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Temporary Building Supply requirements?


Randomusername

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I’m looking into the cost and technicalities of getting an electrical temporary building supply to plots which currently have outline planning permission and no existing structure. 
 

I realise that getting permanent final connections is usually more economical, but there are compelling reasons for me to get services connected as soon as possible and before the structure/s are commenced. 
 

Western Power Distribution are the suppliers in this area.

They seem (From searches of their info) to be specifying that a kiosk is installed for the supply to be connected into. However this would be costly and seems like overkill for the duration of the likely requirement and the certain redundancy of such a structure. 
 

I’ve seen a number of sites around WPD areas where there is simply a supply installed into a meter box type enclosure mounted on posts or attached to a fence. 
An armoured cable then supplies a separate shed, caravan etc. 
 

Does anyone have relevant experience? Thanks. 

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Ask them specifically about a temporary building supply.

 

Up here SSE do (or at least used to) a deal where you pay for a supply connection and pay a small amount extra (it used to be £90) for a "building supply"

 

For that they would connect to a temporary meter box, and then later come and move the supply into the house once built and the building supply fee covered that work of moving it later.

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Our supplier specified a weatherproof kiosk to specific dimensions along with a easy sweep conduit up through the base for their cable. They also specify the supply must be fused and can only use 16a outlets. All DNOs have different requirements. If you don't meet their spec, they may not install your meter- as happened in our case as we had a standard 13a socket alongside the two 16a.

 

As I was demolishing a brick house, this cost about £30 to build.

 

Others here have got away with fitting a standard meter box to a boundary wall and even fence.

 

 

IMG_20191207_161952.jpg

Edited by Conor
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@Conor that looks a lot like the barbecue my father never quite got round to properly building!

 

I’ve seen some specs for a temporary brick cabinet somewhere but can’t find them now... I do however remember it being required to be massively over engineered - framed ledged braced doors, 1950s Cold War fallout bunker cast concrete roof etc!

 

Anyway I’ve contacted Western Power and they are going to contact me about the process so that’s good. 

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Reply received:

 

Quote

Good afternoon,

 

Thank you for your enquiry for the new Temporary supply to plot 1 [road name]. Is this going to be utilised to supply a permanent build and will this build be using air source heating or car chargers? Do you have any site plans showing where the plot is and any plans relating to the build. Can you indicate where you intend to put the supply box. Can you confirm you will require 18kVA maximum for a single phase supply and will this be sufficient for the new build if having one.

If you would like to give me a call to discuss the connection please feel free.

 

Kind regards

 


More questions than answers, think I will call him to discuss initially!

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30 minutes ago, Randomusername said:

Reply received:

 


More questions than answers, think I will call him to discuss initially!

18KVA should be plenty. That translates to an 80A fuse.  Our house is technically only on a 12KVA supply and is plenty.  If you tell them you need more than 18KVA it will likely push the cost up with an argument of a network upgrade needed.

 

They get worried about large inrush current with some older type direct start heat pumps.  Either tell them you will be using an inverter driven soft start ASHP (if indeed you are planning to use one) or (cough) answer no.

 

Car charger, unless you have an EV already answer no.

 

What they are looking for is any excuse to upgrade their network at your expense while offering you a perfectly adequate supply.

 

Provide them with a layout of the plot showing the house and marking "temporary site supply box here" and "final supply location into house here"

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On 30/07/2020 at 08:47, ProDave said:

18KVA should be plenty. That translates to an 80A fuse.  Our house is technically only on a 12KVA supply and is plenty.  If you tell them you need more than 18KVA it will likely push the cost up with an argument of a network upgrade needed.

 

They get worried about large inrush current with some older type direct start heat pumps.  Either tell them you will be using an inverter driven soft start ASHP (if indeed you are planning to use one) or (cough) answer no.

 

Car charger, unless you have an EV already answer no.

 

What they are looking for is any excuse to upgrade their network at your expense while offering you a perfectly adequate supply.

 

Provide them with a layout of the plot showing the house and marking "temporary site supply box here" and "final supply location into house here"


Heating will almost certainly be electric as no mains gas to village. 
Most likely heat pumps. 
 

I’m inclined to plan capacity for car charging as I’m seeing more of them now and I think it’s a fast growing selling point. I’ve even been looking at lease deals recently for myself. 
 

It’s also highly likely that I’ll be expected to implement some form of micro generation such as solar PV?
 

