ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (CoolWill), 250 guests, and 13 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,749
Member
[Linked Image from joetedesco.com]

This installation was typical in Messina, and I wondered if this was the way in which the supply to each building was made available?

These wires were all above the street over 8 feet and were run between buildings.

I think they were 230 volts?


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
That's typically Italian. All other countries I know of have either proper US style OH services with a riser or underground service with a meter inside the house. Only the Italian run Quadruplex OH on their facades.
It's 230/400V 3ph, you can see the 3 phases and the neutral bundled together. This is an extraordinarily bad one though, the ones I saw in ROme and some small villages were muchg neater, though still just plain Quadruplex clipped to the facades. Same with street lighting and phone lines.
Austrian underground services usually have a concrete housing, about 5' high with the PoCo fuses and the N/Ground bond at the road if the house is set back or the disconnect enclosure is sunk into the facade, sometimes also in the hallway, directly next to the front door (only apartment buildings).

Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 1
C
C-H Offline
Member
I've seen similar wiring in southern Spain.

Otherwise, I'll echo Ragnar. In Sweden the meter is often in a cabinet on the outside of the house. This to facilitate access for the meter guy and make tampering harder. Except for the countryside, OH services are non-existent.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 05-28-2003).]

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
D
djk Offline
Member
The gas/water pipework is much uglier. seems to be going in all directions.

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
In England, most of the services in towns have the mains run under the street with underground services tapped for each building.

Overhead services are used in more rural areas. Here's an older style service:
[Linked Image]

Newer drops use a cable with concentric neutral (this one has clearly been converted from the older style, as you can see the spare insulator):
[Linked Image]

Here's a wider view of the same drop:
[Linked Image]

You do sometimes see cables run along the wall of a building. We have a lot of what are called "semi-detached" houses in Britain (what you would call a duplex in the States), and where these exist in rural areas with overhead feeds you often see a single drop to one corner of the building and separate feeders tapped from the bracket to each half of the building.




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-30-2003).]


Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5