February 8, 20197 yr I've been quoted ~£20k to connect into SPE network for main electric. £13k if digging myself. Note sure on their routing but its about 200m across a field or down a road to the nearest supply. I've contacted "Independent" Connection Providers and quotes are pending. At least one said don't bother with independents as they're not interested in single connections. Any toptips to reduce this? If not then off-grid solar is looking attractive.
February 8, 20197 yr Can you post a breakdown of the costs? You already seem to have separated out the contestable elements (digging) Do you have a contractor yet given you a price for the digging part? I suspect a large part of the cost is the sheer cost of the very large cable needed. Going off grid is a lot more than a few solar panels and some batteries, you will need probably a wind turbine, and a generator as well. Have a word with @jamieled I believe he managed to find a grant scheme to pay part of the costs.
February 8, 20197 yr 20 minutes ago, ProDave said: Have a word with @jamieled I believe he managed to find a grant scheme to pay part of the costs. Think that’s the great north / south divide though as that grant only seems to be available in the north of Scotland and looks like @NWGEAR is in the SW.
February 8, 20197 yr We fought SP energy for 3 months about this, we had a quote for just under £25k and other than being able to get someone else to do the digging there seemed to be no way round it as the cable required was £10k, we too looked at other ways of powering the house but everything led us to a lot of money. we eventually won the fight and paid £4.5k, I’ve written about this all on here before but quite willing to share if you haven’t already seen it
February 10, 20197 yr On 08/02/2019 at 18:32, Christine Walker said: We fought SP energy for 3 months about this, we had a quote for just under £25k and other than being able to get someone else to do the digging there seemed to be no way round it as the cable required was £10k, we too looked at other ways of powering the house but everything led us to a lot of money. we eventually won the fight and paid £4.5k, I’ve written about this all on here before but quite willing to share if you haven’t already seen it Were you able to get the cost of the mains cable down? My biggest cost is 100m of mains cable which UK Power is charging £45 per meter for
February 10, 20197 yr The PITA is that it's hard to get hold of the DNO spec concentric cable. If you want to try and find a supplier, then it's usually 35mm² concentric the DNOs use I believe. The cable would have to meet the DNO spec for them to be happy with connecting it up, though, and they would probably want a paper trail to ensure it conformed to their spec.
February 10, 20197 yr the £4.5k we ended up paying was for everything, @WagasSP did all the work and provided everything!
February 10, 20197 yr We approached several independent companies when we first got the quote as tbh we just couldn’t afford the £25k they were quoting, most weren’t interested in doing the job and the one company that were interested could obviously only do the digging and laying of cables, still needed SP to do connections etc , we could have brought it down to just under £20k which was still out of budget, I can imagine how you’re feeling, we were beside ourselves wondering what to do, many sleepless nights were had until I got up one Sunday morning ready to challenge them! The email I wrote to them that day started off a chain of events at 9am the next morning which culminated in me dealing directly with one of their top men, I was like a dog with a bone and they knew it! After I eventually won and the project manager came out to see us we asked him if he knew the history which he didn’t, once we told him what had happened he said ‘ you know they do this all the time- extortionate prices but people usually just pay up, good for you challenging it!’
February 10, 20197 yr Interesting, thanks Christine. Well done you! My quote is nothing like yours...£6,200. It's mostly the cable which is £44 per meter and I need 100m of it. Sounds like expensive cable to me but then I don't know much!
February 10, 20197 yr 2 hours ago, JSHarris said: The PITA is that it's hard to get hold of the DNO spec concentric cable. If you want to try and find a supplier, then it's usually 35mm² concentric the DNOs use I believe. The cable would have to meet the DNO spec for them to be happy with connecting it up, though, and they would probably want a paper trail to ensure it conformed to their spec. At £45 per metre it will be a lot bigger than a 35mm concentric. Probably Wavecon 95 or bigger which is what they tend to use up here.
February 10, 20197 yr If it's of any help for comparison, my quote from SSE includes 10m of 95mm Wavecon 4 core for £145.
February 10, 20197 yr 11 minutes ago, jamieled said: Wavecon 4 core That's a thought, is there any chance 3-phase would be, overall, cheaper in this sort of case?
February 10, 20197 yr Found this via Google. Might be worth giving them a call to get a price comparison https://www.elandcables.com/cables/waveform-wavecon-cables
February 12, 20197 yr Author I'll post any update as I get it but for reference Christine pointed me to her thread here. Thanks!
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