Upgrading 60A main fuse to 100A

[garmcqui]

Just moved into a new house, built 2001. Old house had a 100A fuse, whereas this has a rather weedy 60A.

I will be having the consumer unit upgraded to modern standards soon, and wondered how difficult it would be to have Northern Electric upgrade the 60A fuse?

Would the 16mm meter tails also need upgrading? Is that the wiring from the meter box to the consumer unit (which must be about 10m away)?

Photo of current meter box attached.



Thanks all

 

[JohnD]

just to check, do you have an electric gold-smelter?

 

[garmcqui]

No I have an, ahem, need for some high powered lamps in the loft

Only messing, want to put in an electric shower, something of decent power (9-10.5kW), but also have a 7.2kW electric car charger to wire up. Don't want a situation where someone's in the shower, the car's on charge and someone puts the kettle on for a coffee and the 60A fuse lets go.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The only people who can answer this question is your DNO - Northern Electric?
Go on their website and look for the supply upgrade/alterations online form.
They will need to determine if the feed network can support your estimated new maximum current.

Mind you, there are thousands of houses with bigger laods than you anticipate, running off a 60A main fuse.

 

[garmcqui]

Will do.

Regarding the load, am I wrong in thinking 17.5kW equates to about 76A?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Your maths is correct. But you’ll very rarely be running at that load. And (I Don’t have the tables with me) a 60A fuse will hold for several hours with a load of 76A.

 

[AndyPRK]

It's not good to have tails running 10m.

3m is the rule of thumb

Don't cars charge at night ?

 

[ericmark]

I have 2.1 amp USB charging sockets, I also have a voltage + current monitor, it is rare it ever hit max, only apple gear gets near the max, and then soon drops again.

Same with car charger, it may peak, but unlikely to continue at that rate, I would not expect it to blow.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It's not good to have tails running 10m.

Why not? What choice does he have if the CU is 10m away?

3m is the rule of thumb

No it isn't.
It's just that for longer than 3m, the DNO stipulate a fuse switch - but they don't know why.

 

[Risteard]

Why not? What choice does he have if the CU is 10m away?


No it isn't.
It's just that for longer than 3m, the DNO stipulate a fuse switch - but they don't know why.

More likely to be a switch fuse than a fused switch!

 

[EFLImpudence]

I didn't say a fused switch.

 

[Risteard]

I didn't say a fused switch.

You also didn't state a switch fuse. In fact what you did mention was much closer to a fused switch than a switch fuse.

 

[EFLImpudence]

... and the relevance is - what?

Does it depend which is on the left and which is on the right?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Here we go, another helpful thread down the toilet.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Does it depend which is on the left and which is on the right?

Well they are two different things.

But IHNI what significance there would be, if any, in using one vs the other in this scenario.