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#1
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh,
and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? -- Adrian C |
#2
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
"Adrian C" wrote in message
... There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? -- Adrian C Is it because neutrals are not fused now - in case a neutral only blows it could leave the circuits live. |
#3
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Adrian C wrote:
There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? There shouldn't be a neutral fuse by the standards of the past mumble decades, which is why he was surprised. If it that ancient, they might well replace the cutout completely now or real soon. At the very least, it's almost certain he'll replace the neutral fuse with a solid link at least for now and replace the live fuse. Another issue is what the cutout is actually rated at - you can't bung a 100A fuse in any ancient old crap. But a 60A supply fuse should cope OK with a shower plus reasonable other loads unless you spend an hour in the shower while running the leccy cooker and fan heaters flat out. As a very general rule of thumb, a typical fuse in this class (and there are a few classes of cutout fuse) will take around 30 mins to blow at double it's rated load, ie 120A for a 60A fuse so you can get away with a bit. -- Tim Watts |
#4
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Tim Watts wrote:
Adrian C wrote: There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? There shouldn't be a neutral fuse by the standards of the past mumble decades, which is why he was surprised. If it that ancient, they might well replace the cutout completely now or real soon. At the very least, it's almost certain he'll replace the neutral fuse with a solid link at least for now and replace the live fuse. I suspect that is what will happen. And no sales talk at all -- Adam |
#5
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 31 Aug, 22:44, Tim Watts wrote:
Adrian C wrote: There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? There shouldn't be a neutral fuse by the standards of the past mumble decades, which is why he was surprised. If it that ancient, they might well replace the cutout completely now or real soon. At the very least, it's almost certain he'll replace the neutral fuse with a solid link at least for now and replace the live fuse. Another issue is what the cutout is actually rated at - you can't bung a 100A fuse in any ancient old crap. But a 60A supply fuse should cope OK with a shower plus reasonable other loads unless you spend an hour in the shower while running the leccy cooker and fan heaters flat out. As a very general rule of thumb, a typical fuse in this class (and there are a few classes of cutout fuse) will take around 30 mins to blow at double it's rated load, ie 120A for a 60A fuse so you can get away with a bit. -- Tim Watts- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. |
#6
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
harry wrote:
I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. You sure about that? -- Tim Watts |
#7
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 01/09/2010 07:17, harry wrote:
I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Well, this house was built in 1932, and rewired in 1970. Fuses are dead centre of this pic - so these would have been 1930s DC fuses? http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...rthestairs.jpg Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg Electicity company peeps due today, and for interest will be snapping the replacements they fit. -- Adrian C |
#8
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg i got one of them too! what does it do if anything? could *anyone* remove/replace with something less obvious? if only BT is it a chargeable to get it changed? Jim K |
#9
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 02:24:19 -0700 (PDT), Jim K
wrote: Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg i got one of them too! what does it do if anything? could *anyone* remove/replace with something less obvious? if only BT is it a chargeable to get it changed? As it stands it's only a fuseholder. The carbon surge protectors will have been removed - their capacitance would be far too great for ADSL. Fuses are no longer fitted at subscribers' premises (with perhaps a very few exceptions) so it could be replaced by a standard Block Terminal. Normally the master socket (NTE5) is fitted at this point so that all the subsequent internal wiring is the responsibility of the subscriber! -- Frank Erskine |
#10
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 10:24, Jim K wrote:
Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg i got one of them too! what does it do if anything? could *anyone* remove/replace with something less obvious? if only BT is it a chargeable to get it changed? Jim K I guess it is at the junction of where the external wire enters your property and picks up the internal cable. It is a junction/protection box which often had dummy fuses if fed from an underground cable. Only BT Openreach can officially remove it, but assuming it feeds a standard BT Master Socket, which includes protection, you could bypass it with a modern box like this one http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/BT77B.html and I doubt anybody would find out. There are only two wires in and two wires out. John |
#11
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Adrian C wrote:
On 01/09/2010 07:17, harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Well, this house was built in 1932, and rewired in 1970. Fuses are dead centre of this pic - so these would have been 1930s DC fuses? http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...rthestairs.jpg Cripes. That looks EXACTLY like my old house looked. Also rewired in the 70's. Badly. |
#12
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 09:44, Adrian C wrote:
On 01/09/2010 07:17, harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. *There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. * Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Well, this house was built in 1932, and rewired in 1970. Fuses are dead centre of this pic - so these would have been 1930s DC fuses? http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...rthestairs.jpg Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg Electicity company peeps due today, and for interest will be snapping the replacements they fit. -- Adrian C That is 1930's gear. They must be damned ingompetent to leave such stuff about. The last time saw equipment like that was in the early 60's and that was overlooked from 30 years before that. I wonder who fitted that new meter? The incoming cable looks fairly dodgy too. |
#13
