There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time.
10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is.Then the lights went out. Silence.
Great :(
Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch...
Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine.
The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps.
I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth?
Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company?