On Mon, 30 May 2005 13:17:09 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Jason Arthurs wrote:

I've lived in this house for two years now and as soon as summer
arrives so do the periodic electrical dropouts, which is a shame
because the batteries in my UPS have just decided they're knackered.

We have a supply which comes from a large pole mounted (two telegraph
poles in fact) transformer at the end of the road, the transformer
itself appears to be quite ancient and even the 'In event of
emergency' telephone number is only three digits indicating it is
indeed from a bygone era. We are supplied via overhead cables courtesy
of a 'telegraph' pole in the garden.

When the weather gets warmer we experience occasions brownouts, short
power outages (usually in the early hours between 4am - 7am) and
generally very poor reliability. Our domestic voltage varies between
240-250v, but usually hovers around 248v (as the over voltage alarm on
my UPS often complains).

Our local provider is Midlands Electricity Board (npower?), is there
any point in complaining or will they simply tell me that everything
is within tolerance? Didn't EU harmonization mean our voltage was
supposed to be a maximum of 243.8v (i.e. 230v +6%)?


My heart bleeds for you.

I had one of those too...and 11KV cables over the house too.

I paid nearly 20 grand to get a half mile undergrounded, and they threw
in a corner of the garden 250A capable transformer as well. ;-)

All problems - apart from the rest of the overhead that craps out EVERY
winter and un summer too...are gone.

BUT I was able to rebuild the house to two storeys...and in the context
of that build 20 grand was not excessive.

What you need is to show the leccy company that your pole mounted
transformer is inadequate, by e.g. switching on half a dozen 3KW heaters
and demonstreating the voltage is below spec. And with them off above spec..

The overheads are not the problem: It's usually the excessively poor
transformers attached to them.

If at all possible and you are prepared to underground the last 20
meters...get an underground feed into the house as well. Even if the
11KV stays up top, not having 250v cables round your guttering makes it
hugely easier to repair it.

250v cables that have fallen off the house over time are, I found,
fixed as an emergency repair ....... :-)

I left mine "fallen off" for quite some time, assuming they would
attach them back to the rotten roof, that I wanted to repair, once the
roof was done they fixed them too the wall - silly me.

Poor old leccie company, we spend a few quid a month on the stuff, and
they have fixed just about the whole supply, in a rural localion -
they will never get their money back...........

Rick


The leccy company are generally strapped for cash but sympathetic. They
know that overheads cause more problems than undergrounds, and if the
area manager can find an excuse to replace ageing equipment at someone
else's (partial) expense, they will do it IME.





Regards,
Jason.

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