Hot Fuses....

[A_H]

Hi,

Some guidance please everyone, apologies for the numptie descriptions and assumptions, i hope they make sense to you! The electrical setup in my house seems pretty straightforward. The thick black supply cable that appears from out of the ground feeds into a black unit stamped Norweb and sealed with a wire and lead seal (presumably this is the main fuse). From there two tails feed into the meter then into a switch (isolator ?) and finally into a 100A split load consumer unit.

The main fuse (stamped Norweb) is always hot to the touch (on the left hand side if it matters?) even when the meter is turning slowly. When say then shower (9.5Kw) is running the fuse is hot to the point where its not possible to keep a finger on it for more that 2 or 3 seconds without it being painful and there is a definite smell of, not burning, but that similar to switching on an electric heater thats not been used for months.

I guess the question and concern is whether this is normal? If yes, great, if not, what do I do next please? Electrician or Electricty Board?

Hope you can help,

Regards Ron

[Stephen Dawson]

No this is not good, call out NORWEB to check, it is worth an emergancy call today.

[nick smith]

That is the supply co.'s fuse and is their responsibility - it should not ever get hot and only under rare occasions get warm (full load for a while) i.e. cooker shower and electric heating on.

If it does, especially under light loads I would say get them in as a matter of some urgency as something is definitely not right ! Nick

[Richard Sterry]

This is definitely not normal. Sounds like there is a poor connection to at least one side of the board's fuse, so it's them you need to call, and sooner rather than later would be good. :-)

Rick

[Ron Atkinson]

Thanks a lot for the advice. For info as soon as I got the responses here (three quick replies - all saying *problem*) I called up United Utilities who advised that any excessive heat or a burning smell constituted an emergency and an engineer has been and gone (seems a decent response - around an hour from call to visit on a B Holiday?).

Anyway, he took a look and has advised that the unit (I'm assuming the fuse unit thingy) needs replacing with a new one. Now awaiting another call from an engineer to do this work (later tonight or tomorrow morning ) and in the meantime I've to keep the loading as minimal as possible (no showers/immersion etc) until it is sorted. Having said that the engineer must've done something because the heat has gone and the bit that was hot definitely is'nt hot anymore.

Having spent a few days *not* going with my gut feeling that things were not right and feeling a bit of a plonker for not making the call sooner I'm finally glad I asked you guys and got the right advice because something clearly is/was wrong as you suggested from the off. Thanks a million!

Regards Ron

[Lurch]

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 16:21:27 -0000, "A_H" strung together this:

I'd ring NORWEB now. This is definitely not normal under any normal circumstances. Ring them NOW.

[Bill]

Well Ron it has been 9 hours now since your posting. What did Norweb find when they came out?

[BigWallop]

Ron,

Ro..on

RON !!!

I do hope he called Norweb.

[Dave Stanton]

Most likely he has not got any leccy now, so cant use the pc.

Dave

[Andrew Gabriel]

The Kentucky Fried Chicken in Dunstable got burned to a cinder when their supply head burst into flames, with of course no way to switch off the source of the energy.

[Ron Atkinson]

Thanks a lot for the advice. For info as soon as I got the initial responses last night here (three quick replies - all saying *problem*) I called up United Utilities who advised that any excessive heat or a burning smell constituted an emergency and an engineer called (seems a very good response - around an hour from call to visit on a B Holiday?).

Anyway, the engineer took a look and advised that the unit (I'm assuming the fuse unit thingy) needed replacing with a new one. In the meantime I was to keep the loading as minimal as possible (no showers/immersion etc) until it is sorted. Another hour on and a pair of engineers called and spent a couple of hours doing some more work. As of about 11pm last night I've got a shiny new fuse 'thingy' (100A fuse). Looks like they've also moved the meter and replacd the various tails that feed everything. a few hours from start to finish and I have to say I've been impressed with the whole thing.

Having spent a few days *not* going with my gut feeling that things were not right and feeling a bit of a plonker for not making the call sooner I'm finally glad I asked you guys and got the right advice because something clearly is/was wrong as you suggested from the off. Thanks a million for the help and concern, sorry I didnt get back earlier but as guessed the power was off until late and then family visit type stuff has kept me away since.

Cheers again everyone,

Regards Ron

[Andy Hall]

Very good outcome.

I think that several of us were starting to have visions of you sitting in your garden with a smouldering pile of house in front of you :-)

[Rob Morley]

Probably an oxidised contact was causing the heat - he'll have cleaned it up, but wants to fit a new one anyway.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:46:58 -0000, Rob Morley strung together this:

I've had that before, dodgy main 3 phase cutout with one phase down which I cleaned up a bit and it sort of worked, but wouldn't have lasted. 9pm on a Saturday it was, so I managed to get an engineer out to site within an hour and had a complete new cutout the next morning, (which was Sunday late morning, when the MEB disconnected the overhead line from the transformer feeding the houses in the area, I sent the customer round to tell everyone to pause the cokking of the roasts!)