Looped supply - power went off when DNO changed the meter next door.

[martygturner]

DNO changed out the meter at my neighbours house, pulled main cut out and bing off went our power for 10 seconds. I was under the impression that the DNO fuse came after the loop join ie on the load side to the meter but seems not. Our meter went dark and stayed off for the hour or so he took to install the new meter.

Our inverter and house carried on chugging after a brief burst of relay activity, however the smart meter went off. So all I can assume is that the live was cut by the fuse pull and the inverter carried on seeing the neutral as connected and just acted like there was no grid import. We tested that at the time by isolating the grid supply and the inverter went off, with the grid connected but no live the inverter was happy enough to power the house.

So in this instance the bit of cable between our houses was still live with power from the inverter back feeding it.

So the question really is that safe, I would assume that the dno treats all incoming cables from the grid as live, however on a looped supply would the expect the loop to go dead after the feed cutout was removed ?

DNO meter chap seemed pretty oh well so what apart from not knowing there was a looped supply seems the map was not right.

 

[ericmark]

So the question really is that safe

No, but as to the rest, not sure, maybe the supply was being unlooped? But your inverter should have shut down if not supply, if there was no supply, how long does it take a smart meter to re-boot, I don't know.

 

[Murdochcat]

May be ask your neighbour if you can look at their service head, seems odd that pulling their fuse would affect your home