Farm electrics

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On site carrying out some other work when the farmer says if you get a minute can you have a look at the socket in the grain store. It’s stopped working. I said yep no problem at all.

Here’s what I found:
B6DA6A13-BD35-4484-A432-ADE074F7C0F1.jpeg

2.5mm² cable from the socket. Joined in connectors to a 1.0mm² cable

CAE1E6F1-ACCB-41A5-903D-4F8BE615A951.jpeg


I followed this cable which was covered in cobwebs and dust from grinding grain into animal feed.

It arrived at the mains board
9F1691C0-677A-46A7-9AD5-92385705E454.jpeg


It was fed from this fuse
30AEBE0B-2163-4AF8-A1CB-2A468579B7FE.jpeg


30A fuse cartridge with this wire in it
659C7C63-D3B2-4EED-A61A-F6214A72C76F.jpeg


Not sure exactly what size it is but at least 60A

The fuse had not blown. The cable, failed joint and strip connectors were all still live.

Farmer still doesn’t want his fuse board replacing.
 
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Yeah, so... what are ya saying?

Fairly typical farm mentality.:whistle:
 
IIRC 60A fusewire is 16SWG which is about 1.6mm dia or 1.9mm².

Hmm let me see which will fail first 1mm² or 1.9mm²?

There's only one way to find out... over to Harry Hill.


Figures from memory apologies if wrong.
 
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My fag packets still have silver paper in them. I’ll have to experiment with how conductive it actually is :LOL:
 
My fag packets still have silver paper in them. I’ll have to experiment with how conductive it actually is :LOL:
Someone suggested we tried to use the stuff as fuses for stage flashpans. Nah we couldn't cut it narrow enough without it breaking.
 
That is truly horrendous!

Is there an explosion risk in the grain store?
 
That is truly horrendous!

Is there an explosion risk in the grain store?

They say they don’t mill in there any more, but if the mill was running then definitely risk of explosion.

All the dust you can see in the pictures is grain dust.
 
Got me thinking about when I was doing the C&G installation course in the eighties.
We talked about reduced touch voltages for animals.

You can imagine the scene round the meeting table of the regs writers of decades past...

"Hmmmm...quadrupeds, you say?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Twice the number of legs, better halve the voltage, what do you say?"
"Righto, Mr Fotherington-Smythe."
 
All the dust you can see in the pictures is grain dust.
I started as a part time apprentice and worked in a dairy too. I used to be on SMP and the place was covered in it. Thick coating all over everything.
IP gear everywhere.
 
Got me thinking about when I was doing the C&G installation course in the eighties.
We talked about reduced touch voltages for animals.

That’s still a big part of the design of these sorts of installations.

We wired the milking parlour at this farm about 10 years ago. The suppliers earth was deliberately not connected to the parlour installation. Instead we used a TT system and created a very well covered equipotential zone which includes earthed steelwork buried in the concrete floor, bonding of all metalwork, and several well spaced electrodes. This has given us a Zdb of 2.04Ω

If the cows can feel any sort of voltage differential they become reluctant to give milk, and obviously in fault conditions it can be extremely dangerous to the animals.

Whilst working there today, we noticed that the farm have had a new bulk storage tank and associated chillers installed by specialist dairy company. They have taken two 32A triple pole type C supplies and one 16A single pole type C supply from the TT’d parlour installation to supply their equipment without any RCD protection at all.
 
My first reaction is FFS & is the installation adequate for such a load to be added?

Then I think of the plant I'm accustomed to and massive supplies to chillers and associated plant on roofs and ground level compounds is common and never RCD protected. If livestock cannot gain access to the new plant I see no difference. However I'd have expected to see some sort of control panel taking a single supply and not multiple supplies to complicate isolation.

Personally I's still liked to see RCD.
 
Yeah, so... what are ya saying?

Fairly typical farm mentality.:whistle:
Exactly.

Bloody farmers.

They all let their barns and outbuildings fall into disrepair. They've all their roofs caving in, and all the exterior paintwork blistering off.

They don't respect buildings.
 

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