Upgrading electricity supply

davenottingham

Hopefully these three images will help.
The first image shows the supply head.
The cable then run over a door opening (second image) and terminates with the meters (final image).

Ich_2

Hmm interesting looks like a 2c.0225 sq in single phase cable terminated in a modern 3 phase cutout.
I'm assuming the bitumen you refer to is just below the earth clamp, in this design of cable there is an outer cloth/bitumen layer, a steel tape armour layer and a further cloth bitumen layer over the lead sheath.
It would originally have been terminated in a bitumen filled cut-out.

I would suggest that it's rating of about 147 amps (well that's what we rate it at) might be being reached at times so it will get warm, but is designed to operate at temperatures that would be hot to the touch without any risk of failure of the cable. Obviously this will melt the bitumen which has a low melting point.

It does look as though it was decided it was suitable for the load at some point in the past which explains the 3 phase cutout which would have been fitted by the DNO/Electricity Board.

davenottingham

Thanks for your observations.
Maybe the situation is not as onerous I as thought.
The bitumen I referred to before is as you say just below the earth clamp (you can see it has thinned at the top).
Would there have been an obligation on behalf of whoever fitted the three-phase cut-out to check that the supply was adequate?

Cknocker

Right for starters its pretty!Is that an outhouse the meters are in?

Its answered the main question, its a single phase supply (all outgoing live cables are labelled as L1), so they are using a 3 phase cutout as a junction box, which I guess is why the EDF man suggested you have a new 3 phase supply. Personally I would say it needs an additional 3 (4 total) single phase supplies going into 4 seperate single phase cutouts, as this then keeps all the supplies seperate.

The next question is whether or not there are 3 seperate fuses inside the cutout - the seals are still on so I am guessing the electrician hasn't visually confirmed that (He shouldn't have).

If there are 3 seperate fuses, that could explain the overheating, as if you have 3 fuses in parallel that is the same as one fuse rated at triple the rating, depended how its wired - there has to be a cobbled together busbar in there somewhere.

Again let s know what WPD do with this one, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't do anything like that down here in the South West (This one would have been installed by Central Networks before WPD took over and they had very different working practices).

Cknocker

Whoever fitted the cut-out should and probably did check the supply capacity. However why most companies won't install a non standard set up like this is because there is a potential for someone at a later date to replace a service fuse with a larger fuse, without appreciating the implications on the supply cable.

davenottingham

The electrician didn't touch any of the set-up. He pointed out the three L1 supplies (there are two live feeds coming from the third one) and I took these to be fuses.
The meters etc are all housed underneath the entrance steps to the property.

JC_Derby

interesting pics......Horrible!

davenottingham

There are 4 flats. So it appears the third L1 box is feeding two flats.

Cknocker

Was there an outcome on this with the DNO?

davenottingham

Not yet- the DNO has said one of their sub-contractors will be in touch to inspect