown.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that if there are plastic pipes in the neighboring apartment, grounding the bathtub will be ineffective, because you simply increase the area of electric shock in your apartment. The ground circuit will be broken if not all pipes in the riser are metal.
However, for the bathroom, the use of metal pipes as grounding conductors is not recommended due to the fact that they are connected by couplings in the riser. In such places of fastenings, leakage of electric current is possible. That is, the ground circuit is not tight. It also creates various wandering charges that can go, for example, to a neighboring apartment, for which the neighbors will not thank you. This stray current can also return to your apartment, moreover, it is not known in which place.
Some apartment owners do not ground the bath, as they believe that this is not necessary. They refer to the fact that the container is covered with a protective enamel layer, and modern acrylic structures generally consist of a material that does not pass current. However, this information is not so reliable to adhere to. Any defect in the coating of the bath may interfere with its electrical insulation. You may not even notice this chip. Therefore, grounding is necessary in any case.
Grounding cable features
Stranded wires are used to ground the bathtub in the apartment. Their cross section must be at least 6 mm 2 . This section is enough for the bathroom. The cross-section of all PE wires should be 2.5 mm 2 if there is mechanical protection, and 4 mm 2 if there is none.
According to the norms of electrical work, the insulation of this cable should be made of polyvinyl chloride, have a yellow-green color.
Inside the cable are grounding electrodes, which are made of steel or copper. It is worth noting that for such work it is better to use a copper section.
For example, to ground a cast-iron bath, you need about 2 meters of such a cable. Although the footage depends on the layout of the bathroom and the apartment as a whole. The shorter the cable, the less likely it will be damaged.
It is better to lay the cable where there will not be open access to it. For example, behind a bathtub, under a sink, under a tile on the floor, or as wiring, inside walls.
Work with a metal bath
Why ground the bathtub in a Soviet-era apartment? After all, everything should have been grounded for a long time. But this is not so. Firstly, they used to be grounded on sewer or water risers. This is now prohibited.
Secondly, since Soviet times, they have probably already installed electrical wiring many times, and it is not a fact that at that moment the necessary safety measures were observed. That is, it is quite possible that there is no grounding in your bathroom for a long time.
So, to ground the old Soviet bath, you need to drill a hole in its leg. To do this, use a drill bit. Then we fix the grounding jumper with a bolt, nut and washer. Then we take a multicore wire. We attach it on one side to the foot of the bathroom, and on the other - to a special distributor. There we bring all the other wires in the bathroom. This distributor can be attached in any place convenient for you. It is only necessary to take into account that water does not fall on it. Then we display everything on the electrical panel in the entrance, or rather, on the grounding bus in the panel.
Why do you need to ground the bathtub in the apartment if, for example, you have a shower? It still needs to be grounded. Especially if this shower has a water heating element. In this situation, the jumper is made in the form of a connection of the metal elements of the device casing with grounded pipes.
If you already have a modern or cast-iron bath, then a grounding jumper has already been invented before you. On such bathtubs there is a special "petal". Grounding such bathtubs becomes much simpler, you just need to strip the cable and clamp it between the washers of the petal.
Should the bathtub be acrylic?
In modern society, acrylic bathtubs are in demand. They are much lighter than pig-iron, and they are somewhat cheaper. Many may wonder: "Is it necessary to ground the acrylic bath?". And this is not surprising, because the material from which it is made is not an electrolyte in itself, that is, it must not pass an electric current. But grounding is still necessary.
Firstly, the technology of casting a bath involves installing it on a steel frame, which just does allow electricity to pass through.
Secondly, bathtubs are able to accumulate static stress. In this case, grounding is necessary to remove it, especially if the bowl of the bathtub is large and can accumulate a lot of voltage.
Acrylic baths imply the presence of a special bandage. It is to him that the wires for grounding are connected.
Cast iron product
Grounding a cast-iron bathtub in an apartment is as follows. A bolt for a grounding cable is inserted into a special eye. By the way, the place of connection of the wire and the bolt is best pre-cleaned to ensure better contact.
We conduct the cable to the distributor, we display it on the shield and the grounding bus. By the way, this bus has the name PE. If there is no such in the shield, then it is necessary to install it additionally before making grounding in the bathroom.
In a new building
Grounding technology will vary depending on the type and age of construction. Before making grounding in the bathroom in a new building, it is necessary to clarify which system is installed in the house. Since 2003, a 5-wire system has been provided in homes. One of them has the same grounding functions.
Most likely, in your new building there is precisely this wiring system. You only need to do the wiring of the grounding cable in your apartment.
For bathrooms, due to increased security, it is recommended to install a DCS (additional potential equalization system), which we will talk about a little later.
The houses built in the post-Soviet era have a modern TN-C-S system. It is equipped with two conductors: working zero and protective zero.
Three phases L are allocated from the main shield of the house along the risers, separated by a working neutral conductor N and a protective conductor PE. Connecting the wiring from the apartment to the shield becomes much easier, since all the necessary tires are already there. The grounding bus is connected to the body of the electrical panel with a metal wire.
Let's take a step-by-step look at how to ground the bath using such a shield.
First, connect the new phase wire to the place where the old one was. This will ensure the availability of current in the apartment. Then we carry out the same procedure with the neutral and ground wires. A wire with the letter N is connected to the bus with neutral wires, that is, those that do not have voltage. And we attach the wire with the letters PE to the shield body. To do this, you may need a metal bolt mounted in an electrical panel.
