Moving a service cable to accomodate a new Consumer unit
- Thread starter deuce22
- Start date
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Looking at his body of work on this forum my guess is that it needs moving as part of the extension and changes he's making to his house.
The problem is that the project management on that is truly appalling, as in non-existent, and he's asking questions as and when he thinks of things or hits problems.
If "I need" really means "It would be nice to" then he can decide if the nicety is worth the price. But if it really means "I need" then let's hope there's enough in the budget for it, because you're right - it's several £'00 for them to just get out of the van.
The problem is that the project management on that is truly appalling, as in non-existent, and he's asking questions as and when he thinks of things or hits problems.
If "I need" really means "It would be nice to" then he can decide if the nicety is worth the price. But if it really means "I need" then let's hope there's enough in the budget for it, because you're right - it's several £'00 for them to just get out of the van.
Hi.
I've remodelled the internal area of an existing bungalow and the section of wall that it was on also needs to come down.
I need to move the service cable a few feet and fix the consumer to another wall.
If I were to expose the cable myself, would an electrician be able to move it.
Thanks.
I've remodelled the internal area of an existing bungalow and the section of wall that it was on also needs to come down.
I need to move the service cable a few feet and fix the consumer to another wall.
If I were to expose the cable myself, would an electrician be able to move it.
Thanks.
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Absolutely not - the only people who can do it are the supplier. It would be illegal and very dangerous for your electrician to do it. Hopefully you'd not find one who would agree to do it anyway.
I'm afraid you have no choice but to get the DNO to do it, no matter what they charge. For large jobs some of the work is contestable, which means they have to allow you to make your own arrangements for things like digging trenches, and they have to give you a quote broken down to show which elements are contestable and which are not, but it doesn't sound as if in this situation there'll be a lot of that involved.
But you might as well ask the guy who comes out to look at it prior to giving you the quote.
What type of supply do you have? If it's TT see if they'll do you a TN-C-S conversion at the same time. If it's TN-S and you've exported the earth to an outbuilding with extraneous-conductive-parts in it check that they will keep it as TN-S.
I'm afraid you have no choice but to get the DNO to do it, no matter what they charge. For large jobs some of the work is contestable, which means they have to allow you to make your own arrangements for things like digging trenches, and they have to give you a quote broken down to show which elements are contestable and which are not, but it doesn't sound as if in this situation there'll be a lot of that involved.
But you might as well ask the guy who comes out to look at it prior to giving you the quote.
What type of supply do you have? If it's TT see if they'll do you a TN-C-S conversion at the same time. If it's TN-S and you've exported the earth to an outbuilding with extraneous-conductive-parts in it check that they will keep it as TN-S.
H
holmslaw
..
Thanks guy's for the advice.
The reason I asked is that a friend said he new an electrician who would do it for me, but I can remember, when I was working with an electrician a couple of years ago and he said that it is highly dangerous and he could only work on electric from the consumer.
There are obviously a lot of people who will take the risk, but I'm not one of them.
I'm planning on starting another project once I finish my own property and want to get as much info as possible, so I can add all these expenses to the budget.
Just out of curiosity what are the dangers of going through the service cable with a pick or shovel.
Thanks.
The reason I asked is that a friend said he new an electrician who would do it for me, but I can remember, when I was working with an electrician a couple of years ago and he said that it is highly dangerous and he could only work on electric from the consumer.
There are obviously a lot of people who will take the risk, but I'm not one of them.
I'm planning on starting another project once I finish my own property and want to get as much info as possible, so I can add all these expenses to the budget.
Just out of curiosity what are the dangers of going through the service cable with a pick or shovel.
Thanks.
Serious burns, blindness, loss of limbs, death....
Lovely.
I won't be going anywhere near that then.
I can remember an electrician telling me once that because the service cable has not cut off switch if you touch it, it just keeps sending power through you and you can die instantly.
These guy's must be mad to mess about with this for a few hundred quid.
Thanks.
I won't be going anywhere near that then.
I can remember an electrician telling me once that because the service cable has not cut off switch if you touch it, it just keeps sending power through you and you can die instantly.
These guy's must be mad to mess about with this for a few hundred quid.
Thanks.
The service is cable is protected by a fuse like any other cable is (or a breaker)
But because of the rating of the fuse (usually a few hundred amps) it takes a great deal of current to blow one instantaneously. With that amount of current flowing the energy (mainly heat) dissapation is huge.
Think of molten/gaseous copper, steel, lead etc exploding violently at your face, along with UV burns, blindness etc etc. and as you gasp with fear you inhale those gaseous metals.......
Afaict there are fuses to protect the mains cables down the street but usually no fusing down where the (smaller) service cables join the mains cables. Depending on local conditions the fuse protecting the mains cables could be very large indeed.
In a previous life, I got a safety bulletin after someone had put a big nail through a service cable on the outside of a village shop, the arcing didn't stop until the nail and cable had burned away. Apparantly it was quite spectacular.
H
holmslaw
..
A
Alarm
Many years ago a "labourer" was stripping out old cables in the street and hit a DNO service with an axe . A police car was passing at the time and the statement was something like
" A black man was seen to leap out of a hole after a blinding flash screaming "bejesus" ". The black man report being the flash burns sustained.
He died in hospital a few hours later, this was reported on the North Circular Rebuilding Project office noticeboard whilst we were working on the expansion project.
They had added some pictures and it was not very nice.
A friend hit one with his insulated heavy duty breaker, took out half a commercial estate he was working on, the point was melted, he was very lucky. He had not consulted the drawings that were provided and neither the cable tracker.
Cost him a lot of money!!!
" A black man was seen to leap out of a hole after a blinding flash screaming "bejesus" ". The black man report being the flash burns sustained.
He died in hospital a few hours later, this was reported on the North Circular Rebuilding Project office noticeboard whilst we were working on the expansion project.
They had added some pictures and it was not very nice.
A friend hit one with his insulated heavy duty breaker, took out half a commercial estate he was working on, the point was melted, he was very lucky. He had not consulted the drawings that were provided and neither the cable tracker.
Cost him a lot of money!!!
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