My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

"Lawrence" wrote in message
et...
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power to
enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now have 80
amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout was changed.
Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?



For a new build 100A. To get service like that your 60A fuse must have
blown.

--
Adam

On 12/11/14 19:54, Lawrence wrote:
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power to
enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now have
80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout was
changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

80 or 100A in my very limited experience.

In article ,
"ARW" writes:
"Lawrence" wrote in message
et...
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power to
enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now have 80
amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout was changed.
Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

For a new build 100A. To get service like that your 60A fuse must have
blown.

I got similar service on commercial premises many years ago,
and that was an upgrade from 60A to 100A - nothing had blown.
We were building a new computer room. The CU was already 100A
and the fuse carrier didn't need changing. I thought they might
change the meter as that was only rated at 40A, but they didn't
care about that. I was surprised there was no charge - I suppose
they were looking forward to the increased revenue.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:20:30 -0000, ARW wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western
Power to
enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have
80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was
changed. Incredible service. The question though. What current
fuse is
normal these days?

For a new build 100A. To get service like that your 60A fuse must have
blown.

Maybe where you are but I'd expect ENW to move fairly quickly. They
have when I've reported over volts... Mind you I've heard SFA since
they took away the volt recorder at least two weeks ago. That would
have over night averages of around 255 V. My UPS was logging peaks
over 260 V...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Lawrence wrote:
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

My house fuse has a printed label saying 80A but it's been altered by
hand to read 60A. I've no idea why, or how long it's been like that. I
can't imagine any circumstances in which 60A would be inadequate, but YM
obviously Vs.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

ARW wrote:
"Lawrence" wrote in message
et...
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?



For a new build 100A. To get service like that your 60A fuse must have
blown.

Western Power (ex SWEB) seem to be a good bunch like that. I had them
out to move a meter from inside to outside. Went to the depot to collect
the box and they waved me in the general direction of a stack of them
with a smile. The engineers who came out to do the job were both
thorough and personable and, IIRC, they offered me a 100A fuse (and on
16mm tails when I thought it needed 25mm.)

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices, and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?
--
Chris French

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:16:40 +0000, Scott M wrote:

Western Power (ex SWEB) seem to be a good bunch like that. I had them
out to move a meter from inside to outside. Went to the depot to collect
the box and they waved me in the general direction of a stack of them
with a smile.

Cor flippin 'eck, we want to shift the meters here but getting blood
out of stone with hens teeth is easier than getting any sense out of
Electricty North West.

AFAICT you have to submit plans, with a non-returnable fee of about
£100, they look at the plans and say yay or nay with no feeback. They
won't even consider sending out some one with authority to make
decisions to look at the existing meters/supply and negociate a
suitable solution. Then of course technically ENW responsibly stops
at the cutout, meters are the suppliers responsibilty, can't get any
sense about wether they will do the lot, if they will cordinate with
the suppliers or if I have to...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Thursday, 13 November 2014 08:31:32 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices,

I have been, in fact last night I 'installed' a new energy meter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Wirel...rgy+monitor+e2

as the previous one from npower died.
My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW


and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an electric shock.
I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

On 13/11/2014 08:30, Chris French wrote:


how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices, and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

I blew one once.
When I was 9.
Winding about 20 turns of thick copper wire around a mechano axle and
connecting it to the mains is bad, its worse when the householder has
replaced the fuse in the cu with a bolt.
For some reason it was my fault the main fuse blew and I was banned from
going there.

In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 08:31:32 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices,

I have been, in fact last night I 'installed' a new energy meter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Wirel...e-Compatible/d
p/B0074HN5HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415879304&sr=8-1&keywords=energy+mo
nitor+e2

as the previous one from npower died.
My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the
alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW



Well, I knew posting that here would get people out of the woodwork :-)

In reality it's unlikely that all those things will be on at the same
time I'd have thought. eg storage heaters are normally timed to come
overnight. and things that are on won't necessarily be drawing current,
if they are thermostat controlled. Things like kettle probably wouldn't
make a difference anyway as they are on for such a short amount of time.

