New electrical supply debacle

[Lorenzl]

Moving to the new house in a couple of weeks and I will need 3 phase supply as I am using an electric boiler and it is 26kW

Contacted UK Power networks and they came out and surveyed in 2 working days and gave me a price on the spot. It took another nine working days for the official quote and I then contacted eON for some days they had available to install a new meter. They gave me three possible days in a couple of weeks time. Went back to UK networks and they said the first day was available for them to install the supply. Returned to eON and said right lets go with this day - after waiting 20min to talk to somebody. 40min later I find that although the date previously quoted is available I can't have it as I need to give 30 day's notice. Was accidentally cut off and the operator called me back and after another 20 min and still no movement on the 30 days notice. The operator said they would see what they can do as we will be without hot water for at least 23 days. Had an email back saying they still couldn't move on the date and my boiler would run on single phase without knowing any details about it.

Very pissed off and tried calling the boiler supplier but it was 16:00 by then and they had gone home early. Also tried to contact another electricity supplier but they had closed at 16:00 on a Friday and their quoted time to reply to emails was nearly 2 working days

I remember when we built a house years ago and I only had to deal with the electricity board. I needed a temporary supply and within two weeks I had a new pole, supply and meter installed.

Looks like I will have to put an electric bar heater under the bath to heat up the water

 

[Spectric]

I assume there is no gas otherwise you would not want to run such a big electric boiler, but when I had three phase laid on I was lucky as there were no roads to be dug up and I dug the trench and laid the cable conduit to the meter location and that still cost me £2800 but the water company would not lay the new water pipe in the same trench because it had not been dug by them so you always get bureaucracy causing issues.

 

[Lorenzl]

No gas as you guessed @Spectric and not really enough room for a oil or propane tank.

Luckily we will have a pole in the garden which has three phase on it. To remove the overhead single phase and install the three phase is £2,900. I have to clear some bushes, install a meter box, hocky stick and dig a 6m trench; so the same as you. eON want £156 +VAT to install the meter.

 

[Ollie78]

This is not surprising. My parents are doing a bit of work and needed a cable supplying the neighbour to be removed from their house so they can knock bits down and do some renovation.
The electricity board responded with a map showing all sorts of nonsense that wasn`t even there or in completely different places.
My mum had to go around and take photos of the poles and wires and stuff and do a map.
When they sent out the 3rd guy he actually saw what they were on about and suggested they would need to re route the neighbours supply via the road, involving traffic lights and an astranomical bill ( the houses are semi detached ).
After much back and forth, they are allowing them to route it through the garden and letting them hire their own groundworkers at a 10th the cost, this has taken years to organise at this point.
To add to the insanity they won`t touch anything inside the house so you have to get your own sparky to be ready on the same day they do it to connect the inside bit.

It is the very defenition of farce, its amazing they can get away with this sort of ( for want of a non swear word ) utter incompetence.

Good luck

Ollie

 

[treeturner123]

All I can say is:-

Try dealing with Western Power!!

Several years ago it took them 6 month's from place of order to move a meter by putting it round the corner, less than 1m away and change the overhead supply from the SAME pole.

ie they had my money, over £1,000, for 6 months, then took less than half a day for 2 men to do a very poor job.

I still have to deal with them in my professional life and they are a nightmare!

Phil

 

[woodieallen]

Strange, isn't it. We never had any issues with Western Power.

 

[Marcusthehat]

Count your blessings you are not in Northern Ireland. The engineers who come out in power failures are excellent, truely, truely excellent, but NIE's quoting/pricing beauracy is mind-boggingly awful. Nor do they appear to wish to provide 3Ph(putting endless obstacles in the way) and quoting exhorbinate prices.
Marcus

 

[Lorenzl]

I was surprised they agreed to supply 3 phase to me; other people I have known in the past were unable to get it. Perhaps it is down to demand driven by electric car chargers?

