Re: Moving an electricity meter

Oops - a simple slip there

In the same way that a brain surgeon doesn't take someone's eye out by accident

or, are you one of those people who have problems tying their own shoe laces

Reply to
geoff
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Getting that much practice isn't really worth most peoples effort.

Not normally, but one did snap yesterday.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

In article , ARWadsworth writes

And what happened?

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

In article , The Natural Philosopher writes

They do it all the time around here. Cut/joint the cable and pot the joint in a waterproof enclosure. Frightens the shit out of me.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

In article , Roland Perry writes

headend?

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

The Natural Philosopher ( snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid) wibbled on Friday 18 February

2011 11:05:

This is not correct.

LV live working on the distribution networks is absolutely standard and approved.

How do I know? My father was an engineer for the LEB (as was) on the LV networks in the Paddington area. He made a point of having a long talk to the jointer who was working round here not so long ago to find out what changed - which is principally they tend to crimp the conductors rather than solder[1] these days. But the potting procedure is much the same,though with fancier potting compound.

[1] If you want scary, the soldering procedure was to pour molten solder from a small ladle over the joint and catch it in another ladle - repeat using fresh solder form a heated pot, until the joint is heated and soldered. All while sitting on a rubber mat.

There's also the story when my dad was supervising the connection of a set of new streetlamps. They were working to plans of cables (in London) - hols all dug by labourers, just him an dth jointer. Anyway the LV cable was next to the MV cable. Lunchtime came, dad wandered off, jointer was supposed to too. Jointer thought he's be smart and do a fewmore without superivision and started unwrapping the cable at the next lamp position.

Dad came back and the jointer had stopped work and made a comment that he was worried about the next cable because once he'd cut a section of the earth lead serving off, his fingers were tingling when he touched the paper insulation.

MV cable of course - it had crossed over the LV cable between the lamps. Thye did open the breakers to fix that one! But then, you can usually isolate an MV cable without the lights going out.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Ah, when it was customary for hv joints to be encased in a lead sleeve, it was necessary first to prepare the sleeve, lead dresser to shape the end down to a nice taper, and then make a wiped joint between the sleeve and the lead sheath each side of the joint.

The jointers used to practice this during training at the jointing school. The technique is to pour molten plumber's metal from a ladle onto a large moleskin catch-cloth, shaping the solidifying metal up into the start of a decent wipe around the sleeve/sheath junction, then finishing the job with a smaller moleskin plumbing cloth. The fastidious jointer would finish off with a pad made from several layers of coarse brown paper.

As I said this was practiced at the jointing school. I once spent a brief spell there as part of my training to be an engineer. About three or four weeks before I arrived, one laddie had decided he didn't need a catch cloth to make a wipe..........

Reply to
The Wanderer

He called the meter reader a wanker. I was not stealing electricity, I was not working in a dangerous manner. He just kept complaning about meter readers knowing f*ck all but thinking they were electricians.

Reply to
ARWadsworth

So your only over-current protection on this 6mm T&E was the plug fuses on whatever happened to be plugged in?

Reply to
Al Grant

That's alloweable, if the short circuit protection of the incoming fuse is good enough.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

The incoming fuse was 30A fusewire. I have a selection of fuse holders with

30A and 40A fuses or 30A fuse wire in them for just this type of job. I also have proper temporay boards for bigger jobs or when other trades are using the supply.
Reply to
ARWadsworth

In message , Mike Tomlinson writes

They took him to the substation and charged him

He's currently in a state of shock

Reply to
geoff

It's not really a matter of practice - more one of having a degree of control over ones body

Better steer clear of electrickery then

Reply to
geoff

geoff considered Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:33:45 +0000 the perfect time to write:

I would have thought elastic trickery would be just what was needed in that situation :)

IGMC

Reply to
Phil W Lee

Steering clear of electricity is the entire idea. Fortunately it's not trickery.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

Does the supply head/fuse have to be in the same location as the meter? I've been thinking of moving/getting somebody to move one of my meters. I have a basement workshop and a ground floor shop, each let as seperate units, each wired as seperate units, each metered as seperate units. However, both supply meters are in the basement, fed from their individual supply heads/fuses fed from the single incoming

100-year-old supply cable. This means the shop tenants have to ask the workshop tenant for access to read their meter.

I'd like to move the shop's meter out of the basement into the shop, so a move of about 2m from just below the floorboards to just above the floorboards. It would require popping the supply fuse, replacing the 10cm of 25mm between the supply fuse and the meter with 2m of 25mm and replacing the

2m of 25mm from the meter to the CU with 10 cm of 25mm.

It would mean the supply head/fuse would be seperated from the meter. I've seen this arrangement in lots of shops around the place, but don't know how acceptable it is.

JGH

Reply to
jgharston

jgharston ( snipped-for-privacy@arcade.demon.co.uk) wibbled on Wednesday 09 March 2011 12:11:

Yes, it is permissable to seperate the two though it is down to the supplier as they own both the cutout and the meter.

The exact issues you have are:

1) Max length of tails protected by the supplier's cutout fuse: This is generally 2m or 3m *from meter to CU or switchfuse* depending on supplier and is up to them to declare. 2m is generally a safe bet, but EDF (as was) round my way told me 3m was OK.

2) Tails from the meter to your fuseboard are subject to IEE regs and because they have no 30mA 40mS RCD protection must be mechanically protected if buried

Reply to
Tim Watts

No. At some time in the past, my meter was moved from the cellar to the top of the cellar stairs. There's a label on the board with the supplier's name (LEB), so it seems likely they did it. They've used SWA between the riser and meter, so you'd have to check on what they will allow these days.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If its only for reference and not for the supplier to read then you could consider fitting a second private meter. I put one in a granny annex a few years back and it was fairly cheap and simple to do.

Mike

Reply to
MuddyMike

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