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 22:09, harry wrote:
On 1 Sep, 09:44, Adrian C wrote: On 01/09/2010 07:17, harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. *There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. * Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Well, this house was built in 1932, and rewired in 1970. Fuses are dead centre of this pic - so these would have been 1930s DC fuses? http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...rthestairs.jpg Not suprised, I have here this GPO relic my ADSL passes through ... http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2832.jpg Electicity company peeps due today, and for interest will be snapping the replacements they fit. -- Adrian C That is 1930's gear. *They must be damned ingompetent to leave such stuff about. *The last time *saw equipment like that was in the early 60's and that was overlooked from 30 years before that. *I wonder who fitted that new meter? *The incoming cable looks fairly dodgy too.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Sometimes there were AC sytems where there was a centre tap to the transformer winding so both poles were live to earth, ergo both poles were fused. There was no neutral. Similar to 110volt tool transformers today. |
#14
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 07:17, harry wrote:
I think this post is a load of ********. *There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. * Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Friend of mine moved house last year. Their 1920s house (in an area that was one of the last DC supply areas in the country) still had two fuses, and electrics to match. This wasn't even picked up on the survey. I have a neutral fuse here, although it's on a supply that was removed in 2000. Some other equipment adjacent to it is '80s dated though, and no-one thought to remove the neutral fuse at the time. I think it was installed on a 1950s AC overhead supply. If a neutral fuse fails, you're well rid of it. |
#15
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Andy Dingley wrote: On 1 Sep, 07:17, harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. *There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. * Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Friend of mine moved house last year. Their 1920s house (in an area that was one of the last DC supply areas in the country) still had two fuses, and electrics to match. This wasn't even picked up on the survey. I have a neutral fuse here, although it's on a supply that was removed in 2000. Some other equipment adjacent to it is '80s dated though, and no-one thought to remove the neutral fuse at the time. I think it was installed on a 1950s AC overhead supply. If a neutral fuse fails, you're well rid of it. Interestingly, in large parts of continental Europe, it is standard to have both live and neutral fuses, and there is no discrimination at the sockets between live and neutral, together with random variation from socket to socket as to whether it offers an earth. From my trips to Norway, I have looked at their standard domestic electrical setup and shuddered. Cartridge fuses in both live and neutral at the consumer unit, unshuttered sockets with mixed live and neutral - and two pin plugs that can be inserted either way round. And they wonder why they have so many electrically-caused house fires. Oh, and ring circuits are unheard of. Sid |
#16
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 11:45, Sidney Endon-Lee wrote:
Interestingly, in large parts of continental Europe, it is standard to have both live and neutral fuses, If you've already taken the route of two-pin connections and relying on insulation more than an earthed case, then there's less need to avoid the fused neutral. You have however lost the benefits of metal cases being earthed, for protection against internal shorts to that case. |
#17
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:45:06 -0700, Sidney Endon-Lee wrote:
Interestingly, in large parts of continental Europe, it is standard to have both live and neutral fuses, and there is no discrimination at the sockets between live and neutral, together with random variation from socket to socket as to whether it offers an earth. From my trips to Norway, I have looked at their standard domestic electrical setup and shuddered. Cartridge fuses in both live and neutral at the consumer unit, unshuttered sockets with mixed live and neutral - and two pin plugs that can be inserted either way round. And they wonder why they have so many electrically-caused house fires. Oh, and ring circuits are unheard of. That sounds like my setup here in the US... two modern breaker panels, load control relays, four ancient fuse boxes (mixture of barrel and screw- in fuses), a big knife switch for the well pump, a plethora of wall socket types (some grounded, some not), and a mixture of modern wire and old cloth-covered stuff. Most of it's 110V, some of it's 220. cheers Jules |
#18
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep, 11:45, Sidney Endon-Lee wrote:
Andy Dingley wrote: On 1 Sep, 07:17, harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. *There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. * Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Friend of mine moved house last year. Their 1920s house (in an area that was one of the last DC supply areas in the country) still had two fuses, and electrics to match. This wasn't even picked up on the survey. I have a neutral fuse here, although it's on a supply that was removed in 2000. Some other equipment adjacent to it is '80s dated though, and no-one thought to remove the neutral fuse at the time. I think it was installed on a 1950s AC overhead supply. If a neutral fuse fails, you're well rid of it. Interestingly, in large parts of continental Europe, it is standard to have both live and neutral fuses, and there is no discrimination at the sockets between live and neutral, together with random variation from socket to socket as to whether it offers an earth. From my trips to Norway, I have looked at their standard domestic electrical setup and shuddered. Cartridge fuses in both live and neutral at the consumer unit, unshuttered sockets with mixed live and neutral - and two pin plugs that can be inserted either way round. And they wonder why they have so many electrically-caused house fires. Maybe it's the same reason so many fires are blamed on "electrical faults" here... I have read that Norway uses 230v three-phase supplies, with no neutral, so single-phase appliances are connected between two phases, therefore both wires are live. Oh, and ring circuits are unheard of. Ring circuits and fused plugs were introduced in the UK to save copper etc. in the post-WW2 rebuilding programme, they have a number of disadvantages. Sid |
#19