You should also pay attention to the fact that you can attach only one grounding cable to one bolt. If there is a need to connect another cable, then this requires additional clamps, that is, the presence of more bolts in the shield.
For convenience, a special PE bus is used, which is installed in the shield, and all the necessary grounding cables are connected to it already.
It is also necessary to consider the following points:
- when using three-phase input, it is necessary that all conductors have the same cross section;
- one terminal of the machine can clamp only 2 conductors with the same cross section;
- The use of a three-phase connection to the hob is recommended for even load distribution.
Further, everything that needs to be grounded in the bathroom (for example, a bathtub, pipes, underfloor heating, sockets, etc.) is connected to the DCS located in the bathroom.
Since the bathroom uses 2 circuits: for lighting and for electrical appliances, it is recommended to connect them separately. However, mixed nutrition may also occur. But the lines that power the power plants (for example, a washing machine) are generally better grounded separately, since they create a strong electrical voltage.
There is also a TN-S type wiring system. It is used in homes that have been built since 1997. In this system, the working and protective neutral conductors are separated, and the ground, phase and neutral wires are laid separately from the substation to the house. Such a system is more reliable when grounding. Incidentally, it is carried out similarly to the method that we described above.
Additional potential equalization system (DCES)
This system is necessary to create a safe environment in places where it is most relevant. In such places, usually high humidity and a high concentration of electrical voltage. For example, it can be bathrooms or shower rooms.
DCS is a box of equation of potentials (PMC) and the potential equation conductors located in it. Along the perimeter of the box there are holes through which ground wires pass from the metal elements of the bathroom. In fact, this device collects all the cables in the bathroom, and one three-wire cable already exits from it, which is already connected to the electrical panel at the entrance.
Let's figure out how to install an additional potential equalization system in the bathroom.
First you need to choose a place for the UP box, which is better to install where water will not get on it or condensation will collect. Next, we connect the PE bus of the flap at the entrance with a similar bus in the PMC. To do this, you need a grounding cable with a copper section of 6 mm 2 .
Now we have to bring and connect to the PMC all the metal elements in the bathroom. These include heating pipes, hot and cold water, as well as a bath or shower.
Protective conductors for equating potentials must be connected to all these structures. From one edge they are attached to the structure. To do this, you can use metal clamps. However, you need to fix them well, otherwise there will be a leakage of electric current in this place and, in fact, this element will not be grounded in the bathroom.
From the other end, the conductors are connected to the PE bus, which is located in the potential equalization box.
Additionally, all sockets and large electrical appliances in the bathroom are grounded. To do this, you can install another PSC or ground them in isolation, that is, directly to the electrical panel in the entrance.
Work Requirements
Once again, we indicate why grounding in the bathroom is necessary:
- increased safety when using electrical appliances in the bathroom by relieving stress from the housing;
- protection against electric shock from the bathroom body in case of violation of the insulation of the wiring;
- removal of currents wandering around the network due to breakdown of insulation;
- protection against force majeure situations such as accidentally dropped electric hair dryers.
Consider also the rules of work when conducting grounding:
- the grounding cable must be firmly connected to the bath to avoid the inefficiency of the grounding;
- the ground loop must be reliably welded together and well connected to the ground wire;
- the grounding cable must be correctly selected and comply with the wiring standards (if this condition is not met, then excess resistance will arise, and it should not exceed 4 Ohms).
If you have met all these requirements before making the bathroom grounding in the apartment, then you can be sure of the effectiveness of the event.
Safety precautions
To the question: "Why ground the bath?" we answered. For it to succeed, use a few safety tips.
- Take care of the quality of your electrical wiring. It must be in good condition. If you neglect this rule, then the grounding efficiency will be reduced to zero. Laying stranded wires requires increased responsibility, especially in the bathroom. After all, this is the most unsafe place in the house. There is a constant contact of electricity and water. Therefore, if the wiring is damaged, the likelihood of a shock will increase to 100%.
- The electrical appliances you use must also be in good condition. If you notice exposed wires or sparks when plugged into the wall outlet or at any other time when using the device, you must immediately stop using the unit and repair the damage. Do not rely on luck. Even if you are not shocked, you can provoke a fire, and then not only you, but your neighbors will suffer. It is better to once again make sure that the appliance is in good working order than to have unpleasant consequences later.
- Protect your children from faulty electrical appliances. It’s better not to let them use them without your control. Especially do not trust the kids. Even if your device worked fine and was working, it can break at any moment. The child, due to his inexperience and ignorance, will not always notice in time smoke or sparks from the device. This can lead to irreversible consequences. If you still think that the child is already old enough to use electrical appliances on their own, then you must first familiarize him with possible options for the development of events. It will also be advisable to tell the child what to do first of all if, due to a malfunction of the appliance, an electric shock occurred or a fire started.
- Follow basic safety precautions in high-risk locations. As we already understood, the bathroom just belongs to such areas. It is necessary to constantly monitor that water does not get into sockets, switches or other places where electricity may be contained. For such purposes, special sockets with waterproof covers and other all kinds of protective elements for bathrooms are provided. This increases the likelihood of protection against electric shock or fire.
- Carry out all repairs in a timely manner. This applies to grounding too. If you find that your bathroom does not have grounding, then you must urgently do it. This question cannot be put aside, especially if your bathroom has a washing machine, water heater or other large electrical appliances that are capable of creating a large electric charge on their body. It is also necessary to change the grounding cable in time if you find it malfunctioning. In this case, it is the same as not having grounding in the bathroom at all.