Meter Tails & Earthing in Citywest

Meter tails are the cables that connect your ESB meter to your consumer unit. In properties built before 2000, these are often the original undersized 16mm² cables — the current Irish wiring standard (ET101:2018) requires 25mm² tails for most domestic supplies. Undersized tails are a common EICR observation and are required to be replaced before a new consumer unit or major new circuits can be safely installed.

Earthing and bonding is the part of your electrical installation that most homeowners never think about — until something goes wrong. The earthing system connects your consumer unit to earth, so that if a live conductor contacts a metal part of the installation, the fault current flows safely to earth and trips the protective device rather than passing through a person. Main protective bonding connects your gas and water pipes to the earth terminal in the consumer unit. Supplementary bonding applies additional protection in bathrooms and kitchens where the risk of electric shock is highest.

In older Irish properties, main bonding is frequently absent, undersized, or connected to the wrong point. Supplementary bonding in bathrooms is often missing entirely. Both are C2 observations on an EICR — potentially dangerous, requiring urgent remedial action.