An example of a loop-in supply (daisy-chain):
What do you make of this? :-
In article , Dave Osborne writes
extend some of the cables with junction boxes.
The same standard of workmanship hasn't been applied to the supply. It could, and should, have been done more neatly.
Looks to me that whoever did the supply side took out the RCBO (the grey box with the green button from the original install) thus compromising safety. Presumably this is a TT system. Looks to me like the meter tails would have originally gone to the RCBO.
Not sure what to make of the neutral/earth connection with the amateurish earth wire running to the CU. Looks like an attempt to convert from TT to TNCS, maybe?
The earth wires running from the CU, presumably for equipotential bonding, look undersized.
The chopped off cables on the right side should be checked out.
I certainly would be concerned about that one if I was working on it. It looks like a DIY attempt to turn a TT supply into a PME supply.
What does the sticker say that the Neutral cable is covering?
Actually, I think they made the schoolboy error of pulling cables in 6 inches too short. Oops.
Very good analysis, except that ITYM RCCB not RCBO.
It's the original supply point for a farmhouse on the edge of a village. The supply used to come in (and loop out) overhead and was TT. The 6mm earth wire (bottom left) went to a rod outside.
The supply to the village was too small, so SWEB installed new pylons coming in from a different direction and built a rustic sub-station on the village green.
The pylons stopped outside the village and SWEB got a wayleave to install an u/g cable across the farm.
While the trench was in for the MV cable to the substation, they brought a PME distribution cable back.
The farmhouse was huge and the owners had partitioned it off into the farmhouse and a holiday let. When SWEB came in to sort the main supply, they had a separate supply put in for the holiday let.
At some point, there was an earth fault on some wiring, so (rather than finding and fixing the fault) the whole-house RCCB was looped-out using the "floating" Henley blocks.
Main equipotential bonding (top earth wire) was undersized and went to the water main. The owners didn't actually know where the water stop tap was. The gas wasn't bonded.
So the cut-off cables at the right hand side of the pic are the old incomers and loop-out for the TT supply and old cables going off to the holiday let side of the property.
The thing that got me was the complete abortion the SWEB guy made of the changeover to PME. At any rate he was too fscking lazy to bring the PME cable into the building and put a new cutout in. The PME cable interfaces to the ends of the overhead supply in a box outside.
Anyway, this was the "after" picture.
Dunno. Can't have been important, though, because it didn't survive replacement of the CU.
Thanks for sharing that. And it has my pet hate! - the warning stickers on the front of the CU instead of behind the pull down flap.
That is great if so, it might depend on the DNO? I thought DNO use concentric (neutral breaks last), split concentric (neutral around live), or waveform concentric (3ph). Would be great if they spring for the cost of armoured is that bit safer.
SP & Eon refused to use armoured for a shallow run even if I offered to pay extra - but they could have installed it and did not want anyone to know cable specifics? They had a *lot* of problems with "grass growers" tapping in before the meter in that area (Frodsham, once quite a nice place).
I recently found some 1988 "scribbles" from SP. Prior to 1970 there were no depth regulations applicable to supply cables, so PILC could be just below the surface and is routinely damaged by people changing paving. In some cases it is the downstream supply that gets damaged (loses neutral some time later) so the person doing the paving is unaware of any consequences.
Could be worse, there are still those who think they have to go over at least one screw head.
Where do you put them with a clear flap?
Incidentally you can buy adhesive heatshrink cable end caps - good for making safe the end of a cable. However since the cables have been cut back so severely it makes their fitment more complicated :-)
I also see a lot of installations where electricains have fitted the clamps.
:-)
It seems to be 35mm single cored armoured on all the new intalls I have seen. Now as a child I remember the next door neighbour putting his spade though his supply cable. It took the stupid bastard 5 or 6 attempts to get through it!
That is great...
... although if someone nicks the outer sheath the zinc eventually gives up letting the steel armour rot... so the house eventually loses its neutral/earth... lead does not rot... how does aluminium armour rust in comparison?
Now a Gas Safe registered installer... :-)
Isolator fitted. Main fuse pulled with no problems - it wasn't even terribly stiff.
I thought I'd share a photo of some of the existing cabling. To be fair, this one wasn't even connected because when we moved in I couldn't figure out what it did - so disconnected it to be on the safe side. However, it provides a good example of what condition old cables may actually be in.
In article , Dave Osborne writes
Ta.
Lovely.
eep. How long is the run of ancient crap from the new PME cable to the meter? A few feet?
I suppose this was done while the previous owners had the property, so there'd be no chance of you jumping up and down and insisting SWEB did the job properly?
Decommissioned immersion? Looked inside the airing cupboard?
Nice one
popped BTW.
Dunno.
No, just that the owner didn't know any better or didn't care.
Dunno. I didn't actually work on the house. I got the story from a mate. The property belongs to his parents.
Nice burn marks on that asbestos, you mean? ;-)
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