What size do you think these tails are

My wizened old eyes reckon that the outgoing tails are of different csa's.
 
Looking at the age of the installation I'd be inclined to say 16/10. You didn't generally see 25 used domestically until relatively recently.
 
I have the same meter at my property which was built in the mid to late 70's.
Both incoming and outgoing tails are 25mm2.
 
Interesting - maybe its a regional thing.

Certainly, down here in the WPD area (old South Wales Electric), they only fuse to 80A, and balk most definitely at the idea of a 100A supply - according to company policy they will not fit 100A as they reckon the cutouts (modern ones that is) can't take it on a sustained load. I had this chapter and verse from a fitter at a job I was on recently.

Cant help feeling they're being over conservative and that its partly a legacy thing. There are still quite a few WPD fitters who started their careers with SWALEC long before privatisation. On a job I was doing recently (domestic, nothing particularly special), I fitted 25mm tails and 16mm earth as per. An older WPD guy came along, said "THAT'S good", connected up and then renewed the old cambric tails between cutout and meter (about 10-16mm in old money) with new 16mm (modernish Henley cutout, 80A).

I was amazed!
 
WPD are my DNO and have long said that 80amp is the max for a standard head - They use a different type of head for 100amp, and anything above this uses the large Lucy heads with CT metering (until recently when they now use an all in one cutout/CT chamber/Meter/customer busbars).

A typical 100amp WPD supply:

1263635162.jpg
 
Thanks for all the replies and sorry for taking so long to get back.


Well the circumference of the smaller tail is 32mm


32mm / 3.142 = 10.18

Diameter = 10.18 / 2 = 5.09


CSA =Pi X R2


3.142 x 25.9 =CSA 81.4 ???





And sorry about this but these three radials on 30 amp fuses, what size cable do you think it is. The far right appears to be a bit thicker.

Many thanks

View media item 18884 View media item 18885 View media item 18886 :oops:
 
Are you measuring the outer circumference, or the circumference of the actual copper - as if you're using the outer one then you're mistakenly including insulation in your calculation.

Also, your calculation would only be valid if the tail was solid copper, as it is almost certainly a number of strands of copper twisted together, the CSA will be significantly less...
 
I'm really not sure that you should be changing CUs just yet....
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I was wondering why no one said that, I was going to vote 25/16 on the tails
 
Did he not turn off the external isolator?

You know - the one he'll be using to make it safe to change the CU.
 

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