Incoming mains board in own flat in London worthy of antiques roadshow!

[Osborn]

Hello all. Never seen a cable service head like the one in the flat I've just moved into (AEI - from the 1960s?). It's 3 phase (60amp fuses), but only feeds two flats (mine and the guy downstairs). Have cleaned the filthy contacts on the live cable head fuse for my flat, and also cleaned contacts in the meter, and in the isolator switch it leads to (MEM and even older than the cable head, by the look of it)... Yes I know I should be getting EDF (supply co.) to do all this, and I could be fined a grand for breaking their seals, but the chances of either of those things happening are - erm - remote. Question is this. I want to upgrade the input and output 16mm meter tails to 25mm. Pulling the live fuse in the cable head - no problem - already done it several times - but are there issues with disconnecting and replacing the existing cable to the common neutral in the cable head? Would only be disconnecting/reconnecting the neutral for my flat at the cablehead common neutral - I'm not touching any of the wiring for the downstairs flat. All wisdom welcome. Many thanks from a newbie…

 

[Jonesy83]

ill give you some advice mate
leave it alone

 

[Engineer54]

I agree with nikmet, and others here, you have gone way past your competance and understanding, and are now into the realms of being outright dangerous to yourself and others. Leave what you clearly DO NOT Understand to those that DO!!

I hope that others here offer you no more assistance of any kind, apart from telling to STOP!!

 

[High Tower]

Re the earth, yes, assumed that all those metal (iron) connections with screwthreads, nuts and bolts would be poor connectors when compared with an unbroken length of 10mm2 copper conductor. So, seeking a more effective, lower impedance earth, have connected a new 10mm2 earth cable from the earth of the T&E at the top of the switch fuse to a new earth block - and connected that to the two bonds (!) the incoming mains cable - one standard 'wrap around' bond a few feet down the cable - and nearer the cable head - what looks like a PME connection.

Thinking a little more about this - and thanks for all the contributions guys - the one cable I can't get at, so I'm stuck with (can't replace) is the 16mmm2 T&E from the switch fuse to the CU (one floor above). So perhaps it's better to stay with 16mm2 all the way from the cable head. Until the switch fuse, it's all single core 16mm2, some of it without double insulation, so on the photo it looks narrower! The exposed cable ends (in the cable head and meter and switch fuse boxes) are dirty and damaged - so it's probably best replaced.

When you say you have bonded your cable, I assume when you say wrap round bond I'm hoping you havnt put a earth clamp on, if it says BS951 on the clamp then get it off before you irepribally damage the supply cable which will be your liability

 

[Spudnik]

And with that in mind, and the strong recommendation from the above members, please get in touch with your local DNO.

This is not something that even an electrician can touch.

Good luck and let us know what they say.