80 Amps seems very low these days for a new connection. Most new connections I see are a minimum of 100?

 

Not sure of the rating of it or how many connections it already runs, but this pole pig is already sitting in the verge outside the front, so the trenching requirements should hopefully be limited! Of course there is the danger that they’ll expect me to pay for upgrading it, given the opportunity...

39DFE4BE-935C-4F5C-A2B9-EDF00034D980.jpeg

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I would guess that transformer is about 100KVA and is 3 phase.

 

Don't get hung up on the supply capacity, 80A is plenty, but regardless of what they say you might get a 100A fuse anyway.  My supply was only supposed to be 12KvA and should have come with a 60A fuse but they fitted a 100A one so I did not complain.

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On 27/07/2020 at 15:47, Conor said:

Our supplier specified a weatherproof kiosk to specific dimensions along with a easy sweep conduit up through the base for their cable. They also specify the supply must be fused and can only use 16a outlets. All DNOs have different requirements. If you don't meet their spec, they may not install your meter- as happened in our case as we had a standard 13a socket alongside the two 16a.

 

As I was demolishing a brick house, this cost about £30 to build.

 

Others here have got away with fitting a standard meter box to a boundary wall and even fence.

 

 

IMG_20191207_161952.jpg

 

I think that's  the two chimneys from the top of number 73, and is why your plot at 75 has a big hump on it and is twice as wide as it should be.

 

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On 03/08/2020 at 08:57, ProDave said:

I would guess that transformer is about 100KVA and is 3 phase.

 

Don't get hung up on the supply capacity, 80A is plenty, but regardless of what they say you might get a 100A fuse anyway.  My supply was only supposed to be 12KvA and should have come with a 60A fuse but they fitted a 100A one so I did not complain.


Spoke to Western Power, the transformer is indeed 100KVA and is only running at around a quarter of capacity at the moment. 
 

They’ve quoted £635.04 to install an 80amp supply to a temporarily sited box towards the back of the plot (on the basis that I provide trench and trunking on my land as well as the meter box). 

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12 minutes ago, Randomusername said:


Spoke to Western Power, the transformer is indeed 100KVA and is only running at around a quarter of capacity at the moment. 
 

They’ve quoted £635.04 to install an 80amp supply to a temporarily sited box towards the back of the plot (on the basis that I provide trench and trunking on my land as well as the meter box). 

That sounds like a bargain price. Bite their hand off.

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7 minutes ago, ProDave said:

That sounds like a bargain price. Bite their hand off.


Did strike me as reasonable yes. 

I can have the contestable work done by someone else but as far as I can tell all that entails is pulling cable through the duct on my land and connecting it into the meter box, so it hardly seems worth getting a third party in for it...

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  • 1 year later...
On 27/07/2020 at 15:47, Conor said:

Our supplier specified a weatherproof kiosk to specific dimensions along with a easy sweep conduit up through the base for their cable. They also specify the supply must be fused and can only use 16a outlets. All DNOs have different requirements. If you don't meet their spec, they may not install your meter- as happened in our case as we had a standard 13a socket alongside the two 16a.

 

As I was demolishing a brick house, this cost about £30 to build.

 

Others here have got away with fitting a standard meter box to a boundary wall and even fence.

 

 

IMG_20191207_161952.jpg

 

 

So did you put a permali box inside the "barbecue" or just a board at the back.  And doors on the front I take it?

 

I'm jumping through the NIE brick-enclosure-only hoop this week.  NIE are such a nightmare compared to GB DNO's 😕

 

 

 

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Just a backboard. And a very crude door!

 

Make sure your spark leave meter tails and fits the right type of breaker and the 16a commando sockets only. We had ours refused for having a 13a socket wired up.

Edited by Conor
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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi I am getting 3phase put in shortly. I have had our electrician fit a box to accept it on a shed wall. The plan is to wire up our outbuildings' supply to it during the build and then take the new 3phase into the house from the same box. I thought I had read somewhere that the box had to be locking ie come with a key or have some option to use a padlock but the box fitted has neither. Is that an issue (in Scotland)? thanks

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I am getting a new 3phase supplied installed in a couple of weeks. The cable is going into a box that my electrician has mounted on my shed wall. I am getting the meter put in this box and ultimately the feed to the new house when it is up. The box (Schneider) does not have a lockable handle which surprised me. I thought I read somewhere that it needed to be lockable? I am in Scotland if that is relevant.

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