Got a call today from a local indoor market where my other half had dumped a load of business cards a while back. The lady who co-runs the place has a cafe and she'd lost power to half her sockets, the workshop unit were having issues with their 3 phase saw and the dry-cleaning unit had lost all its power. The building used to be a supermarket and has been changed around many times with the wiring being added to with little regard for loading and distribution. The main switch room has two DBs and their are two further DBs taken off these (one 3 phase and one single phase). Additionally a 3 phase isolator supplies a sub-main to an outbuilding housing a catering company. Took a while to work out what was what. One of the phases was down so I checked around and couldn't find any obvious faults. Put it down to overloading and advised measures to remedy the situation and correct a number of issues they've been having.
I tend to pretty much stick to domestic and office work so this job is a welcome change and a challenge which i'm looking forward to working on. One part of the current installation that puzzles me though is the amount of rewirable fuses on the incomers. It's three phase obviously and each phase has a main isolator with three 100A fuses. Making a total of 9 fuses. The meter tails are split into a multitude of connections and it's all pretty untidy. At first glance it seems to me that the whole system is hideously overloaded.
The other issue that came to light with the installation and was discovered during inspection was the fact that somebody unknown had reversed the incoming and outgoing tails on 2 of the meters so that they weren't registering power usage. YEDL's meter tampering team are paying a visit next week. The weird thing is that the installation is quite a few years old but all the tails are new colours.
There's a lot of good work for me which is great because i'm quiet at the moment but i'm approaching it cautiously and would certainly welcome any thoughts. Going back on Monday to discuss a plan of action so will try to get some photos.
One of the issues is the dry cleaner who is attempting to run 3 washing machines, 2 driers and a steam cleaner off a 20A radial. The whole place is pretty shambolic to be honest.
Should I
ray or ut the kettle on
I tend to pretty much stick to domestic and office work so this job is a welcome change and a challenge which i'm looking forward to working on. One part of the current installation that puzzles me though is the amount of rewirable fuses on the incomers. It's three phase obviously and each phase has a main isolator with three 100A fuses. Making a total of 9 fuses. The meter tails are split into a multitude of connections and it's all pretty untidy. At first glance it seems to me that the whole system is hideously overloaded.
The other issue that came to light with the installation and was discovered during inspection was the fact that somebody unknown had reversed the incoming and outgoing tails on 2 of the meters so that they weren't registering power usage. YEDL's meter tampering team are paying a visit next week. The weird thing is that the installation is quite a few years old but all the tails are new colours.
There's a lot of good work for me which is great because i'm quiet at the moment but i'm approaching it cautiously and would certainly welcome any thoughts. Going back on Monday to discuss a plan of action so will try to get some photos.
One of the issues is the dry cleaner who is attempting to run 3 washing machines, 2 driers and a steam cleaner off a 20A radial. The whole place is pretty shambolic to be honest.
Should I
ray or ut the kettle on 