 

[Lorenzl]

It has got worse; after well over an hour on the phone on Friday with eON and they are sticking to their 30 WORKING days notice. The engineer there said I could run my new boiler on single phase!
New date from UK networks 4th October so contacted eON again and another couple of hours on the phone and it seems there is a specialist engineering team for 3 phase. I don't know why they need to be specialist as they are still only screwing in a meter and connecting up the tails. Anyway they won't commit to a day but want a four day range. So I could be without electricity for four day's.
So we are now on six weeks without hot water but we will still have a single phase supply. I have seen a small LPG boiler on Amazon for ~£150 and might fit that. It is cheap enough to throw away at the end if it isn't very good.

I must say all the women I have spoken to at eON have done their best to sort things out. That is why I have been on the phone so long each time.

 

[Adam W.]

In Denmark having 3 phase in your house is classed as a human right so FOC.

Lovely!

 

[Myfordman]

Just run the boiler on single phase until the supply is ready. It will produce less power but you will still have some hot water

 

[Lorenzl]

I did wonder that @Myfordman but the manufacturer was adamant it wouldn't work. Would I have to link all the phases to one as the controller would only be on one phase and another function could be on a different phase? Each phase goes to a individual heater.

 

[Myfordman]

You would bypass all that and connect direct to some of the elements. It the heaters are star wired then it better but to delta connection would still get you some hot water.

 

[Spectric]

and it seems there is a specialist engineering team for 3 phase.

That sounds like a load of dogs dangly bits, the entire UK electrical distribution is three phase and single phase for domestic is just a phase and neutral with houses connected in groups to each phase.

 

[Spectric]

Some of these heating elements are only in a star configuration where they only connect to three phase and no neutral, others bring out all terminals for the end user to connect to in which case you could run a single element with live neutral. Are you sure it is 26 Kw ?

 

[jonw1664]

That sounds like a load of dogs dangly bits, the entire UK electrical distribution is three phase and single phase for domestic is just a phase and neutral with houses connected in groups to each phase.

If only you were right. Where I am in Wiltshire the nearest three phase supply is two km away. The wonderful people at SSEN decided many years ago that they could save money by only running two cables on the poles and having what they call “split phase” transformers on the poles, this means that the best you can get is two 240v supplies. Bizarrely all the cables from the transformers to the houses are three phase compatible- try figuring that out! I have been waiting three months for a quote to upgrade but I have been told informally that it will be more than £30,000!!!
In some parts of the country they run three phase mains and can T off with one or three phases but not round here.
So the government are pushing for electric cars but the infrastructure won’t support charging them!
In what other scenario would you have to pay the provider Yo install the infrastructure to then charge you to use it? If I want a gas tank, the supplier provides it FOC, and then makes money out of me buying gas, why can’t the electricity companies work the same way?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Because the infrastructure and the supply are mutually exclusive.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I paid £750 for a 3ph supply to my old workshop ten years ago (I never actually used it) - the meter was six feet from the supply.

 

[clogs]

when I lived in SW France whilst digging footings for a mate.....
he said dig a large trench for the service's 750mm W x 1M deep.....
the water, electric and phone (no over head cables due to planning rules) turned up at odd times....refused to use our trench....which we then filled in.....
when the services turned up to do it themselves they re dug our trench....!!!!!!
funny tho, the the water supplier dug in the same place as the electric comp...
we said dont do it....u guessed it they went thru the 3phase power cable.....dohhhhh...
morons all of em.....all over the world.....
any one hear/remember off a Brian RIX farce.........?
went to a few in the Wilmslow Rex.....

I want three phase here, the supply is already on the pole.....
the distance from the pole, across the drive, 6m high ovehead cable, is less than 10m.....
we got a few word of mouth quotes of 10,000 euros.....original estimates before we bought the house was 1500.........
so we will be going OFF-GRID ASAP.....so stuff em....
almost as cheap to buy the solar equipment....

 

[Spectric]

The wonderful people at SSEN decided many years ago that they could save money by only running two cables on the poles and having what they call “split phase” transformers on the poles, this means that the best you can get is two 240v supplies.

That is normal for rural supplies, they run 11Kv to cover the distance and then drop to 230 volts to supply properties, larger requirements like farms can be supplied with 230-0-230 to allow more load but then a lot of farms do require a three phase supply so living near a farm could have advantages.