Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!
Earth Bonding
I'm assuming that the 'change' is due to Virgin Media upgrading the network from FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) to FTTH (Fibre to the Home).
Copper phone wires supplying a home do have an earth reference point at the cabinet. That's the 1-metre high box along the street somewhere. But that earth isn't to provide safety for end users if you send mains 240v or a lightning strike down the wires! The copper is too thin to take that sort of current.
The earth reference acts to protect the equipment owned by OpenReach or whoever your supplier is.
Once the cable to the house is upgraded to fibre optic, it can no longer have any earth reference.
Your link now uses photons, not electrons!
Nor can it provide the 80v across the pair of copper wires which produces the 'ring tone'.
So two things have to be changed in the home.
1: Your broadband router gets changed to one with a fibre-optic link to the outside world.
2: Your 'landline phone' needs to receive power from the house electricity supply.
The latter is more complex than it first appears.
The telecomms regulations require that it must be possible to make a call from the house during a power-cut.
So the new phone also has a battery which keeps it 'live'.
None of this has any bearing on the earthing for the house.
If anything, it makes the situation simpler.
In the event of a nearby lightning strike, you no longer have a copper telephone wire connecting into the home.
The only earth which concerns you will therefore be the one associated with the mains electricity supply.
Save energy... recycle electrons!
@transparent We are awaiting a call back from Virgin on the ridiculous as we have 3 handsets that will need powering (special equipment for hearing impaired user etc.) which in turn entails occupying a 13 amp socket and trailing wires. VM point out they will not work in a power cut so we will be requesting one of their equipments that connect to the hub but provide a connection at all times to cover us for emergencies. They are not aware that we have islanding powering -with apologies, in case anyone is interested, this is the gist of the VM message: Regards, Toodles.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.
- 26 Forums
- 2,618 Topics
- 61.1 K Posts
- 675 Online
- 6,994 Members
Join Us!
Worth Watching
Latest Posts
-
Brown Oily Residue Blocking Air Vent and Weeping Relief Valve... Anyone Seen This?
My installation is 4 years old. After about 18 months a...
By seoras , 2 hours ago
-
RE: Renewables & Heat Pumps in the News
An article on funding for heat pumps in case anyone is ...
By Jeff , 3 hours ago
-
RE: Indevolt Batteries UK Support & Info Thread
Thanks @editor , @indevolt-uk Subject to any comments ...
By JamesPa , 11 hours ago
-
RE: Share Your Experiences with Heat Pump Manufacturer Support
@seoras Sorry to hear that. I found Vaillant very help...
By JamesPa , 11 hours ago
-
The Watchdog That Watched and Waited
On 9 January 2026, Consumer Energy Solutions collapsed ...
By Mars , 15 hours ago
-
RE: GSHP Kaput After 16 Years: New Compressor or Switch to ASHP? Advice Welcome
Cool Energy in Grimsby sell ground source heat pumps an...
By DerekDeLeon , 15 hours ago
-
RE: Valliant Heat Pump Settings
Thats arguably a sign of a good installer - they unders...
By JamesPa , 16 hours ago
-
RE: Electricity price predictions
Well, we have so many cases where rain water mixes with...
By Batpred , 17 hours ago
-
RE: Two heating zones to one zone
@profzarkov They arent obviously wrong, but the only...
By JamesPa , 19 hours ago
-
RE: Towns water feed to air source heat pump system
The DHW circuit cant be separated (well it could, you c...
By JamesPa , 19 hours ago
-
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverter
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverterPylontech batterie...
By MartinRobinson , 1 day ago
-
RE: My NIBE ASHP Nightmare: No Commissioning, High Bills and a Hostile Installer
As @transparent has observed above, this is not bad, an...
By cathodeRay , 1 day ago
-
RE: The Grid Says Yes.. Until It Doesn’t: Why Britain's Net Zero Push is Stalling at the Plug Socket
As I was reading this article Mars, I was thinking that...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
RE: Tell us about your Solar (PV) setup
Installed in May 2011: 16*Sharp 245 W monocrystalline p...
By txmartyn , 2 days ago
-
-
RE: Say hello and introduce yourself
That doesn't sound 'right' to me. The national Smart ...
By Transparent , 3 days ago
-
RE: Growatt battery disconnected
I doubt this will happen, but I will try and suggest it...
By Eliuccio , 3 days ago
-
Understood. That's why I decided from the outset on a ...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
-
RE: My experience with 3 heat pump surveys: Heat Geek, British Gas & Octopus
On the litigation, I would not go there and definitely ...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: Recommended home battery inverters + regulatory matters - help requested
I suppose if your pv inverter packs up, you have a plan...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: New Vaillant aroTherm Plus in black - When will it come to the UK?
Firstly check you are using sound power not sound press...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
-
That’s the solar up and running, I don’t think it’s the...
By David999 , 4 days ago
-
RE: Seeking ideas / information / commiseration - Pure Drive
I agree with @colinc that you can reuse some of it. A s...
By Batpred , 4 days ago


