On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:59:05 +0100, AJH wrote:

I've been offered a yard to house my timber kiln, it is adjacent to a
road with an electricity supply and I'm deciding whether to go with a
generator 11 hours a day or the grid supply. SEEboard deem it a
business connection and are asking for details of welders, motors,
cranes etc. as well as the total load (about 15kW(e)max) before they
will quote.

Has anybody knowledge of costs of a recent 100A domestic installation?

Sorry, can't help with up to date domestic connection charges, but isn't
that rather irrelevant anyway, if they're trying to class you as a business
connection?

As to details of loadings, that's standard practice. They have to be
certain they have an adequate supply for anything you're likely to connect.

On what you say, however, a nominal load of 15kw for a kiln is likely to be
mainly reistive, and shouldn't present any problems for them (or you).

Be warned, however, using welders, motors over 3hp or other 'dirty' loads
may require some reinforcement of their distribution system, the costs for
which will be included in the calculations for the charge to you, as the
person who has brought about the need for the reinforcements.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

The Wanderer wrote:
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:59:05 +0100, AJH wrote:

I've been offered a yard to house my timber kiln, it is adjacent to a
road with an electricity supply and I'm deciding whether to go with a
generator 11 hours a day or the grid supply. SEEboard deem it a
business connection and are asking for details of welders, motors,
cranes etc. as well as the total load (about 15kW(e)max) before they
will quote.

Has anybody knowledge of costs of a recent 100A domestic installation?

Sorry, can't help with up to date domestic connection charges, but isn't
that rather irrelevant anyway, if they're trying to class you as a business
connection?

As Wanderer says - ??

Anyway, FWIW I had to pay United Utiities 730 GBP two years ago for a
new domestic installation. Specs: terraced house right on the pavement;
existing main already buried in pavement; and muggins had to do all
digging between outside of the house wall and meter position.

David

"Andrew Heggie" wrote in message
...
Lobster wrote:

Sorry, can't help with up to date domestic connection charges,
but isn't
that rather irrelevant anyway, if they're trying to class you as
a
business connection?

As Wanderer says - ??

Just to compare with the quote they prepare for me, the "yard has a
certain
hope value for the owner so a supply already fitted will be a
benefit for
him.

Anyway, FWIW I had to pay United Utiities 730 GBP two years ago
for a
new domestic installation. Specs: terraced house right on the
pavement;
existing main already buried in pavement; and muggins had to do
all
digging between outside of the house wall and meter position.

I'd do the digging, so I guess the only other cost is having an
electrician
fit a consumer unit and outdoor sockets, it makes it worthwhile at
these
prices.

AJH



IIRC after my shop fire we were charged something like £600 to re-make
the connection to the main that they cut off underground while smoke
was billowing around, and then a further £600 to reconnect the cable
to the meter. All the auxillary works such as trenching and locating
the new commercial equiv of a consumer unit were done at extra cost by
my contractor. Also my contractor ended up repairing the drain EDF
broke whilst disconnecting us in the first place. Lucky I was insured
G

AWEM

"Andrew Heggie" wrote in message
...

There is one fan currently engine driven which will need a starter as it
will probably draw 10kW, we have little way of telling what power it
currently consumes as we have not monitored fuel consumption yet.

I'm sure you know this, but you are definitely into 3phase territory by the
time you're talking about 10kW motors.

As for installation prices as far as I can tell, they roll dice. Or it's
based on the niceness of the biscuits you give the guy who comes around, or
something else similarly incomphrehensible.

A friend had a quote in East Anglia of about 800 quid for a bog-standard
three phase 100A/phase installation (negligible distance) last year. Expect
it to be at least about the same again for very minimal wiring to go with
such an installation.

I'd guess your 20kVA generator is going to cost a few thousand quid a year
to run just in fuel (200*11*4*.33 was my basis for this), so there's a bit
to play with.

Cheers,

Will

AJH wrote:
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:17:43 +0100, "Will Dean"
wrote:


I'm sure you know this, but you are definitely into 3phase territory by the
time you're talking about 10kW motors.

I was thinking I might get away with a number of smaller ones, started
in sequence but we'll see.

I'd guess your 20kVA generator is going to cost a few thousand quid a year
to run just in fuel (200*11*4*.33 was my basis for this), so there's a bit
to play with.

Yes at the figures you are quoting the grid connection is a snap
compared with running a generator.

If you can use the recovered heat from the exhaust, then it can be much
less clear.

At least on fuel costs.

"AJH" wrote in message
...

As I recall O&M cost of the genset far exceeded the value of any heat
recovered during the heating season.

I'm not surprised. People often seem to make casual mental comparisons
between car servicing and generator maintainance - not realising that one
year of 24/7 generator running is *way* more hours than you would expect an
ordinary car to do in its entire life. (Acknowledging, of course, that
some automotive wear mechanisms are absent for the generator.)

Having looked after various people using generators to power their isolated
houses, I always try to discourage others from getting into that sort of
situation too casually.

Will

Will Dean wrote:
"AJH" wrote in message
...

As I recall O&M cost of the genset far exceeded the value of any heat
recovered during the heating season.

I'm not surprised. People often seem to make casual mental comparisons
between car servicing and generator maintainance - not realising that one
year of 24/7 generator running is *way* more hours than you would expect an
ordinary car to do in its entire life. (Acknowledging, of course, that
some automotive wear mechanisms are absent for the generator.)

Having looked after various people using generators to power their isolated
houses, I always try to discourage others from getting into that sort of
situation too casually.

Generator + largeish battery bank can be a nice sweet spot.
Generator sized to charge the batteries in 5 hours or so, running near
its rating.
You can then attach other energy generation methods - solar, water,
wind, or whatever.

The generator would normally be run an hour or two a day.

In article ,
"Will Dean" writes:
I'm not surprised. People often seem to make casual mental comparisons
between car servicing and generator maintainance - not realising that one
year of 24/7 generator running is *way* more hours than you would expect an
ordinary car to do in its entire life. (Acknowledging, of course, that
some automotive wear mechanisms are absent for the generator.)

Cars only need a design life of ~3000 hours
(and that's with a service every 300-400 hours).
3000 hours is the figure that is used for designing
the parts which expected not to fail in the
lifetime of a car.

--
Andrew Gabriel

The message
from (Andrew Gabriel) contains these words:

Cars only need a design life of ~3000 hours
(and that's with a service every 300-400 hours).

Given an average of 30mph, mine's managed over 8000 already. Even
averaging 50mph, which is unlikely it's lasted 5000 hours.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.