What is this wire?

eskimo39 · Nov 30, 2009

Hi guys, I was at a customers house today and am a little puzzled by his electricity meters.

Firstly he has a standard consumer unit which feeds lighting, sockets, cooker etc. This is fed from the meter via a henley block then fed from the same henley block there is a large metal timeclock which I assume to be economy 7 even though it doesn't look like any images I have seen online. This is in a rounded glass case whith supplier seals and has a large metal clock with 'on' indicated at 12am and 'off' indicated at 7am. This feeds a seperate consumer unit which in turn feeds 5 storage heaters.

Then what is confusing me is there is a small transformer plugged into a socket just next to the mains, this has a sticker on it saying "Do not unplug", this then seems to just have an earth (Green & Yellow) wire from it and a bare silver wire which go behind the consumer unit where I cannot get access so I have no idea what it does.

Does this have something to do with the timer? What does it do?

Thanks in advance

cbw · Nov 30, 2009

Need a pic as these do vary, sounds like one I have just done and may be the seperate power supply to the clock??????????????????????????????

Notsosmart · Nov 30, 2009

The tinned copper wire is probably the old equipotential earth wire which either went to the main eath terminal or to a steel water pipe under the house; Check continuity but if you dont need to remove it I would leave alone. If at any time the meter needs to be replaced then that's the time to consider stripping it out.

eskimo39 · Nov 30, 2009

Notsosmart said:
The tinned copper wire is probably the old equipotential earth wire which either went to the main eath terminal or to a steel water pipe under the house; Check continuity but if you dont need to remove it I would leave alone. If at any time the meter needs to be replaced then that's the time to consider stripping it out.

Why would this need a small transformer powering it (Similar to the size of a mobile phone charger) ? Thaks for the response.

CBW am there tomorrow so will take the old camera.

Cheers

UNG · Nov 30, 2009

Is the plug in unit a galvanic protection unit ?. I don't ever recall economy 7 meters having a separate power supplies

kung · Nov 30, 2009

Yep a pic would be good if poss ? your right about E7 and the timer theres lots out there old and new !

Des 56 · Nov 30, 2009

By the description it would seem to be an old Sangamo time clock
Is there a screw to slacken,twist the glass case off then pull out the mechanism ?
There should also be a push button on the side for overide.on/off
They also have little day markers that can be turned on/off (if they are the 7 day timers)in a little circular wheel
The in and out connections through the bottom

If it is this timer,they are an absolutely brilliant piece of past engineering skills and very accurate
Well worth keeping

kung · Nov 30, 2009

Des 56 said:
By the description it would seem to be an old Sangamo time clock
Is there a screw to slacken,twist the glass case off then pull out the mechanism ?
There should also be a push button on the side for overide.on/off
They also have little day markers that can be turned on/off (if they are the 7 day timers)in a little circular wheel
The in and out connections through the bottom

If it is this timer,they are an absolutely brilliant piece of past engineering skills and very accurate
Well worth keeping

Indeed ! my old metering trainer had 160 of these ! he loved them ! the sort of thing an old watch maker would like as well. Built to last !