is my sparky likely to balk at long meter-to-cu tails?

[cjard]

by side effect of how a single 3 phase supply is delivered to the lobby (pair of semis inside a big building, 1 phase per house and 1 for common areas power), it looks like my meter tails will be between 8 and 15 metres long (8 for me, 15 for my father who has the semi on the other side and for some reason doesnt want his cu above the front door where the tails come into the building but miles away in the study)

now, i don't mind ponying up for chunky tails in relevant colours or SWA etc and ive provisioned space on the meter board for a circuit breaker to protect the tails against errant drills, but am i going to find most sparkys pulling a face at such long tails or are they a relatively common occurrence? i used to live in abarn converted to flats in the 90s, and that had meters in the hall and cu in each flat so it must happen..

 

[westie101]

The DNO will certainly NOT like it as they generally have a 3m maximum length requirement

 

[cjard]

The DNO will certainly NOT like it as they generally have a 3m maximum length requirement

I was under the impression that the 3m rule is not an inviolable limit, it's just the limit the DNO permit before you may not rely on their service head fuses to protect the leg of the circuit to the CU, hence the need for an additional circuit breaking device on the meter board. heck, the DNO even said that a device for that purpose is the only item of customer equipment permitted to be installed on the board

 

[westie101]

Sorry I must have misread your post, yes if there is a customer's protective device near the meter The DNO will be happy.
I read it as that was an option not your plan

 

[cjard]

So the sparky (as in my sparky, not the DNO's) will be happy to fit things up in this way for me?

 

[JohnW2]

So the sparky (as in my sparky, not the DNO's) will be happy to fit things up in this way for me?

You'd hav to ask him/her that - but I see no reason why they would not be happy, provided they were happy with the nature and protection of the cables from switch-fuses to CUs (they might want/prefer SWA).

Do you know what sort of earthing system you have? Is it a DNO-supplied earth (TN-S or TN-C-S/'PME') or a local 'earth rod' (TT)?

Kind Regards, John

 

[cjard]

Not sure what the earthing arrangements are in my current location. There is an existing 3 phase cable running across the site that they are tapping into and I don't believe that one has an earth rod. It used to be a commercial building if that helps, but if there's something I could take a picture of to help answer then let me know