ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades New supply -- Awkward location

As an update Paul,
Gordon uses an extra 2 panels in addition to what he already has to help heat his water.
With wood and coal being looked upon as just not used these days, he uses the 2 panels to pre-heat the water.
Anyone that says that Solar energy is a waste of time hasn't tried it.

You might have seen the photo in the recent thread about the bad weather, but the wind turbine on this project suffered considerable damage when the mast came down in the storm a few weeks ago:



As well as a new set of blades, I had to replace the main bearings and the complete rotor assembly (shaft and permanent magnet in one) which took a pounding.

It cost about £450 just for the parts!


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-02-2007).]

Here we are over a year since the last post in this thread, with another chapter of the long-running saga.

The owner (pushed by his wife, I understand) has finally paid out the £90 survey fee and had EDF come out to provide a firm quote for laying on mains power. They arranged the visit for the day I went over there to rewire the lighting on an old tractor (I get all the good jobs! ) so I could chat with the assessor.

For anyone who has forgotten, there is a very rough sketch of the situation further up the thread.

We've just received the quotes back:

Option 1. Upgrade the 1-ph xfmr (which I found out from the EDF guy is 15kVA) feeding the house behind the pond, then run 240V down the pole and underground across the woods to the rear boundary fence, where we would have built a meter enclosure. Price = £9,400 including VAT. Expensive enough, and then more money for us to get power to the other end of the land, but it's a non-starter because despite further bargaining the owner of that other house refuses to grant permission for the cable to be buried all of 25 ft. on his land, alongside a fence to a paddock.

Option 2. Go back to where the 3-ph xfmr is located beyond the poultry farm. Too far to run LV says EDF, so 11kV down the pole from there, along the side of the road, but got to be underground because of local planning rules. Then build a small enclosure for a xfmr on the corner of his plot. Price = A not-so-cool £52,875.

Whoa!!!
53K??.
Some lifestyle block owners over here are getting shocks like that when they go to get the power reticulated to their block out in the sticks here.
I don't think a lot of people realise that the power isn't at your gate like it is in town.
Having your house a long way off of the road is just asking for it too, the further the run is, the bigger the cable will be and cable isn't exactly getting any cheaper these days.

Wow, I have really enjoyed reading this entire thread from the beginning. It's hard to believe that in this day and age that a customer can't get electric power without such complications.

Here, we order electric service and we get it. Unless it's way out of the ordinary, we get it for a minimum connection fee (a few hundred dollars in EXTREMELY unusual cases, usually free). Most, if not all property boundaries include utility easements for at least ten feet on all sides and the property owner has absolutely NO say in what is buried there. If I want a 600 amp 3 phase service to my storage shed, the POCO has the right to bury whatever it takes even if it's along my neighbor's property line the whole way.

I know this because my front yard contains 7,200V, 120/240 LV distribution, three telephone cables and CATV, all in this easement area. When utilities are marked for digging, my yard looks like the American Flag with all of the painted stripes!

Indeed, but the issue is that the utility has to cross someone else's property, not just follow a property line. They probably have similar easements across the pond, i'd imagine.

What I can't believe is that you can't have overhead lines in front of a poultry farm!

Settle down, son, what I had the idea of was a braced angle pole taking the 11kV lines across the road on a 45 degree angle then another braced angle pole on the other side of the road, then to a straight run to the transformer pole, DDO's, etc.
You have to have done this work before you can call it out.

Do what? He says in the post above that the PoCo says overhead lines are not allowed and both options involve UG.

I have no idea what you are trying to communicate.

The pond wouldn't be a problem in this case anyway, as it's within the boundaries of the piece of land in question and under the same ownership.



That's our local "planners" for you. They've become almost obsessed with the idea that no new cables should go overhead, at least not any for local 11kV and 240/415V distribution. Of course, we have all those people who constantly complain about "ugly power lines" who agree with this, but I don't think many of them realize just how much more expensive it becomes to run everything underground.

haha, i meant the atlantic ocean!