Advice sought

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This is thearetical.

me and my neighbour (we live in a pair of semis) want to supply electricity from our houses to external building/workshops). if we were both to run seperate cables to a communal point and from there to the external fuseboard, would that?

A. Blow up
B. Not be properly protected bu individual rcds.
c. Be fine if the protection was right
d. consume electricity equal from each individuals supply
e. Consume electricity from just one supply.
 
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If you're on different phases and you short your live conductors together then something will blow up extremely quickly! I think other then that you'll have to draw a diagram of your theoretical situation.
 
All except C, and probably drifting between A, D and E as time passes.
 
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On the basis that you may at some point fall out over this joint project, would it not be better to install separate supplies, with separate meters and then divi up the costs on any joint projects? I think there may be a risk depending on how you wire it, that not only will the workshop consumption pull from both consumer/meter units, but any other consumption may also do the same. Not to mention that the circuits might actually be rather long if not taken back to the consumer unit.
 
If you're on different phases and you short your live conductors together then something will blow up extremely quickly!
I would think that's by far the most likely outcome. As far as I am aware, it's quite uncommon for adjacent properties to be on the same phase (except, perhaps, in some rural situation, which each phase being distributed separately).

Even if on the same phase (as above, I think unlikely) there are so many other issues, or potential issues, that I wouldn't even start thinking about it for the sake of saving a bit of cable etc.!

Kind Regards, John
 
There's probably something about such a setup prohibited under the ESQCR regulations. The option least likely to cause danger is to have one supply from one house, stick a meter on it and the other neighbour pays for half of the units used.
 
There's probably something about such a setup prohibited under the ESQCR regulations.
I'm not sure that ESQCR applies to what a consumer does beyond 'the point of supply' but, for obvious reasons, the DNOs would take a very dim view of such practices, and might even threaten to withdraw supplies.
The option least likely to cause danger is to have one supply from one house, stick a meter on it and the other neighbour pays for half of the units used.
... or even, even fairer (and avoiding any of the almost inevitable arguments!), a meter just in the feed to the outbuilding of the house whose supply isn't being used.

Kind Regard, John
 
I would think that's by far the most likely outcome. As far as I am aware, it's quite uncommon for adjacent properties to be on the same phase (except, perhaps, in some rural situation, which each phase being distributed separately).

Even if on the same phase (as above, I think unlikely) there are so many other issues, or potential issues, that I wouldn't even start thinking about it for the sake of saving a bit of cable etc.!

Kind Regards, John
In my experience most houses are wired in clusters. 4-5 houses at a time on one phase tap. My current house has a single phase cutout and cables looping in and out, meaning at least one neighbour is on the same phase. They run under concrete so cant tell which house is next etc. My mums house is midway through a chain of 5 on one phase tap from the street. The live and neutral run in DI singles across the back of the 5 houses, tapping off to each house.
 
I might vary by "board" and the areas of the old RECs. Where I used to live, they tapped off houses in rotation, so each house would be on a different phase from its two neighbours. It was assumed that this would keep the phases near enough balanced. But in some country areas, I have seen a feed to one house, then run through the house wall to feed the adjacent house.
 
Bizarrely, we have a 3 phase cutout and we're connected to one of the phases. When they changed the cutout to a modern one, they mixed up the phases so there's a good chance were on a different one now. They said they only sequence them if they're giving you all three, otherwise it doesn't matter.
 
My mums house is midway through a chain of 5 on one phase tap from the street. The live and neutral run in DI singles across the back of the 5 houses, tapping off to each house.
Yes, as I said, it's not uncommon in rural areas to see the phases distributed separately like that.

Kind Regards, John
 
When they connected my new supply the selection of phase was down to which was the easiest phase core in the street cable to tap into.
 

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