Power to Portacabin

[retsilaear]

I am a volunteer for a community group. We acquired a portakabin. It has a 3 pin weather plug (round pin) just above the front door and we have a solar battery which has a 3 round-pin outlet. They are both 240V. If I get a Commando lead and connect one to tother, will I kill anybody? There is a consumer board in the cabin. It has lights, sockets and convector heaters.

 

[ericmark]

Technically you will need an earth somewhere, but as long as not a TN-C-S supply, you can plug it in.

 

[Murdochcat]

Does the community group not have a nominated spark?

 

[retsilaear]

We don't have a sparkie and getting one is a bit of a mare. They are building housing developments all over the city and its environs, so guess what every tradesman is busy with for the foreseeable future. The whole TN-C-S chat is beyond me I'm afraid.

 

[ericmark]

There are two types of supply, TT (needs an earth rod) and TN earth given by supplier, and the TN is split into TN-S a separate earth wire, and TN-C-S the earth and neutral are combined. With TN-C-S also called PME if the neutral and earth is lost, one can see dangerous voltages between true earth and suppliers earth, but since with a brick built house you can't touch both at same time, not really a problem.

But with a metal building, you could be standing in true earth outside, and also touch the DNO (suppliers) earth at the same time, so the in the UK the ESQCR (Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations) prohibit the use of a TN-C-S system for the supply to a caravan or building of similar construction.

In the main that means you need to use earth rods.

 

[EFLImpudence]

... and don't forget your public liability insurance.

 

[Ragnar_AT]

OP writes about a solar battery, which suggests an off-grid inverter to me. It might not have anything connected to the earth terminal (IT supply) or it could create its own TN-S system (Victron inverters do).

 

[ericmark]

@Ragnar_AT makes a good point. I had not considered a non grid connection.

 

[morqthana]

I am a volunteer for a community group.

Which presumably has quite a few members with different backgrounds?

We don't have a sparkie and getting one is a bit of a mare. They are building housing developments all over the city and its environs, so guess what every tradesman is busy with for the foreseeable future.

Ask around. Those busy tradesmen may very well only be busy 8-5, 5- or 6-days a week.

And even the cohort of electricians might contain people with a civic-minded/charitable/philanthropic nature. There might be someone in the group who knows someone who could help out for a few hours one evening, or weekend.