Meter tail question

Any distance you like. If it's more than 3m, then they will usually require a switchfuse next to the meter (the exact limit depends on the local supply network policy and staff).

If that floor of the house currently conforms to Part M of the building regs on height of electrical accessories, then yes, it should be accessible.)

Oh do tell ...

Anyway, if you leave a nice switchfuse ready for the meter-mover, eg

(You should also leave appropriate main equipotential bonding to the main earth terminal and a flying earth lead available if the earthing is supplied by the supplier.)

You can then extend from the switchfuse to the consumer unit after he's gone with any ropey old bit of flex you can find :-)

Owain

Weeeell, this was this manky old bit of small bore copper pipe behind a door frame and leading up to where it looked like there has been an old gas light fitting on the other side of the wall. Couldn't decide whether it was an odd water pipe size or a redundant gas pipe. We didn't really want the pipe there as a new shower enclosure is planned for that area. The obvious way to find out seemed to be to drill a hole and see what dribbled out (after turning off water and gas).

Turned out to be full of sparks. ;-)

Electricity board came out and as we'd blown a fuse somewhere that had cut off the upstairs flats and the terraced neighbour, they had to find the single incomer for all the flats (which took them *ages).

Turned out that like the bypass plans in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, it was very helpfully hidden in a back bedroom, behind a false wall, behind a radiator.

Anyhow, long story short, as the set-up is archaic they are going to upgrade the incomers to all the properties gratis.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

As a follow up question, at present a bundle of wires converge on the present consumer unit (small house, just 6 fuses). If the consumer unit was moved would the sparky just extend all the present wires with joins/connectors or is it more complicated than that?

Tim

Tim

Bet that gave you a surprise, if you were thinking it was gas...

Anybody'd think you knew that and did it deliberately...

Sounds like a nice piece of pyro.

DIN rail terminals in an enclosure have been used in the past

but then you have to extend 6x circuit cables to the new CU location, so running extended tails may be easier. At least temporarily. See observations made in thread

Owain

I suppose that's what they call Pyro technics.

Ask the DNO (the supply operator, not the company you pay necessarily) - EDF (now UKPower) stipulated 3m max on the tails between meter and CU. I've heard of 5m in one case.

If you exceed the max, the usual solution is to add a switch-fuse nearer the meter, then you can do what you like, subject to routing a cable that has no RCD protection.

Part M is not retrospective generally so for a refurb you can stick it where you like. I had to put mine over a doorway as there was no other sensible location that would not have been a complete pain.

And there's a side case I may have overlooked.

But a part M compliant floor will be obvious in that the sockets will be unusually high off the floor.

Ah - so you had a feed in MICC. I've seen that done once.

Bet you are Mr Popular!

No - that's about the sum of it.

Assuming he does not find any show stopping problems - he will test each circuit before reconnecting it.

Fortunately it doesn't. ;-)

Tim

Yikes! I guess you & the building are OK, though. Was it some kind of large mineral-insulated cable? (That's the only kind I can think of off-hand that looks like copper pipe.)

Wouldn't have to be that large - if the original supply was 40 amp then 0.007 inch^2 is tabled at 45A; modern equivalent 4mm2 is only 7 mm external diameter.

Owain

Yep. Just monumental stupidity on my part. Just because I've never seen visible armoured cable in any house I've lived in isn't a good reason to assume that all copper pipe is just "pipe". ;-)

Tim

Well in a building I was in a while ago, the meters for the flats were in a utility cupboard outside the flats, above the top shelf with a kickstep thing in the bottom so the reader can see it.

I'd imagine after reading a few of these and going up and down the steps the reader would need knee replacement surgery!

Brian

I've never (well, AFAIK, anyway) seen armored cable that looked like copper pipe (other than the MI that looks like microbore CH pipe).

Ages ago in Shepherds' Bush, London, a pal split a large house into three self contained flats. Each had its own meter, etc. The leccy board insisted the feed from the riser in the cellar to each meter was run in Pyro. SWA would have been easier as Pyro work hardens as it is bent.

Seems at that time different leccy boards made the regs to suit themselves.

The sort of MI you'd use as a main feed isn't like microbore CH pipe. ;-)

They did, my brother in law, in the midlands area, was reqwring his house and garage which then had to be checked. "You haven't got a lock on the garage, so it's a supply in a public place - we can't connect you." "But we'll wait while you go and buy a padlock."

Yeah - I think someone is confusing terms...

I *have* seen MICC used as an extension to the incomer *before* the meter (well, 2nd meter) in a house. And it was quite chunky and as you say, could be confused with a bit of microbore.