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House temporary electric connection


vfrdave

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I have got my electric connection in ie the cable has been run and terminated in my Permali box after some harsh words with Morrows on a Friday afternoon.

 

Spoke to electrician this morning about the connection card and he said that he doesnt fill that in until after 2nd fix.  Can I therefore not get a site supply in place now to work from until proper connection is done?

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Not sure why there would be an issue, I built a little wooden hut, covered it in some spare timber frame membrane and put a board inside.  DNO was happy to run the main cut out to it and then the supplier came yesterday and fitted isolator and smart meter.

 

I have bought a small garage consumer unit with RCD that I will fit and a couple of IP sockets.

20180814_115446.jpg

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They done the same with me. Luckily I could run an extension lead from my mum's to power everything that need it.

What about buying a small generator and use it. You can sell it on when the house is built or keep it and wire your house up to suit  being able to connect a generator if the lights go out. 

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What is this "connection card" you talk about?

 

Id the supply is lve and a meter is installed, there is nothing stopping the electrician connecting a CU and site supply socket, remembering to use a TT earth, not the TNC-S that is probably supplied.

 

If the DNO want to be a PITA he can issue an EIC for that CU and 1 socket, and issue another EIC leter when the house is complete.

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11 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What is this "connection card" you talk about?

 

One of these http://www.nienetworks.co.uk/documents/connections/nie_connection_card.aspx 

 

47 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

What about buying a small generator and use it.

I already have a generator thankfully, just thought I could have got a connection made in the permali box.

 

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

remembering to use a TT earth

is this a spike?  Not that easy in rock surely.

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18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Id the supply is lve and a meter is installed

My understanding is the connection card has to be submitted, I have to setup with a supplier, all before the meter is installed.  Submission of the connection card triggers the meter being installed.

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Are you off a transformer or underground Dave? Guessins it's an underground if Morrow are involved.

 

Yup, they are subconned to do the cable install but NIE will then make it live and fit the meter. There needs to be a compliant install for this to take place but if you're weathertight I'm sure your spark could sort a CU and a couple of double sockets before sending in the CC?

 

 A temporary supply would have needed requesting at time of order I believe.

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48 minutes ago, vfrdave said:

One of these http://www.nienetworks.co.uk/documents/connections/nie_connection_card.aspx 

 

I already have a generator thankfully, just thought I could have got a connection made in the permali box.

 

is this a spike?  Not that easy in rock surely.

Okay a different way of doing things over there.

 

You electrician just needs to fill that in.  It sounds like he has to install his CU, test it and then submit the form and they will come and connect it.  Best he issues an EIC for the install as well.

 

 

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English regs might be different but my self builder neighbour has a temp connection housed in something that looks like a large postbox on stilts. The box is near the site boundary hedge similar to the temp builders water supply standpipe and inside there is a small consumer unit with a couple of RCDs. From this box he has a shallow conduit and mains cable running 15m to his static caravan.

 

As my build is further advanced I am taking another approach. I am digging a mains supply conduit trench right up to the utility room foundation next to where the meter will be sited in the wall. My builder's electric supply will be in a temp housing next to the utility room but there will be enough spare supply cable left to route the supply cable into the long term meter box once the house has a roof on.

Edited by epsilonGreedy
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50 minutes ago, Ed Davies said:

Why's this not like having a house with a couple of outside sockets? Just a rather small house.

There are specific rules about caravans and site sockets in the wiring regs that prohibit them being connected to a TNC-S earth.  The danger with TNC-S is there is a combined neutral and earth. In the event of a neutral fault (not as uncommon as you might think) the combined neutral and earth can rise to near L potential.  That is BAD news if you are standing on the ground and reach out and touch the earthed metal door handle.

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9 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

TT only from a transformer anyway.  How come Morrows were involved then Dave, was there a road crossing?

It's a local distributor thing. TNC-S is often supplied here even on an isolated single dwelling supplied from it's own transformer

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19 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

TT only from a transformer anyway.  How come Morrows were involved then Dave, was there a road crossing?

Transformer is on the pole and then goes underground up the side of a road serving several properties, we tapped into it in the roadside and came underground through the neighbours garden and into our land also underground.

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19 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

English regs might be different but my self builder neighbour has a temp connection housed in something that looks like a large postbox on stilts. The box is near the site boundary hedge similar to the temp builders water supply standpipe and inside there is a small consumer unit with a couple of RCDs. From this box he has a shallow conduit and mains cable running 15m to his static caravan.

 

As my build is further advanced I am taking another approach. I am digging a mains supply conduit trench right up to the utility room foundation next to where the meter will be sited in the wall. My builder's electric supply will be in a temp housing next to the utility room but there will be enough spare supply cable left to route the supply cable into the long term meter box once the house has a roof on.

 

 

You can certainly run a temporary, or permanent, supply to an enclosure in a  wall, fence or whatever.  Several here have done just this (including me).  As long as there is a signed off installation on the consumer side, then the supplier will fit a meter.  The DNO (or NIE in NI, I believe) will happily install a supply to a company fuse and head in an approved box, even if it's mounted in a fence, as ours is.  The consumer side installation doesn't need to be anything grand - mine's a fused isolator switch, a small 4 way (two doubles) consumer unit, that then feeds a caravan site consumer unit that has a 16A Commando socket.  That was my temporary site supply that we ran extension leads etc from.

 

I didn't want the meter box in the wall as, and inset box it would have compromised the insulation and created a thermal bridge, and a surface mount box would have looked ugly, hence the reason for mounting it remotely in the fence that eventually became our wheelie bin screen.  Doing it this way meant not paying twice for the installation, too.  I paid once to have a supply put in and my electrician just switched things over to power the house when  we were ready.  The only slight oddity is that the DNO insist that the supply use TT earthing whist it was being used as a site supply (as they do for mobile homes) and could only be switched over to TN-C-S once the house was connected and ready for testing.  Daft really, as the TN-C-S earth impedance was lower than the TT impedance, and the site supply was being used exactly as if it were an extension lead from the house, but they make the rules so you have no choice but to stick with them.  As it happened, I reused the TT earth rod etc in my workshop, anyway, so nothing was wasted.

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