Overhead supply

[DeltaT]

When visiting a elderly customer today regarding an unrelated matter, she asked me about her leaking chimney. Having a look at it, the chimney flashings needs replaced. Which is straight forward enough. Problem is; an overhead supply!! Three wires fixed to her small chimney, which need to be removed, now I know we should contact the supplier(DNO?) and perhaps get her supply put underground. Does anyone have a rough indication of costs involved?

Lastly out of pure interest; am I being just a daft Plumber in thinking these 3 wires are single phase L,N & E & can you post up a link detailing mains electric supplies to homes. Thanks.
Tricky Dicky

 

[holmslaw]

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[DeltaT]

The only people that can deal with this are the local DNO, try it yourself and you could end up dead.

Your local DNO can be found on the national grid website.

What kind of moron do you think I am???.........
Of course we would get the DNO to do it!! That's why I asked about a budget cost for our elderly customer. We are a bona fide Plumbing firm, not some DaftyDIY'er or cowboy!!

I was simply looking for some information regarding electrical supplies to older homes, purely out of interest.

Has anyone else got an informative reply please?

 

[holmslaw]

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[DeltaT]

Has anyone else got an informative reply please?

I also said the above, cause you're clearly as thick two short planks!!

 

[holmslaw]

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[viewer]

This may (or may not) help. Last year Scottish Power charged a neighbour £650 to move the cable to underground. Needed so that the roof could be replaced. The pole was 3 metres from the house and all ducting etc was carried out by the householder. Not cheap and not a good service either - they found a high Ze and went away leaving the poor guy with no electricity and no understanding of why. We had to make it TT and call for replacement of fuse at night, 12 hours after they arrived. To be fair to power companies/contractors, we've just had new lines put up due to height problems and the company (Freedom) were excellent; friendly, helpful and quick.

 

[flameport]

The only way to get a price for this type of work is to ask the DNO.

It will be several hundred pounds at least, but could easily be a lot more, depending on the amount of work required.

3 wires could be L/N/E although there are other possibilities.

 

[Taylortwocities]

If that is an overhead supply then you are not likely to find an E up there!

Maybe two phases and a neutral one. You are likely to have a potential of 400V plus up there.

 

[DeltaT]

Seriously, is it likely to be a two phase supply to a small home? I can understand why there's not an earth, but why a two phase supply....

I thought most supplies to small UK dwellings were 80 or 100amp single phase??

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. I'm sure for anyone that has dealings with elderly customers you will understand how important it is to keep them informed & reassured. It never fails to amaze me how poorly treated our elderly are treated by all the Utility companies in this country!!

 

[Adam_151]

Sometimes in rural areas split phase is provided, depending on how you look at it, its either 1 phase central tapped (460v between lines, 230v to neutral), or two phases 180 degrees apart.... often used where are storeage heaters, with the heaters on one side and the normal domestic stuff on the other side

 

[Taylortwocities]

Do those cables go to the house and stop there, or do they go on to other properties?

Maybe one phase for this house and another serving other properties.

Would need to look at the situation & local transformers to say for sure. But that part of the discussion is academic.

230V or 400V. Junglebunny Holmslaw has already told you what you must do.

 

[flameport]

Three wires fixed to her small chimney, which need to be removed

Does it actually need to be removed though?

If the chimney is sound, perhaps having the supply disconnected temporarily while the repair works are done could be an option?

 

[OwainDIYer]

I've seen overhead wires insulated with something looking like pipe insulation whilst roof works in progress. Presumably this was done by the DNO!

 

[SteNova]

I've seen overhead wires insulated with something looking like pipe insulation whilst roof works in progress. Presumably this was done by the DNO!

yes, had that done while house was being painted, yellow pipe and some zipties

as for no E on overhead we deffo do on ours, the wire is just painted bare metal as it comes down from the overhead to the earthblock on the supply board