The christmas fair

[deano34]

I work at a church in Bermondsey and we have just had our annual christmas fair. All was going well until our electrics failed on our outside setup which included a hotdog stall.

We set up 4 waffle irons, one coffee boiler and another one for keeping the hot dogs warm and a couple of clip on spotlights. I had set these up by daisy chaining 3 extension reels with 4 plugs points on each.

It all was too much and alot of fuses blew........next year I was wondering if a generator would be a better idea. I don't know anything about these, could someone advise me on something I could buy which would be easy to set up and would not put any strain on the power supply in the church?

Many Thanks

 

[RF Lighting]

Im going to have to take a stab in the dark for loading of your appliances but here goes:

waffle irons 1.5kW each
coffee boiler 3kW
hot dog warmer 2kW

total 11kW

11000 ÷ 230 = 47.8A

This is why the fuse in your 13A extension blew.

You would be far better off getting a proper heavy duty socket installed with a heavy duty extension, then get a small distribution unit for outside.

If you hire / buy a gen set you will still need the extension and distribution unit.

Plus you'd need a pretty big gen set to power all that stuff




I see from your duplicate post there is more besides.

I expect the mods will sort it.

 

[ricicle]

Brilliant RF

 

[plugwash]

using a generator for something this size will be pointless and expensive.

i can't imagine with that level of loading that your buildings incoming supply will be a problem but you do need to work out how your building is wired to decide how best to proceed. You don't wan't to be putting any more than 3KW on one socket or any more than 7KW on one ring.

if the existing circuits can't support what you plan to do then you'll wan't to get some installed specifically from the main CU/DB.

 

[deano34]

'You would be far better off getting a proper heavy duty socket installed with a heavy duty extension, then get a small distribution unit for outside'

ok thanks.......but could you tell me what a distribution unit is?

We already have a grey external double socket fitted to the outside wall of the church, is this what you mean by a heavy duty socket?[/i]

 

[RF Lighting]

No. That socket should nt be loaded much over 16A, whis is far too little for your current requirements.

Providing my guesses for loads are somewhere in the right region, you need to have a 63A socket installed, then run a 63A extension to the distobutin unit.

The distro is a unit which will split the large supply into lots of smaller supplies for you to plug your appliances into.

A bit like this

 

[breezer]

although you have the best of intensions i would suggest you get several quotes to install a suplly that is suitable, since there is also the insurance aspect too

 

[deano34]

my gawd, what a monster........i want one! Now all i have to do is convince the priest that we need one.

Many thanks for all your help

 

[breezer]

yes, thats as may be, but where are you going to plug it in? answer, you cant

 

[Steve]

Yes, you will need an appropriate socket to plug that distro in.

 

[breezer]

and then he will plug in an extension lead , which is plugged into an extension lead

 

[plugwash]

really i think something like that box is pointless,

i'd think it would be simpler to get a number of outdoor sockets installed on seperate cuircuits and get each stall that needed power to plug into them.

 

[Steve]

i'd think it would be simpler to get a number of outdoor sockets installed on seperate cuircuits and get each stall that needed power to plug into them.

Yeah, well i did say that, on the OP's duplicate post, before i realised he'd made 2 posts

 

[securespark]

Im going to have to take a stab in the dark.

Funnily enough, that's what the hot dog seller said when the power went off...

 

[RF Lighting]

really i think something like that box is pointless,

i'd think it would be simpler to get a number of outdoor sockets installed on seperate cuircuits and get each stall that needed power to plug into them.

I suppose it depends how close to the actual building the stall(s) is.

I have provided temporary power for a few different village fayres & fundays etc, and these tend to be in the middle of a field no where near the building.