Today we had a generator instead of the grid serving us

[Sureitsoff?]

As title, UK power networks were doing some pole replacements locally so our little bit of Norfolk was fed by this "little" genny" and the 150mm csa cables were plugged into the links/fuse holders at the top of one of the poles . Nice arrangement of earth rods with what looked to be 10mm cable connected to the genny!
Perhaps someone on here might like to enlighten me and others about exactly how the temp set up is "set up"

 

[ericmark]

Interesting did the power go off to change over?

I have worked on so many sites where we used generators, and had no grid connection. I have worried about power failures, I lived through The Winter of Discontent and out heating was switched off, we managed to get a gas fire without a flue, which due to no flue was very small, but we vowed never again would we ever rely on electric for heating.

Next house had flue bricks and gas fire, this house open hearth, plus now solar panels and a battery so only the central heating and freezers will work, but at least we will have some power if the grid fails. Still loose our lights etc. But at least we will keep warm and food will not ruin.

I remember the papers reporting down your way that Sizewell 'B' was exporting to the grid, what it did not say was there was no nuclear reactor running it was the 12 back up diesels producing power, think from memory 1.5 MW each, main turbines were 750 MW each, there were two.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Yes the power went off for about 5 minutes in the morning and about 5 minutes in the afternoon both at the time we had been prewarned about. so well done to UK PN. I took a drive round to see what they were actually doing and I saw at least one pole in the process of being replaced. it was about 100m into a field. a muddy field! thanks to last nights heavy rain. Nearby the overhead cables were joined together with Large " jump leads" and were tied down to another earth rod array.

 

[Jackrae]

Is it just me or do others agree that "up-the-pole" cable installations of the 21st century are really untidy compared to that of my younger years (1960s onwards)

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Those earth rods don't seem to have been put in very deep into the ground?

 

[jelliottelectrical]

This is a link point, the fuse carriers are where two circuits meet, fuses can be inserted or links to ‘back feed’ one circuit and the fuses removed at the transformer end

Obviously in this case the two transformers serving each circuit were affected by the outage so they had to use a generator. They’ve possibly connected it here so they could get it all set up, then drop the fuses at the transformer, and then switch the generator on with minimal downtime. They don’t tend to synchronise grid and generators

Normally on the ones I’ve seen, the earth rod is usually just pushed or hammered into the grass verge, it’s only a reference point for the centre point of the generator, obviously on the overhead line there will be other earth connections as part of the network. They should test to confirm phase rotation and earth loop impedance as well as polarity, but quite often they just connect and switch on, which can have issues. It’s not uncommon on older networks to have odd phase sequences

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

They don’t tend to synchronise grid and generators

The synchronisation used to be done with either lamps, or meter between the two supplies..

 

[jelliottelectrical]

The synchronisation used to be done with either lamps, or meter between the two supplies..

No what I meant was they switch off the mains before switching on the generator so a short interruption. Rather than synchronising the generator and the mains and then switching off the mains, so no interruptions

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Is it just me or do others agree that "up-the-pole" cable installations of the 21st century are really untidy compared to that of my younger years (1960s onwards)

dont know what you mean.... this is the elec and bt pole in my front garden

 

[Jackrae]

dont know what you mean.... this is the elec and bt pole in my front gardenView attachment 314776

I think that illustrates my point rather well

 

[robinbanks]

Still loose our lights etc

The battery will run a fridge but not an LED bulb?

 

[ericmark]

The battery will run a fridge but not an LED bulb?

The inverter can produce around 3.5 kW and the house can use well over that figure, so one can't have the whole consumer unit connected to the UPS supply, the items connected need to never even without a power cut exceed the 3.5 kW total. So the essential items only have been connected, central heating, and freezers.

There is a spare socket upstairs and nothing stopping me from plugging in a standard lamp, however we also have rechargeable torches which auto turn on with a power cut, and to remove lights from main consumer unit and fit on the UPS means we would have items like an 8 bulb chandelier just for living room lights which is some 48 watt just for the living room.

Power cuts are not that common, and the main problem is one loss of food due to freezers failing and loss of heat due to central heating failing, we could light the open fire, but we have it loosely boarded up so in the summer the portable AC exhausts into the chimney so it would not be easy to quickly remove it and light a fire in the grate, and we don't have that much wood to burn.

So while we have power the battery can supply whole of the house, and by midnight it is normally turning off as down to 5% so at the moment the solar starts around 8 am which is only at the moment 22 watt, by 10 am we are getting a descent amount, and by midday we can be getting 5 kW, if we have a power cut we would want to reserve that for essentials, but other wise used for all, the only items when we always import is the showers, all other items are covered with solar.

However we do get dull days where hardly any solar is produced, if we were unlucky enough to loose power on one of those days then we would still loose freezers and central heating, but the chances of going away and returning to find freezers all defrosted is very slim now.

 

[JohnW2]

The inverter can produce around 3.5 kW and the house can use well over that figure, so one can't have the whole consumer unit connected to the UPS supply, the items connected need to never even without a power cut exceed the 3.5 kW total. So the essential items only have been connected, central heating, and freezers.

That's fair enough, but it would surely not beyond you capabilities to arrange for a few LED lights around the house to be supplied from the 'UPS supply', would it?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

Yes, if I have a power cut I can use plug in lamps.

 

[JohnW2]

Yes, if I have a power cut I can use plug in lamps.

Indeed. If the events were more common and you wanted slightly more 'convenience', then you could arrange something a bit more 'hard-wired' if you wanted to.

Here, in the (extremely rare) even of a protracted power cut, I have to manually start my generator and manually switch the boiler/CH system over to the genny supply, but as soon as the genny starts up, a number of lights scattered throughout the house automatically come on.

In your case, assuming your lights are all LEDs, I would have thought that you could, if you so wished, have at least one of your lighting circuits (always) fed from the 'UPS supply', couldn't you?

Kind Regards, John