But in a sense that shows how hard it is to draw anywhere near the max
current, especially for any length of time. You need to be using
multiple high load devices to do that.


and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an
electric shock.

I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what
precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime
--
Chris French

On Thursday, 13 November 2014 14:23:05 UTC, Chris French wrote:

My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the
alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW



Well, I knew posting that here would get people out of the woodwork :-)

In reality it's unlikely that all those things will be on at the same
time I'd have thought. eg storage heaters are normally timed to come
overnight. and things that are on won't necessarily be drawing current,
if they are thermostat controlled. Things like kettle probably wouldn't
make a difference anyway as they are on for such a short amount of time.

But in a sense that shows how hard it is to draw anywhere near the max
current, especially for any length of time. You need to be using
multiple high load devices to do that.

yes I know reality.
Previously my flatmate worked nights in a night club
so typically got home about 5am, as she put the bath (around 3KW) on
and the oven on(around 3KW) puting the fan heater 1.5KW on (mounted in the bathroom high up) and you can never be sure when the storage radiators fire up or the hot water cyclinder.

and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an
electric shock.

I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what
precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime

Yes they do but for how long can I draw 60 amps, and if I were and put the kettle on (3kw) would that be enough to blow it.
This is the reason I'll considering the alarm function.

It is unlikely I'll blow it even less likely if I set an alarm which is why I plan on using it, but I can't help thinking what would happen if I had a shower installed too.

Don't really want to experiment and blow the fuse.
All I have to hand is a tin copper wire fuse guide.
the largest states that 17 swg is 60 amp fuse wire which is only rated at
22amps current carrying at 35C.

On Thursday, 13 November 2014 14:23:05 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 08:31:32 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices,

I have been, in fact last night I 'installed' a new energy meter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Wirel...e-Compatible/d
p/B0074HN5HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415879304&sr=8-1&keywords=energy+mo
nitor+e2

as the previous one from npower died.
My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the
alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW



Well, I knew posting that here would get people out of the woodwork :-)

In reality it's unlikely that all those things will be on at the same
time I'd have thought. eg storage heaters are normally timed to come
overnight. and things that are on won't necessarily be drawing current,
if they are thermostat controlled. Things like kettle probably wouldn't
make a difference anyway as they are on for such a short amount of time.

But in a sense that shows how hard it is to draw anywhere near the max
current, especially for any length of time. You need to be using
multiple high load devices to do that.


and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an
electric shock.

I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what
precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime
--

I prefer not to waste my imagination on such things, I have far better use for imagination than thinking of fuses ;-)

But I would like to find out.
earlier this week I ordered 50 20mm 1amp fuses. pleanty to experiment on.

Chris French wrote:

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices, and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

I've known of one go.

A neighbour who's fusebox overheated due to a loose connection which
melted the plastic enough to eventually get a Live/Earth or Live/Neutral
short.

:-)

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:16:40 +0000, Scott M wrote:

Western Power (ex SWEB) seem to be a good bunch like that. I had them
out to move a meter from inside to outside. Went to the depot to collect
the box and they waved me in the general direction of a stack of them
with a smile.

Cor flippin 'eck, we want to shift the meters here but getting blood
out of stone with hens teeth is easier than getting any sense out of
Electricty North West.

Would have been easy near me, I know people who move meters for a living and
like a little extra cash in their pocket.




--
Adam

On Thursday, November 13, 2014 6:34:37 PM UTC, ARW wrote:
Would have been easy near me, I know people who move meters for a living and
like a little extra cash in their pocket.

Do they also install the magic meters that don't go round as fast as the official ones ;-)

Owain

whisky-dave wrote:

Chris French wrote:

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime

Yes they do but for how long can I draw 60 amps, and if I were and
put the kettle on (3kw) would that be enough to blow it.

BS-1361 60A fuse will supply 100A for about an hour ...

