Mains cable installed inside the house

[Pete]

Had the pre site check the other day to see if the trenching we had done prior to the electric being installed and everything was fine until the guy went into the house and said the incoming main was positioned to far inside the house, it was meant to be no further than two metres from the outside wall. I explained I had spoken to someone about this when I first contacted ENWL and that it was a Passive house and I did not want unnecessary penetrations in the house walls. I should add that it is not possible to have an exterior cabinet anywhere so our only option was to bring it up inside the house, a distance of approx 4 metres of cable length. He was not happy and went away to make a phone call. The reason for posting this is I asked to speak to the person on the other end of the phone and explained the situation and that I had told ENWL at the beginning what I was planning. She was very understanding and accepted the fact that we would have a 4 metre run of cable under the house and that they would have to look at Passive principles in more detail. Hope this helps somebody in the future

[ProDave]

With these things there is a huge difference between what a suit at a desk says, and what the men on the ground will do.

 

If you can get the suit happy, the men on the ground will not bat an eyelid at 4 metres of cable inside the house.

[joe90]

An example of getting information in writing/email, ask me how I know!

[PeterW]

Any chance of putting a meter box elsewhere on the site and then running your own incomer..?? Gets round the problem of them wanting you to jump through hoops. 

[joe90]

My meter box is in my detached garage as I did not want it in our “cottage” nice brick walls.

[Pete]

11 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Any chance of putting a meter box elsewhere on the site and then running your own incomer..?? Gets round the problem of them wanting you to jump through hoops. 

It is all sorted now but the answer to your question is no, that is why it needed to go inside. I suppose we could have put it in the detached garage but this would have meant a further 40 metres of 3 phase cable which was getting expensive. I just wanted people to know it can be positioned inside but you also need to know the downside if anything goes wrong with the ducting/cable in the future.

[Nickfromwales]

To clarify, 4m of underground ( under slab ) run before rising up through the slab, or 4m of exposed cable inside the dwelling?

If its the latter then I expect them to start whinging at 3m, but if the former then they're just being ridiculous.

As Dave says, the guys on the ground are the ones to keep on side with, and when I asked for about 6m of internal cable ( on a gentleman agreement that it would be lost in 400mm of ceiling void, they just said they'd look the other way. They also reconnected all the meters (  job was a relocation of two, and one new service ) which they're not obliged to do either. 

3 phase seems to be coming up a lot nowadays with folk having various recommendations for future proofing with EV's and charging. A PITA for load balancing and PV integration though.