Ideas please for remote breaker

[Porker]

My sister lives in the country in Devon and her electricity supply comes to a pole about 400-500yds from the house in a field. On the pole is a single pole breaker and a fuse (60A) in a ceramic holder. From here the live and neutral go back up the pole and then overhead through trees and over a river to her house.

The problem is that in the winter the branches and the wind cause the wires to briefly touch sometimes which knocks out her electric. This means trailing down the field often in the middle of the night with a torch to replace the fuse wire. Obviously not a great solution. She also suffers from people occasionally turning of the supply as the box just has a triangular key.

The REC want £30k to move the supply closer to the house. Part of the expense is that they would have to put a new transformer in for her closer to her property as the voltage drop with the current arrangement would not meet the spec. (although everything to date works OK).

To improve the situation some thoughts I have had is to replace the wired fuse with something that won't be taken out with just a very short spike (a sort of slow blow) or some kind of remote device that can be reset from the house.

It is not practical really to run an armoured cable through or along the ground.

Any ideas would be appreciated?

 

[plugwash]

are you sure her resposibility starts at the fuse and even if it does the fuse itself is probablly rec property.

if the cable from that pole to her house is indeed hers couldn't you replace it with something other than bare wires (e.g. split con) to prevent issues with shorts?

 

[Lectrician]

Where in devon??

Where is the meter to the property??

Overhead lines should be constructed to a standard such that they can never accidently touch!!

 

[Porker]

I am a bit short of the facts at the moment as I live about 200 miles away but the meter is also in the box. From this I would summise that the fuse probably does belong to the REC. Having said that, I know that they have taken up to 4 days to come out before. Given the choice I think I would sort the issue myself as well, which is probably what has happened. Property is in North Devon. That particular pole also belongs to the REC. I was also suprised that the conductors are not insulated. (This is how she bought the house).

Sorry I don't understand the reference to "split con". Is this short for split load consumer unit? How would this help?

What sort of insulated cable would be suitable for running overhead and would the voltage drop be too great anyway over this distance ~500yds?

Apologies for all the questions.

 

[plugwash]

split con is another word for split concentric which is a type of cable, its self supporting over decent distances and not hugely expensive. and replacing the run from the meter box to your house with some nice big split con would probablly solve your problems

but if one end of its got to attatch to a rec pole thats also got permanently live bare wires on it then i wouldn't say its a job suitable for DIY!

who owns the land this pole is on?

 

[Lectrician]

Where in North Devon.......Tis a small place down here

 

[Porker]

To answer both replies (Thanks BTW)

Concentric cable - Ah OK that makes sense and would seem like a good idea.

The pole is on land owned by my sister right next to a river.

The place is just outside Barnstaple near Bratton Flemming. (I grew up in Westward Ho!). Swap it for Basingstoke any day

Anyway looks like the con. cable would be the way to go. What sort of volt drop would you expect over 500yds?

 

[Steve]

ring your DNO, tell them your not happy, explain you want something done about it or you will buy a generator, charge it to them, and charge them for the diesel/petrol it uses during power outages. Also tell them it should have been done right in the first place.

May i suggest the easiest thing to do would be to trim the trees near the cables, if this is knocking them about. You would need to pull the fuse first to avoid killing yourself. They come out near us every year and chop the trees near overhead wires - again, if it is the DNO wires, they should be paying for trimming the trees.

 

[Lectrician]

Just been working in Loxhore, a mile or two from Bratton Flemming.

Barnstaple is my main working area.

What type of fuse is it - you say 're-wire', so I assume a 3036 re-wireable type with fuse wire?

I suspect it is not the service fuse which blows?? Or if it is, it is due to a fault on your cable.

Any chance of a photo of the meter box and service position?? You can post them into this thread. If you are unsure how, ask.

I wonder if the cables in use are a legacy from the WPD? They are now dis-used, but have been adopted? Maybe the wayleave for the poles was lost for some reason, so WPD had to release them?

If it is an old farm, perhaps the supply originally went into an outbuilding, and had the overhead service connecting to other buildings and the house.

 

[Porker]

Lectrician

You must drive right past this place. I gave vague directions but it is as you go through Snapper and is indeed an old farmhouse.

I am going down at Xmas and will take some photos then and pick up this thread thenif this is OK with you. It's very hard to get the info living so far away.

I suspect you are correct on the fuse type. (I am obviously not a spark but was trained as an Electrical Engineer)