Moving cut-out, SPEN

[Fernicarry]

 

19th century detached house with a 3ph cable head currently situated in an upstairs bedroom fed by a concentric cable that goes up the side of the house half way across the loft and then down through an internal partition wall into the bedroom.   Not the ideal position.  I've already moved the CU from there to a position towards the back of the house which puts it close to all the big cooking and washing loads.  If anything the loading at the back of the house will only increase if/when we are forced to get a HP and EV.

 

I'd like to move the cable head to the front door between the storm doors and the inner door.  My (very long, but fused) meter tails from the current position to my new CU already run past there.  Space is a bit limited because of the thickness of the stone wall at the front of the house.  I can just about squeak 400mm in width, but there is plenty of height.  Obviously this doesn't meet SPEN's requirements of 800 x 600 for the size of the board I need to provide for their equipment but looking at what's currently installed it looks perfectly possibly to fit it into this space.  The current cut out is only 200mm wide and the meter can be mounted above it then come back down to an isolator switch and into my meter tails.

 

SPEN called me the other day about the application and when I explained this situation she was quite literally dumbfounded about what to do.  It seems like no one has ever been in my situation! I asked for a site visit but she said that the contractors who do the site visit wouldn't be able to advise about this "they only look at the cables"....  She's supposed to investigate and call me back at some point.

 

Anyone done something similar and can advise on how to persuade SPEN to be pragmatic about this?  They haven't definitely said "no" yet, but I feel it coming.  The new position is going to be far better than the existing position even if its not perfect.  This house wasn't exactly designed wth 21st century rules in mind.

 

Also is it permitted to run the ducting for the service cable across the solum or does it need to be buried under ground?   If I could do that then I could route the service cable fairly directly to the back of the house and put a meter box on the outside wall a short hop away from the fuse box.   If it has to go underground then that means excavating half way round the perimeter of the house doing battle with the gas main and the drains in the process.

 

Thanks.

 

[ProDave]

Tell them you meet their space requirements.

 

Then the guy on the ground that comes to do it won't care and will fit it into the space you have available.

[Mattg4321]

9 hours ago, ProDave said:

Tell them you meet their space requirements.

 

Then the guy on the ground that comes to do it won't care and will fit it into the space you have available.

This 100%. The inside of a standard meter box doesn’t fit those requirements either, but I’ve seen more than a few 3 phase cutouts fitted in them. 

[Fernicarry]

Thanks for the replies.  Yeah, even a large meter box has less board space than they want for an internal cut-out.

 

I'll crack on wth my current plan and make a boxed in area at the front door as wide as I can.   It will back onto the living room wall so I'll line it with cement board.

 

Just for reference, can the cable duct run through the solum?  The path of least resistance would be to route the duct into the solum at the closest point to the service cable.

 

 

[Kelvin]

I assume by solum you mean the top layer of soil? 

 

SPEN will have guidelines on this. Ducting needs to be 450mm below garden or paths and 750mm below driveways. It also says you need to lay it on a bed of gravel with warning tape above it. 
 

Here’s the eon guidance but they are all much the same. 
 

https://www.cablejoints.co.uk/upload/E.ON___Electricity_Cable_Ducts,_Guidance_Notes.pdf

 

[Fernicarry]

I mean the crawl space under the ground floor.

[Kelvin]

I’m a Scot and it’s a Scottish use of the word I’ve never heard of. My understanding of the word is soil related! 
 

I’ve no idea whether you could. I assume it could be ok as long as it was well below being damaged/penetrated by screws or nails. 

[TonyT]

Just have a back board ready, biscuits tea and be nice to the jointers.

they will generally sort you out if they can

[saveasteading]

13 hours ago, Kelvin said:

it’s a Scottish use of the word I’ve never heard of. My understanding of the word is soil related! 

I stopped using the term but remember it being common. On a drawing there would be a mention of solum treatment: usually stone or concrete, and i've recently laid plastic sheet on mud under a Victorian timber floor, just to reduce damp in  the underfloor void. 

 

It is Latin I think. A useful word.

 

Is there still a requirement for solum treatment ( perhaps without the word)  jn the building regs?

[Fernicarry]

Sorry for the confusion on the word "solum".  I've always known it to mean the space below a suspended floor.  In connection with land titles it means specifically the soil on which a building rests.  

 

Anyway, on to the next question.  Part of the guidance is that the cut out can't be on an internal stud wall.  Which this will be because its backing onto the front room.  This seems to be in case of drilling into the wall from the other side and hitting the back of the equipment.  You'd have to be going some to manage that though as it will be a good 5" below the surface from the other side of the wall.  You can add a 1mm thick earthed steel plate to mitigate this, but I rather suspect if its all buttoned up and the back of the lath and plaster isn't visible then no one is going to question that it isn't on a masonry wall.  Something I should be concerned about?  I'm all out of 1mm steel plates at the moment....

 

[Fernicarry]

The gods are smiling on me this week.  
 

SPEN called back to say that they will honour the size of the existing board at the new position.