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Joined: Aug 2001
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The legal standard in the U.K. was changed to 230V +10%/-6% some years ago, with the aim of it becoming 230V +/-10% at some point in the future.

For all practical purposes though, we're still on 240V +/-6%. I don't know if any utilities have actually started installing new xfmrs to give a nominal 230/400V, but cewrtainly in this area I've not seen any. Allowing for voltage sag during periods of heavy demand, everything I see is still a nominal 240/415V.

Out of curiosity, I just checked the line voltage in my home. I'm reading 227V, but this is mid-day on a Saturday when it's always low (no city gas here, so lots of electric stoves running, and it's a chilly day, so probably extra heat turned up as well). During low-load periods it normally sits arounds 242-243V. Average-load periods (e.g. late evening) seem to be around 237-238V most of the time.

Yeah, I know.... It's sad. Nothing better to do of an evening that sit around monitoring the utility line voltage. [Linked Image]


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-08-2003).]

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djk Offline OP
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Checked here just out of curiosity three times today.

Exactly 220V late night, 219V early morning, 218V late evening (cookers running).. doesn't look like the ESB is making a big deal of switching to 230V. They've been using it since 1927 so I doubt they'll be rushing to rip out tens of thousands of pole top transformers scattererd right across the country.

(I'd say the choice was made because Siemens were the only company who made anything like an economic bid and had a pretty standardised system. There was a possibility, given the Irish-American relationship at that time that we could have gone for a US Edison system! Ireland could have been on 110V 60hz not much of an issue for lightblubs but would have made appliences damn expensive though.)

The 230 V spec just means that utilities have to be much more aware of low voltage in 220 V areas and possibily more importantly the UK (& Malta/Cyprus/Gibraltar??) utilities at the very least need to make sure that they don't spike much above 240V. Might just mean we get a cleaner, steadier supply at 220/240.

If anyone wants to take a virtual tour with full specs of some of ESB Ireland's powerplants click here:
http://www.esb.ie/main/about_esb/power_stations.jsp

Full quicktime 3D tours.

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djk Offline OP
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here's the ESB's official fusing recomendations: Apparently our installation shouldn't have 20Amp MCBs for radial sockets! oops

a)Disc Colour
b)Strength
c)Circuit

a)Green
b)6 Amp
c)Lights

a)Red
b)10 Amp
c)Lights

a)Brown
b)16 Amp
c)Socket outlets - radial

a)Blue
b)20 Amp
c)Waterheater, storage heater

a)Black
b)35 Amp
c)Socket outlets - ring Cooker Electric Shower

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Sunday afternoon, 4:15pm and the line is reading 237V at the moment, which is about normal. It will probably sag a little over the next couple of hours as ranges etc. come into use, although not as much as during the week. A lot of people cook their main meal at lunchtime on a Sunday, so 12-1pm time is usually a low.

Interesting on the Irish fuse colors. The U.K. standard for many years has been:

5A = white
15A = blue
20A = yellow
30A = red

(Substitute 6/16/32 for 5/15/30 for the newer MCBs.)

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djk Offline OP
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Those are the old Diazed fuse colours. Plenty of distribution boards still fully diazed fused.

At least Diazed/Neozed fuseboxes were safe though in so far as they didn't allow you to insert the wrong fuse cartridge and they're almost impossible to by-pass or use re-wirable fuses in.

Did the UK use a lot of boards that could use rewirable fuses?

Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 134
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Yes, I'm afraid the UK used rewirable fuses in most domestic & small commercial installations until around 15 to 20 years ago.
Unfortunately there are still many thousands of these rewirable fuse boxes still in service.

Joined: Dec 2001
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Austria/Germany have gray for 16A Diazed!
There are quite a few ways of overfusing a Diazed circuit. Removing the key at the bottom of the element is only one. others are: Open the burnt fuse and replace the fuse wire with a paper clip. Wrap a single strand from an old extension cord around the outside of the fuse. (I saw my uncle doing that about 8 years ago when a fuse blew and he didn't have a spare one).
When we moved into our new appartment there were 2 circuits which should have been 6A, or 10A with grinded teeth. One set of fuses (hot&neutral) had the key rings removed, the other set replaced with grey 16A ones. I assume originally there were ocre 4A ones.
Pink 2A ones never really caught or have long since disappeared.
25A is yellow (commonly used for pre-meter fuses, either 2x25A (appartment single phase feed) or 3x25A (3ph, in most cases because an electric range is used), some older appartments are even on 2x20A (for example our 100m2 appartment in rather luxurious area of Vienna, house built in 1913, wiring part original, service and risers to the pre-meter fuses on each floor have been replaced during the switchover from 127/220V 3ph w/o neutral to 220/380V in the 60ies or 70ies, back then the house with 8 appartments of more or less the same size got a new 60A 3ph service). Lots of gas, coal and wood heating here, AFAIK about 3/4 of the households here are cooking with gas, heating even more)

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djk Offline OP
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Here a modern consumer unit always has a 63Amp Neozed fuse and a main isolating switch on board.

Pre-meter is

60/80/100amp sealed black unit.

3phase isn't really used very often domestically although in small commercial it's fairly common. cookers / showers just take a 35amp single phase 220V circuit on heavy cable. Water heaters usually take 20 Amp. I've seen plenty of 3phase water heaters in France.

A lot of cookers ship to here with the possibility of hooking them up to 3phase though. 220/380 (230/400)

The standard UK cooker control (with socket outlet) is outlawed here for some reason. Any explanation?
They used to be quite common in the 1960s and 70s. All that's allowed now is a large flush fitting dual pole switch on the wall. Sockets have to be on socket circuits.

What was the point of that connector in the uk?

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Yes, the rewireable fuses were pretty much standard for domestic installations up until the last 20 years or so, although cartridge fuses (BS1361) and MCBs might have been used on upmarket systems. Wylex still manufactures replacement rewireable carriers for their standard range panels:
[Linked Image from members.aol.com]
The older style carriers were white porcelain with a different type of contact arrangement, but these went out of production years ago.

On the combined cooker control/socket, they've been around in the U.K. for decades. A long time ago, it was sometimes the case that the socket incorporated on the cooker unit (BS546 15A in the early days, BS1363 later) was the only one in the whole kitchen! It was most often used for ubiquitous British tea kettle, although sometimes the placement of the unit above the rear of the range didn't make for the best positioning of cords.

They're still obtainable and used, although modern kitchens are tending toward just a simple DP switch unit for the cooker now that a whole array of counter-top sockets is the norm.

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djk Offline OP
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They were commonplace here but are now banned, presumably due to the lack of adequate protection for the socket, especially the potential lack of an RCD.

On a different point, don't have access to this document but...

As far as I know IS 180 (Irish Standard) recognises CEE 7/7 schuko 16 amp side earthed sockets, BS 546 and BS 1363 as suitable for use here.

I am open to correction on that one.

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