Electricity main routing

My home is technically one flat of 5 in a converted house. Most of it is a single storey rear extension and it has its own front door and independent access down the side of the main house. My meter and a 60A switch-fuse are in the common hallway that serves the other 4 flats from this a 16mm feed runs under the floor of the other gf flat and my bedroom to the CU in my hall. To date this has presented no problems as we have let out other flats so I have always had access to the front hall.

We are now selling off the flats and the lease that formalises my occupancy will not allow access to the common parts as there is no reason to go there, electric meter apart. So what I need is a meter (presumably external) by my front door feeding back into my CU.

The question is whether the board would allow a submain from the existing 2-phase (remnant of DC days) intake more or less following the line of my existing 16mm cable or would they insist on a new cable being brought in from the road. If the former what sort of cable would be involved: ?? 25 armoured about 25mm dia or what ???

Reply to
Tony Bryer
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I don`t know where abouts you are, but in the Manweb area you`d probably be looking at a seperate "new" supply. Any access back into the main part of the house should really be blocked up before this work was carried out. Depending on the length of run, you would probably be looking at

25mm^2 hybrid, although a longer run (of approx 25m+) might see the use of 35mm^2.

I very much doubt any supply company would allow the use of a third-party submain up to the meter position, although historically in some large buildings there are rising mains that are treated as though they were part of our network, and therefore unmetered. The owner of the building retains ownership of this rising main though, and will often provide their own tap-off box, submain and cutout, on which a meter can be installed. This is not common, and is the source of lots of problems though :-}

Reply to
Colin Wilson

Surely it's easy to add in a right of access for maintenace etc, you need access to the meter so you can read it. These sort of access rights are common place in most leases and freeholds.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

And a good source of income for my company, as we replace faulty risers.

Steve Dawson Fox Electrical Serivces Ltd

Reply to
Stephen Dawson

It is all new leases so anything is possible. It's just that as I, or any subsequent occupier, would have no reason to go into the common hall except to access the electricity meter and/or switchfuse it seemed tidier to eliminate this.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Erm, just thought that if you(*) don't have any right of access neither does the a sparky employed or contracted by you and the meterman or even the electricity board (except in emergency).

I think it's probably tidier to have a right of access clause in the leases. Same applies for *all* the other services as well, remember the water rising main is your responsibilty from the boards stopcock on, you need access for maintenance and emergency...

These clauses are all pretty standard so it's nothing unusual, indeed not having them would almost certainly complicate future sales. I wouldn't buy a place without access rights to the services feeding the property.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

As my water and gas already come straight up the side path from the road it makes sense to do this for the electric supply too. I was hoping to avoid breaking up concrete and digging a trench, but I can see on reflection why supplier-side cables running through a building are not a good idea.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

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