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/thumb/0/06/Curve-BS1361.png/800px-Curve-BS1361.png

ARW wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:16:40 +0000, Scott M wrote:

Western Power (ex SWEB) seem to be a good bunch like that. I had them
out to move a meter from inside to outside. Went to the depot to collect
the box and they waved me in the general direction of a stack of them
with a smile.

Cor flippin 'eck, we want to shift the meters here but getting blood
out of stone with hens teeth is easier than getting any sense out of
Electricty North West.

I think they charged something like £70 all in too (box + moving, about
10 years ago) and it wasn't like I turned up in rigger boots sucking air
through my teeth.

Only advantage to living in this benighted county.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:30:12 +0000, Chris French wrote:

In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices, and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Not many consider it. I still have some storage heaters and the shower would
be about 40% of 80A so...

As for blowing the fuse: I did that on my last GF's place. So much for the
assumption of some distance from the fuse - I was inside in v. cramped place
and the fuse was about a metre of wire away on t'other side of the wall.
After I could see again I 'phoned for rescue and in an hour it was replaced.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

In article ,
Chris French writes:

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices, and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Old Wylex rewirable fuse box - metal clad version.
If you leave the plastic fuse cover off, there is only a short path
between the supply side of the fuse and the front metal case opening.
When one of the rewirable fuses blows, the arc will often end up
contacting the front metal case opening, causing a much bigger arc
which is protected only by the main fuse. The plastic fuse cover
actually sits inside the front metal case opening, preventing this
when it's fitted.

In a block of flats which all originally had these Wylex units, and
many had long-since lost the plastic front covers, blown mains fuses
were a regular occurance.

In another case, I have seen a main cutout operating close to its
max rating, which caused all the pitch to melt and run out of the
head-end connection and make a mess. It's possible a poor connection
might have contributed to this too.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Thursday, November 13, 2014 4:29:31 PM UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 14:23:05 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 08:31:32 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices,

I have been, in fact last night I 'installed' a new energy meter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Wirel...e-Compatible/d
p/B0074HN5HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415879304&sr=8-1&keywords=energy+mo
nitor+e2

as the previous one from npower died.
My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the
alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW



Well, I knew posting that here would get people out of the woodwork :-)

In reality it's unlikely that all those things will be on at the same
time I'd have thought. eg storage heaters are normally timed to come
overnight. and things that are on won't necessarily be drawing current,
if they are thermostat controlled. Things like kettle probably wouldn't
make a difference anyway as they are on for such a short amount of time.

But in a sense that shows how hard it is to draw anywhere near the max
current, especially for any length of time. You need to be using
multiple high load devices to do that.


and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an
electric shock.

I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what
precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime
--

I prefer not to waste my imagination on such things, I have far better use for imagination than thinking of fuses ;-)

But I would like to find out.
earlier this week I ordered 50 20mm 1amp fuses. pleanty to experiment on.

Your fears are unfounded. 20mm fuses behave quite diifferently to incomer fuses


NT

On Friday, 14 November 2014 11:31:32 UTC, wrote:
On Thursday, November 13, 2014 4:29:31 PM UTC, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 14:23:05 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Thursday, 13 November 2014 08:31:32 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message , PeterC
writes
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:54:50 +0000, Lawrence wrote:

My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

When my meter was changed about 3 years ago the chap wanted to put in a new
80A fuse in place of the 100A; I persuaded him to fit a new 100A instaead.
Seems that there might be a desire to /reduce/ load - I wonder why.

Unlikley I'd have thought.

how many people consider the rating of their main fuse when using their
electrical devices,

I have been, in fact last night I 'installed' a new energy meter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Wirel...e-Compatible/d
p/B0074HN5HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415879304&sr=8-1&keywords=energy+mo
nitor+e2

as the previous one from npower died.
My fuse says 60 amps, ~ 14.4KW

my water heater cyclinder 3KW
2 storage raidaitors about 2.4KW each.
1 ex storage raidaitor (not removed was 3.4KW)
-----------------------
An electric cooker 2-3KW depending on what's used.
1 bathroom heater ~2kw
2 convector heaters about 2KW each.

