Any Electricians About? Length Of Tails From Meter

[agent_zed]

Hi,

hoping there is an electrician who can give a rough answer to this..

 

So just bought a house and it has an old school meter in the middle of the house with an armoured cable around the house and coming in through an old wooden window frame to the meter which is just above the window. This then goes to a main trip switch and then onto old fuse boxes with no trips.

 

So i don't get killed by the 1950s wiring i'm completely rewiring the house.

 

What i'd like to do is move the meter to the external wall into a standard box. Then put the isolator trip switch also in that box. The trouble is the box would be at the bottom of the wall so the tails would have to go up the cavity wall 9ft then across the ceiling in the joists 12ft through the wall to the fuse box.

 

Is that distance too far between the isolator and fusebox?

 

 

To confuse matters i have 4kw solar panels that need to feed back into the wiring. So could they go into the tails or need to go right back to the meter?

 

any pointers would be helpful, i'll obv speak to the proper people before doing anything but just want to know in principal if this is a viable option.

 

thanks

[fry61]

Don't mess with the wiring before the meter, that all belongs to your supplier & they have very dim views of non-company interference. They will ( maybe) install a new meter & box in/on your outside wall in exchange for a good heap of pennies.

After the meter I recall that they have no interest in the wiring other than it should be installed by " a qualified person " with "Part P " certificate for wiring in Kitchen, Bathroom & Outside works.

 

That's all I remember; been retired for 10 years now; stopped sparkying around the start of "Part P" domestic rules. Could still work on industrial up to 650 volts ( & blow up factories) but not on house bashing.

 

Only my thoughts ---- wire between meter/isolator/earth protection device in meter box with 25mm CSA double insulated singles & 10mm earth wire ( EPC ?) to your new distribution boards.

Edited December 11, 2014 by florin metal works

[sj-bradley]

As far as I know, tails are the main feed and as such are NOT fused until they go through the main 100 Amp Electricity board fuse.

 

After the consumer unit and circuit breakers, the rest is protected by them.

 

The solar panels though need to be synchronised through a control unit which is beyond my knowledge.

 

As Bob says above (faster typer than me ! ) the electricity board is responsible for tails up to the meter and you are required to get a "competent" person to install the rest of your circuits and sign them off.

 

As the insulation test meters fetch over £300 and the law requires an electrical installer to be LIABLE for the installation, it's best left to them as they need to calculate things like Volt drop over distance with load and heating effects of cable installs etc

 

They are allowed to get as hot as 70 degrees as a limit so you cannot just throw any old cable in and hope it's ok.

 

Simon.

[agent_zed]

cool thanks for the replies. Yep certainly won't be playing with any of the meter side of things. I would just do the work like install a box in the wall and everything after the meter and get is signed off by an electrician.

 

I might be confusing the term tails. So yes electric board would be moving the meter and any wiring before hand. I would just be installing the fusebox and house wiring.

 

The current setup already has a circuit breaker before the old style fuse box(s!) so i was wondering if that 'main' circuit breaker could be in the outside cupboard directly from the meter and then the power from there to the fusebox would be protected incase of drilling through a cable etc.

 

I'm assuming a lot of the reason of having to have the meter close to the fusebox is for the above safety reason, but didn't know if that changed if you have a circuit breaker next to the meter.

 

The solar panels i guess i'll speak to the installer but they are currently all set up correctly and have a monitor to show how much has been put into the grid etc. Just didn't know if they have to go direct into the meter or can go into the same wire the fuse box is powered from.

 

The only other option i can see is moving the meter into the garage the other side of the house as there should be enough armoured cable for the electric company to do that. But from what i've read i think the meter should be accessable from the outside of the house. Which it currently is not (hopefully the cost may be less as would be moving it for their benefit also)

 

 

 

thanks

[philshelton]

If the consumer unit is over 3 meters from the meter I has to have a switched fused isolation close to the meter end, or that was regs when we did a extension for a customer 5 years ago

[owlman2222]

Phil is right you need a fused isolator switch if fuse box is greater then 3 meter away,

 

the solar panels need to go fuse box side of the meter and you will need a grid tie to connect and transform the power as well as give island protection. if you connect before thew meter your meter will not spin backwards when the sun is out and you are not using any electricity.

 

please be mindful that it may seem easy to install your home electric, but if you are not confident in installing please get a professional round as i am sure you don't want your house burning down due to you getting the electrics wrong and i am not sure you will be cover on your insurance.

[Guest icejslim]

Just wanted to reiterate what has already been said generally 3m is max distance from service head to consumer unit via meter, but this is all down to local DNO regulations/recommendations. Any significant alterations to electrical installations require building regulations notification. This includes any works to speacial locations i.e. bathroom and kitchen. Basically in a nutshell anything other than changing a light fitting or socket require building regulations approval, easiest method is normally an electrician who can self certify i.e. Part P but there are other ways

 

 

[agent_zed]

Thanks guys. On the safety side i'm confident in doing all the work myself. My dad will be overseeing the work and he's rewired about 6 houses. Obviously it will be checked by a qualified electrician and we have a friend who is happy to check the work for signoff. I've got all the plaster board down so i'll have everything open so he can check everything before closing it up.

 

No tight corners, clipped at regular intervals, not too close to the floor boards, unrolling the wire without twisting etc.

 

We just weren't sure about the meter as we want the consumer unit in a different room to where the meter (+3) would be able to get to.

 

thansk