So that's how you get the DNO to upgrade cables!

[imago]

Stone built (140 ish years old) end of terrace house with an old two wire onto ceramic doughnuts overhead supply. The DNO inspector came out to look at it and they're replacing everything from the head to the pole FOC.

What caused such a remarkable event? I'm sure we all know how they like to charge the customer. Well in spite it being required due to the incomer's condition (IMHO) it's not being replaced for electrical reasons. It's being replaced because the guy doing the pointing wants to have scaffolding up on that side of the house.

So if you need new overheads or incomers, ring the DNO and explain that scaffolding needs to go up.

 

[Knobhead]

Normally they just put a shroud around them. Once the jobs done they should take them off, they never do and you’re left with an eyesore sprouting from the side of the house. I’ve cut the shrouds off a few times.

The then NWEB replaced the OH’s that ran at the back of our street just at the same time as I was having the house rendered. They just left the singles hanging and gave me a bag of double cleats so I could fix them once the job was done.

If the supply is as old as you say, the singles will be paper insulated with a jute outer braid, this braid is impregnated with red lead. Over time they crack and the jute rots, so not surprising they’re changing them. I’ll bet the new job doesn’t look as good as the old one.

 

[imago]

It's not the neatest work so it's hard to imagine how it'll be worse when they've finished.

 

[Knobhead]

True, it’s not good.

E54 will go wappy when he sees that concentric breakout. Damp will track down the neutral with it not being sealed correctly. As for the line taps, the less said the better.

PS that is the cable I mentioned, it’s old.

 

[imago]

The core of the concentric is bare for about three inches before the curve, you just can't see it from that angle. Ordinary PVC tape on it which I doubt provides much in the way of insulation.

The kicker for me is that when an electrician (me) contacted them to say it needed sorting they didn't want to know unless they were charging for it. As soon as the scaffolding company contacted them the engineer/assessor/whatever was out within a couple of days and the job's booked in.

 

[Knobhead]

The cables at the back of our house wouldn’t have been replaced had I not called them in for a distribution fault.

It turned out to be a pig to find, eight guys + me for 5 hours. At one point the entire street was disconnected. I wasn’t the most popular person in the world with the neighbours. Two faults, high resistance line tap on the neutral and a N→E two houses away.

Every house in the street had a new 60A head, they fitted 100A for me.
I got quite friendly with the senior engineer, he helped me out a few times after that. Surprising what can fall off the back of a wagon.

 

[jimmymac]

The cables at the back of our house wouldn’t have been replaced had I not called them in for a distribution fault.

It turned out to be a pig to find, eight guys + me for 5 hours. At one point the entire street was disconnected. I wasn’t the most popular person in the world with the neighbours. Two faults, high resistance line tap on the neutral and a N→E two houses away.

Every house in the street had a new 60A head, they fitted 100A for me.
I got quite friendly with the senior engineer, he helped me out a few times after that. Surprising what can fall off the back of a wagon.

You know the old saying Tony...'its not what you know, it's who you know'.....I suppose in this case, it's both!

 

[Knobhead]

It pays to nurture a friendship like that. It helped having him living in the next village to me, so a drink at the local and………

I asked about dual electric/gas heating systems. He was a mine of information.