Why is there continuity between my neutral and earth when nothing is plugged in – Advice from Electriman, North London Electricians

If you have tested between the neutral and earth pins of a socket and found continuity, your first reaction might be that something is wrong. In most cases, it is completely normal and here is why.

In every UK home, the electricity supplier bonds the neutral and earth conductors together at the origin of the installation, usually at your main consumer unit or fuse board. This is called the neutral-earth bond or PEN conductor link. Because of this connection, any test you carry out between neutral and earth at any socket in the house will show continuity. Your meter is simply detecting that joined connection at the board, tracing back through the wiring.

What you might safely check yourself:

1. Make sure nothing is actually plugged in when you test, because appliances can create a false reading between neutral and earth through their own internal wiring.

2. Note whether the reading is a very low resistance, a few ohms or less, which points to the normal neutral-earth bond at the board.

3. Check whether the reading only appears on one circuit or every circuit, as a fault isolated to one circuit is more concerning than a reading across the whole installation.

When you should be concerned:

If continuity appears only on one specific circuit and not others, or if you can isolate the consumer unit and the reading disappears on some circuits but not all, there may be a neutral-earth fault somewhere in the wiring, such as a pinche

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Electriman covers Mill Hill, Barnet, Finchley, Edgware, Enfield, Watford and surrounding areas. All work is Part P certified and fully insured.