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
"harry" wrote in message ... I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. I suspect there are still many neutral fuses left sitting undisturbed. The ESQC Regulations 7(2) do require DNOs to remove them: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...ulation/7/made and the guidance says they must do it by 2013: http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/w.../file26709.pdf Regards Bruce |
#20
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:17:58 -0700 (PDT), harry wrote:
On 31 Aug, 22:44, Tim Watts wrote: Adrian C wrote: There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? There shouldn't be a neutral fuse by the standards of the past mumble decades, which is why he was surprised. If it that ancient, they might well replace the cutout completely now or real soon. At the very least, it's almost certain he'll replace the neutral fuse with a solid link at least for now and replace the live fuse. Another issue is what the cutout is actually rated at - you can't bung a 100A fuse in any ancient old crap. But a 60A supply fuse should cope OK with a shower plus reasonable other loads unless you spend an hour in the shower while running the leccy cooker and fan heaters flat out. As a very general rule of thumb, a typical fuse in this class (and there are a few classes of cutout fuse) will take around 30 mins to blow at double it's rated load, ie 120A for a 60A fuse so you can get away with a bit. -- Tim Watts- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). Oh, I'm afraid there have, and still are. They should have gone long since, but there are still lots around. I used to work for the electricity board. So did I. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. You'd think so. -- The Wanderer The future isn't what it used to be. |
#21
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 1 Sep,
harry wrote: I think this post is a load of ********. There hasn't been fuses in neutrals since the days of DC (ie 1930s). I used to work for the electricity board. Someone would have removed equipment like that when the meter/supply cable was replaced years ago. No electrician who sees such a thing is going to fail to report it. Extra sockets 15A and 5A) were fitted to my parent's house in 1957. A new fuse box was installed with double pole fusing, and TRS cable. This was installed by NEEB. It was replaced with SP fusing, PVC cable and 13A sockets in the mid 60s. -- B Thumbs Change lycos to yahoo to reply |
#22
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:25:44 +0100, Adrian C
wrote: There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? I find the distribution people (the ones who actually install and maintain the supply rather than the ones to whom you pay your bill) (Mine's CE, formerly NEDL (nee NEEB)) are usually down-to-earth (no pun intended) engineers rather than sales-orientated types. Normally the neutral "fuse" nowadays is bypassed with a solid bar to avoid the whole system becoming live if a neutral fuse should rupture rather than the line one. -- Frank Erskine Sunderland |
#23
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
Normally the neutral "fuse" nowadays is bypassed with a solid bar to avoid the whole system becoming live if a neutral fuse should rupture rather than the line one. I've not met a neutral "board" fuse, but I remember my Grandmother had a metal-clad fuse-box with a fuse in the live and neutral of each circuit. I think its installation had a lot to do with equipment shortages during the war. Incidentally all the sockets were those Wylex ones with in-line pins. -- Graham. %Profound_observation% |
#24
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 31 Aug, 23:17, Frank Erskine wrote:
I find the distribution people (the ones who actually install and maintain the supply rather than the ones to whom you pay your bill) (Mine's CE, formerly NEDL (nee NEEB)) are usually down-to-earth (no pun intended) engineers rather than sales-orientated types. Amen to that! Western Power Distribution in my case. I have a billing problem at present. "Good Energy" are trying to bill me £1500, for £120 of electricity I've already paid for, through a supply that has been disconnected for 10 years, when I'm not even a Good Energy customer. The only people who've been at all helpful in resolving this have been WPD, even though billing is the one part of it that isn't even their problem. |
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:25:44 +0100, Adrian C
wrote: There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. Wired via an RCD and spliced into the existing meter tails to the existing consumer unit. My thoughts are on how great this mains pressure shower actually is. Then the lights went out. Silence. Great Call for SWMBO. Nothing. She'd left the house to potter in the garden shed. I'm wet, covered in soap suds, can't see a thing, where is the blinkin torch... Ah, the meter ain't displaying. We've blown the supplier main fuse. All other fuses, trips and RCDs fine. The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. I can't see anything strange in the neutral fuse expiring, it has been on duty for ages - and the overload of our new shower has shown it the cards. So why is this guy whistling through his teeth? Is tomorrow going to be a likely sales opportunity for his company? When I did something similar (worked on a socket while live to avoid disturbing SWMBO while she was watching Tarnation Street) I didn't get billed because the fuse was 60A in a 4 bed house. Derek |
#26
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:25:44 +0100, Adrian C wrote:
The guy from the emergency electrical service sorts it out, and we are back on again. However, our supplier fuses are old - probably 50 or 60 years - and from his comments look to be wired with 30 amp fuse wire. That said, the shower overload has taken out both the live and neutral fuse wires. He whistles though his teeth, sez "neutral, that is weird" and trundles off with a promise to be back tomorrow to uprate the fuses to a more consumer friendly 100 amps. There was aprogramme within the Supply Industry to remove all rewireable fuses back in the 1970's - 80's from memory. Needless to say not all were replaced, although managers were declaring in returns that they were. The replacement will be at their expense. -- The Wanderer The older I get the better I used to be! |
#27
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Yikes, blown the suppy company neutral fuse ...
On 31 Aug, 22:25, Adrian C wrote:
There I was tonight in this super newly installed electric shower (oh, and gas - but that's for another tale) and using it for the first time. 10.5kW, 44Amps or thereabouts. That's why I shower with a torch on new installations. |
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