Putting our earth connection in place

In France, unlike in Britain, the electricity supplier (EDF) does not supply the Earth (ground to the Americans) connection.  This means that we have to put in our own earth connection from the main distribution board to a spike in the ground.

So, earlier this week we purchased a 5 metre earth cable, a 1.5 metre metal spike (piquet de terre) and an insulated earth connector (borne de terre).

Driving in a 5 Foot Metal Spike

Driving earth spike into the ground

On Wednesday I dug a hole through the 30cm (12") layer of rough stone that formed the old courtyard when this was a working farm.  Once I had gone through this layer, we were down to lovely soft clay which meant that driving the earth spike in for most of its 1.5 metre length was relatively easy.  Here you can see our friend giving the top of the spike its last hit!   Our main concern with doing anything below ground level here is that the mains water pipe comes across the courtyard but, being an old farm, there are no records telling us where.  We have to keep going but every time we do something in the ground we expect there to see a massive fountain erupt.

Connecting the Distribution Board to the Earth Spike

Luckily for us the previous owners had put a light where our pond is now, which meant that there was a conduit coming from the electrical distribution board to outside.  We fed the new earth cable through this conduit, and then connected one end to the main electrical distribution board and the other to the borne de terre.  We then connected another earth cable between the other end of the borne de terre and the earth spike. 

Voila, we now have an earth that meets the French electrical regulations. 

Finished earth connection

The photograph shows the concrete surround that is required to protect the earth spike, with the borne de terre attached to its side.  We will finish this off by putting a manhole cover on the concrete surround so that we can walk around safely.

The borne de terre needs to be accessible as for the testing the circuit is broken between the two isolators and the resistance tested. When I understand a bit more about this I will put up another post with the explanation.