So when my CH was first switched on the total would be
3+4.8+3.4 =11.2KW

so in theory without any lights on and switching on my kettle
I get to almost 60A or 14.2KW.

With a TV and 2 computers it doesn't leave me much headway if any.

I exceeded 11.5KW last night at about 12:30am, as I was testing the
alarm function of the energy unit.

Think I'll set my alarm for 13KW



Well, I knew posting that here would get people out of the woodwork :-)

In reality it's unlikely that all those things will be on at the same
time I'd have thought. eg storage heaters are normally timed to come
overnight. and things that are on won't necessarily be drawing current,
if they are thermostat controlled. Things like kettle probably wouldn't
make a difference anyway as they are on for such a short amount of time.

But in a sense that shows how hard it is to draw anywhere near the max
current, especially for any length of time. You need to be using
multiple high load devices to do that.


and when was the last time you heard of someone
blowing their main fuse?

Personally never, but I've not personally known anyone to die from an
electric shock.

I'm not sure exactly when such a fuse will blow, or rather at what
precise current as that varies with time and temperature.
Might make an intresting practical lab.

I imagine they will continue to draw a bit more than the rated current
for sometime
--

I prefer not to waste my imagination on such things, I have far better use for imagination than thinking of fuses ;-)

But I would like to find out.
earlier this week I ordered 50 20mm 1amp fuses. pleanty to experiment on.

Your fears are unfounded. 20mm fuses behave quite diifferently to incomer fuses


Fears of what exactly....
As for teh fuses they are for a lab we run. We get the studetn to undersaqtnd that even an 1.5V battery has 'power' we get them to short it out to blow a fuse. In the book we are using it states use a 3 amp car fuse.
I tried that and the fuse did not blow, so a useless sort of experiment that would have proved little. So I decided to get 1 amp 'normal' for the lab fuses of 1 amp. These can be seen to blow too.
Now considering a 11.5V AA (alkaline) on short circuit these batteries can supply 3.6 amps as measured, so why don't they blow a 3amp fuse ?
I had a pretty good idea, students, well they are here to learn.
So if they have any real interest in their results thay might just ask why a fuse rated at 3 amps doesn't blow when 3 amps are passed through it ?
I intend to given them some clues, both theory and in practice.

My intention is also to get them to learn how to cut and strip a piece of wire, where as some academics prefer us to buy quantities of pre-prepared leads, i.e stripped and ready for use in a box.
I believe the basics should be clearly taught & understood, a couple of years ago I felt embarressed when a final year student that had been awarded a degree in electronic engineering came up to me saying his coil wasn;t working.
He had nailed a coil of enammled copper wire to a board and annouicned he didn;t know copper conducted, after he put a metal, nail through the coil.
But why shoudl I worry, he'll probbly get a managment tube in a power plant.
Or perhaps he'll design the next wind turbin as that was his final year project !.

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 18:33:47 -0000, ARW wrote:

Western Power (ex SWEB) seem to be a good bunch like that. I had
them
out to move a meter from inside to outside. Went to the depot to
collect the box and they waved me in the general direction of a
stack
of them with a smile.

Cor flippin 'eck, we want to shift the meters here but getting blood
out of stone with hens teeth is easier than getting any sense out of
Electricty North West.

Would have been easy near me, I know people who move meters for a living
and like a little extra cash in their pocket.

This isn't a "simple" internal move of just a meter(*). It's either
moving three meters (one of which is E7) to an outside box or
dropping one supply and moving a normal and an E7 meter outside. The
cutout would also move outside. So large outside box, suitable hole
in 12 to 18" rubble stone wall, hopefully isolators for each supply
inside, as the distance from meters to CU's will be well over the
prescribed amount.

When various DNO engineers have looked at their side of the supply
there have been "hum, that could do with replacing/upgrading". The
pole transformer is quietly rusting and is, apparently, only 16 kVA.
With the night storage going flat out (9 kW+) and a 10 kW shower,
there isn't any head room for the 3kW kettle. Yeah I know they can
take gross overloads for a number of minutes but the regulation
leaves a little to be desired. The NS heating coming on creates the
best part of a 10 V drop in supply. Oh and the cutout is labeled 100A
= 23 kVA...

