How many amps...?

[Andy Burns]

I thought the supply into a meter was always on the left?

[R D S]

I'm sure if was a problem it would have been flagged up by now but yes, they do look very poxy don't they?

Makes you wonder if half of the copper on the other side of the meter is a waste of money!

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Jack Harry Teesdale has brought this to us :

4mm or maybe 6mm at a guess. I wonder if they are single or double sheathed? I have never seen black double sheathed.

[R D S]

From arguments I've had with commercial landlords over the years i've learned that if something is potentially inadequate but historical, it can be left.

[Dave Liquorice]

It does look odd and a bit skinny. And I bet they would get quite warm if there are highish sustained loads like night storage heating. The 16 mm^2 tails here get warm with only 10 kW of loading. Those black wires look nearer 10 mm^2.

IIRC the DNO is resposible up to the main cutout's output terminals and the MET. The supplier does cutout to meter and the meter. The customer down stream from the meter output terminals and to the MET as required. Trying to get the supplier to pay any attention might be fun and if they can be persuaded to do anything they'll probably sub it out to the DNO...

[ARW]

Meter are wired left to right Lin Nin Nout Lout

Nout actually serves no purpose and the neutral to the CU could be direct from the cut out if desired. The neutral is only there to allow the meter to work.

[ARW]

Probably MICC cable. Note the red sleeving on one of the cores.

6mm should do 60A.

[ARW]

Or not.

The cable on the load side might have a different maximum operating temperature to the incoming cable. The bigger the cable the lower the temperature.

[ARW]

That suggests after a closer look that there are 2 CUs and somebody only had red tails on their van,

The two tails on the left are in the neutral bar in the MK block

[ARW]

Well it is upside down and probably an EICR fail.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

ARW submitted this idea :

MICC installed by the DNO - I have never seen that.

[John Rumm]

And MICC is often rated at 90 deg operating. (not sure what the meter is rated for though).

At a guess the PVC tails look to be at least 16mm^2 which would make those at least 9mm diameter. Since there are two MICC cables,that suggests a 1H? configuration (i.e. single core with mineral insulation and copper clad sheath). Something like 1H6 (6mm^2 conductor) is only about 6.5mm overall diameter, and that is good for ~50A

[John Armstrong]

I've read through this thread with interest. Until two years ago I lived in a tenement flat in Dundee, built c 1890. Obviously gas-lit originally, the electric supply was installed by "the Dundee Electric Co." The single incoming cable was original, about 1.5" diameter. This went to a locked box on the first floor, and power was distributed to the communal lighting and the eight flats in the block I sometimes wondered about the load going through that cable on a cold winter's night, but there was never any trouble in the 20 years I was there.

[John Rumm]

Input is on the left of most meters...

[Andrew]

Do neutral tails actually need to be the same rating as the live one anyway ?. Often wondered because the overhead supply to older properties frequently seem to have two uninsulated copper cables where one is noticibly thicker than the other.

[Roger Hayter]

Best not if there is an isolation switch between the cutout and the meter. Just in case anyone followed your suggestion literally.

[John Rumm]

Within a single phase installation, then yes generally (unless upstream fusing is adequate to protect the thinner conductor, and the other is just over provisioned)

I would guess that in cases where the overhead supply is three phase and neutral, and they have spread the loads (i.e. properties) reasonably evenly between the phases, they would expect the total neutral current to be noticeably lower than that of the phases. (in an ideal world it would be zero)

[ARW]

Trust me, that is the last place an electric co will place an isolation switch.

[ARW]

We are talking about a different country:-)