Having DNO move incoming supply

[williamglossop]

My consumer unit is in my garage and the incomer comes out if the floor directly below it, into the cut out. I would like to have the cable moved about 1.5 meters further along the wall to allow room for a new doorway. Would the DNO insist on digging up the concrete to move the cable under the floor, or is there a way that they can put two 90 degree bends in the cable and move it

 

[jacko555]

In my limited experience (checking once with my dno) they wanted to lay a new supply from the road, rather than touch the existing.

 

[williamglossop]

Yeah, I suspect that might be the case.... in which case I cant do it. I know my current supply is fed from the house next door and is only buried about 8 inches under the lawn. Found this out to my detriment two weeks ago when digging a trench for a new water pipe and clipped the cable just under the soil. DNO came out n repaired it FOC.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I don't follow how doing what you suggest would alter where you can have a door.

You can move the CU regardless - and all its outgoing cables.

 

[williamglossop]

The new doorway will go into the garage where the consumer unit and incomer is, but its 3 courses above the garage floor when viewed from the garage side..... id have 225mm of space between the lower door threshold and garage floor.

 

[Adam_151]

Yeah, I suspect that might be the case.... in which case I cant do it. I know my current supply is fed from the house next door and is only buried about 8 inches under the lawn. Found this out to my detriment two weeks ago when digging a trench for a new water pipe and clipped the cable just under the soil. DNO came out n repaired it FOC.

Of course, if you were having an electric car charge point installed, the guidence is to avoid putting them on looped supplies, and the DNO is required to adjust the supplies accordingly when notified that this situation exists....

 

[williamglossop]

As it happens... I am planning on a plug in hybrid car as my car was written off 2 weeks ago by someone who decided to use my boot as a parking spot. I hadn't even got as far as looking at a car charger..... but that might kill two birds with 1 stone. I wonder if they would shift it down the walla little bit at the same time.

 

[jelliottelectrical]

Who is your DNO? Some are quite helpful, however quite often they would want to relocate to an external box rather than internally. I have sometimes had them done free of charge, when I have supplied a meter box, there’s always a way

 

[williamglossop]

.

 

[williamglossop]

What depth underground does the cable need to be

 

[jelliottelectrical]

Run a submain from the meter box to the consumer unit. That way you can put the consumer unit where you want/where it suits to alter the existing cables to

Cable should be between 450 and 600 deep, depending on what your DNO specifies, unless it’s agricultural land then it needs to be 1 metre deep. My advice would be try to find out where the existing cable comes into the property and fit your new meter box as near to there as possible. Your DNO can then cut the existing cable and extend it into the meter box. If you keep it nearer to the existing cable then this should keep the cost down.

 

[williamglossop]

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[jelliottelectrical]

I would think (from experience) shortening the cable would be no problem, however they may use the opportunity to remove the looped supply (they would normally do that part at their expense), I would mention it to them when you discuss the service alteration, they might not like having to do the job twice!

They may insist that the cable is upgraded if you want it moved further away which is a whole other ball game, it would have to meet current regs and rules have changed regarding volt drop where heat pumps and EV chargers are concerned. A recent job I did, DNO installed new supply to house, they ran 300mm2 wavecon from the pole across the road, all the way up the drive, to the base of the meter box and then jointed it to a 35mm? Wavecon and up into the cutout. It was only an 80 amp 3 phase supply, only a few years ago they would have run the 35mm all the way back to the pole!

 

[williamglossop]

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[williamglossop]

I would think (from experience) shortening the cable would be no problem, however they may use the opportunity to remove the looped supply (they would normally do that part at their expense), I would mention it to them when you discuss the service alteration, they might not like having to do the job twice!

They may insist that the cable is upgraded if you want it moved further away which is a whole other ball game, it would have to meet current regs and rules have changed regarding volt drop where heat pumps and EV chargers are concerned. A recent job I did, DNO installed new supply to house, they ran 300mm2 wavecon from the pole across the road, all the way up the drive, to the base of the meter box and then jointed it to a 35mm? Wavecon and up into the cutout. It was only an 80 amp 3 phase supply, only a few years ago they would have run the 35mm all the way back to the pole!

Crazy that..... ill sound em out for a price on just shortening the cable to that new position. If its still a silly price..... ill see about having the loop removed and run a new cable to an outside meter box. Whichever is most economical really...... either way, ill have 25mm armoured ran from a fused switch after the meter over to the new CU location. The alternative is having the doorway to the right of the existing CU location which is under the external corner of the house- i suspect by the time I've had an SE design a solution and paid for and installed the steal work..... it'll be more economical to move the cut out and knock through with 2 PCC lintels well away from the corner, ie where the CU currently is.