Anyway had a call from ENW today with the results of the voltage
monitoring (10 min averages) Max 253 Min 228. *Just* inside the
allowed range, bother. My UPS said 255 but that is a 1 min average
and the voltmeter is a bit "granular". How ever I also mentioned the
difficults of getting a site visit, and the nice young (well she
sounded young) lady sent through a *much* simpler form, which ought
to provoke a site visit. B-) She also had a reasonable technical
grasp of the 33/11 kV distribution, lines, backup lines, as well.

We might be getting somewhere but she did mention a base line price
of £600!

(*) If it was I'd probably pull the cut out and move it myself
cough Seals, what seals?

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Chris French" wrote in message
news ..

and when was the last time you heard of someone blowing their main fuse?

I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused a
LE short. The 80A BS1361 main fuse blew but the 30A BS3060 fuse stayed
intact. The 80A fuse would probably have been 30 years old.



--
Adam

On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)

Owain

wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)


Rules are there to be broken.

--
Adam

On Sunday, November 16, 2014 1:40:28 PM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a LE short.
That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)
Rules are there to be broken.

I think I'd rather break the "don't pull the main fuse" rule.

Owain

On 2014-11-16, ARW wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)


Rules are there to be broken.

Surely it was the apprentice's fault?
;-)

On Sunday, 16 November 2014 13:40:28 UTC, ARW wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)


Rules are there to be broken.

So are fuses..... ;-)

So I did wonder why I was asked if I'd ever heard of one blowing.
I assume they must do otherwise they'd be pretty useless and not used.

In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Sunday, 16 November 2014 13:40:28 UTC, ARW wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)


Rules are there to be broken.

So are fuses..... ;-)

So I did wonder why I was asked if I'd ever heard of one blowing.
I assume they must do otherwise they'd be pretty useless and not used.

Of course they serve a useful purpose

I didn't ask you, my response was to Peter C who suggested that the
reason for some one wanting to fit a lower value main fuse was as a way
for the supply co to reduce demand.

I was just pointing out that main fuses don't normally blow, so that was
an unlikely reason.

The responses here have confirmed that, since all the cases people have
recounted have involved some unusual event.
--
Chris French

"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...
Lawrence wrote:
My house had a 60A fuse on the incoming cutout. I rang Western Power
to enquire about an upgrade and within 90 minutes it was done. I now
have 80 amp fuse and was told it could go up to 100 amp if the cutout
was changed. Incredible service.
The question though. What current fuse is normal these days?

My house fuse has a printed label saying 80A but it's been altered by hand
to read 60A. I've no idea why, or how long it's been like that. I can't
imagine any circumstances in which 60A would be inadequate, but YM
obviously Vs.


Is it the fuse or the cutout that is labelled up as 80A?

--
Adam

On Monday, 17 November 2014 14:00:36 UTC, Chris French wrote:
In message ,
whisky-dave writes
On Sunday, 16 November 2014 13:40:28 UTC, ARW wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014 10:14:37 AM UTC, ARW wrote:
I blew one a few years ago at work. I removed a cooker switch and caused
a
LE short.

That's quite an achievement when following safe isolation procedures :-)


Rules are there to be broken.

So are fuses..... ;-)

So I did wonder why I was asked if I'd ever heard of one blowing.
I assume they must do otherwise they'd be pretty useless and not used.

Of course they serve a useful purpose

I'd assume so and te4h use of a fuse is for safety nothing else.


I didn't ask you, my response was to Peter C who suggested that the
reason for some one wanting to fit a lower value main fuse was as a way
for the supply co to reduce demand.

I must have missed that point ad I'd very much doubt it would effect demand.


I was just pointing out that main fuses don't normally blow, so that was
an unlikely reason.

The responses here have confirmed that, since all the cases people have
recounted have involved some unusual event.

Yep that's what fuse's are for, blowing in an 'unusual event'
mostly related to too much current being drawn and a significant amount over what would normally be expected.