House Electrics

Do you mean they come with 3 prong plugs? Just cut the middle one off or rewire the house :-)

"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!!!

Not encouraging them at all. It's just what we had to do. Either that or upgrade all the electrics in a rental flat.

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.

If you do not have the earth wire, then it is adviseable to get one installed. It should be a low cost fitting, as only a single cable. Some conduit down the outside wall to a spike in the ground, so very little disruption.

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.

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.