Advice

[APSH]

Hi Guys Just a Quick question. sorry if this is a stupid question, and is a bit long winded. Going to do a consumer unit change soon and got in contact with the DNO to install a isolator for me. He arrived today and said that he could not do it as it is a porcealin fuse. It should be changed as they have a tendancy to break down. After a few calls to the Head Office he said that he could change it as the fuse looked in good condition, and so changed it. He then said that he will notify the relevent office to come out and change the service head, but this could take one month. But on the other hand as it is in good nic they may leave it as they would have to dig a hole in the street to disconnect the supply to the house in order to change the service head, and this would be costly and so had a kind of if it aint broke don't fix it attitude and that it would be ok to change the fuse board. My question is, as he did not know, what is the BS number for a porcealin fuse and what is the rated breaking capacity, as i did not have a tester to test Ze and prospective fault current and now worried about changing the board if it dont meet regs ie don't have correct breaking capacity to handle the fault current. also if no one is sure of bs number what can I put on the certificate as it don't have a bs number on the carrier or size of fuse. Also I would like to point out I want to use this for my assesment. Your input will be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Guest111]

Don,t worry about asking questions, the only stupid one you.ll ever ask is the one you ask after it all goes pear shaped and realise you should have asked before you started.round here they change heads without cutting off in road so depending on what they,re like where you are it may be sooner rather than later.If you can,t find the info you could always get customer to ring dno and try and hurry the job along,say something like they need to get the electrics done before they decorate or something like that,maybe dno could give you the info you need as well.

 

[Engineer54]

Never known any of the DNO's shut down a supply to change a domestic service head before!!

Think this meterman is telling you Porky Pies, either that or he hasn't a clue himself!! Probably the later, if he had to ring the office to get the go ahead to pull a fuse.

One would have thought that he would of had all the protective gear required to hand, to pull any suspect iron clad service fuses... lol!!!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Don,t worry about asking questions, the only stupid one you.ll ever ask is the one you ask after it all goes pear shaped and realise you should have asked before you started.round here they change heads without cutting off in road so depending on what they,re like where you are it may be sooner rather than later.If you can,t find the info you could always get customer to ring dno and try and hurry the job along,say something like they need to get the electrics done before they decorate or something like that,maybe dno could give you the info you need as well.

did it live at my house as well phil...they just put rubber socks over the incoming tails and wear thick rubber boots and rubber gloves....

 

[Engineer54]

did it live at my house as well phil...they just put rubber socks over the incoming tails and wear thick rubber boots and rubber gloves....

Was it a pitch filled service head at your house?? They normally chop the terminated fuse ends off and tape them up to get them through the old ceramic/wooden bushes. After they have first chipped away all the hardened pitch from the tails that is.. Messy ole job that!! lol!!

 

[Rockingit]

^^^ all I've ever seen them do, too. Think your meter man has a touch of the over-inflammatories.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Was it a pitch filled service head at your house?? They normally chop the terminated fuse ends off and tape them up to get them through the old ceramic/wooden bushes. After they have first chipped away all the hardened pitch from the tails that is.. Messy ole job that!! lol!!

i wasn`t sure eng...it was a while back now...its just i distinctly remember them going in with all this clobber on....and the rubber socks they used to cover the live conductors.....

 

[bradder]

Have come across this before where they dig a hole in the road.
"health and safety "
It is safer for the DNO man to dig a hole in the road in order to cut/isolate the incoming cable,and then change the cut out! Would probably depend on what access there is to the cut out.

 

[Jay Sparks]

I did a cu change fir my assessment and they had the old cast iron box with the fuse bolted in line. I was also told that he could not fit an ISO because the head needed changing. After a few calls to yedl, I told them it was a job for my assessment and they were out within 4 days. That dug a metre square hole in the drive and used some 3 core sea to the new head. The arrangement was a tns but if I hadn't been there when they did it, it would of looked like a tncs. Even my assessor thought I had got it wrong on my certs until I explained. I still didn't get the ISO fitted though. It just appeared one day out of thin air?????? Lol.







Jay

 

[APSH]

Hi guys Thanks for input will try to get them to come out quicker. If how ever they decide to not come out and change the service head, (as they say it is in an acceptable condition) What are my options to put on the cert? I guess I will have to make some calls to see if they can tell me the bs number and rating and make a note that they did not see any reason to rectify the service head and ask them for a letter to include in the paper work. Although the guy I spoke to last week didn't know the bs no. when booking the visit for today. Maybe there is something else I could put on the cert? would be glad of some more input.

Thanks

 

[telectrix]

what i would do, once isolator has been fitted, is to go ahead with the CU change, do EICas normal. in the boxes for DNO fuse details i would put a * and then a note in the comments.... * = awaiting verification/replacement by DNO

 

[Engineer54]

As far as i re-call the DNO'S have all given an undertaking to replace all these old cast iron/ceramic fused service heads by a given date, which i think has already passed or is very close too!! So they can't really turn round and say it's in ''acceptable condition''

These service heads have have given sterling service for 60/70+ years, but have now well passed there usefulness in terms of safety and modern practices... Any DNO that refuses to change/replace one of these old service heads, should be reported to whatever ombudsman is now responsible for this public industry, and let them sort it out!!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Never known any of the DNO's shut down a supply to change a domestic service head before!!

Think this meterman is telling you Porky Pies, either that or he hasn't a clue himself!! Probably the later, if he had to ring the office to get the go ahead to pull a fuse.

One would have thought that he would of had all the protective gear required to hand, to pull any suspect iron clad service fuses... lol!!!

They dug a hole & disconnected my girlfriends house when they changed the cast iron head there, & there wasn't a bit of PPE gear anywhere in sight and it was raining !!!

 

[Knobhead]

They dug a hole & disconnected my girlfriends house when they changed the cast iron head there, & there wasn't a bit of PPE gear anywhere in sight and it was raining !!!

Old school jointers. Tee shirt and a pair of shorts, what more do you want?

 

[telectrix]

obviously, these guys were northerners.