Who can do this work ?

[canteron]

Hallo, I've moved into a house that used to have storage heaters but is now on an oil boiler for heating. All the storage heaters have now been removed and there are just a lot of blank fronted electrical boxes where they used to be. I got told that it is a three phase wiring and it doesn't need to be now so I can get it all updated. So I know who to ring can anyone explain what bits can be done by which engineers ?

Do i need to call the electricity company the electricity supplier or a local electrician to remove it all ? I'm hoping that one person can do everything including removing all four fuseboxes inside the house to save having lots of different engineers around.

A photo of the box outside. Thankyou

 

[Murdochcat]

any photos of the fuseboards / consumer units ?

 

[ericmark]

Not sure if you would want to get rid of the three phase, handy for EV charging etc. But however you do it, you will need an electrician to advise on what needs doing, not sure if there is a charge for having three phase? But I know where I work the cost of removal = standing charge for 10 years, so it was decided to leave it for future use.

 

[canteron]

I knew I should have takena photo of those, sorry. I will move everything around tomorrow that is piled up in front of them tempararily and take some pictures. Do i need to take a picture of each one at a time or will one big picture of everything including the strange see through plastic bits between the fuse boxes be alright ?

The fuseboxes are full of little switches does that mean there consumer unit and not a fuseboard ? Sorry if I called them by the wrong name.

 

[canteron]

The electricity company is Yorkshire Electricity Board. I pay eon for my bills if that is any use ?

The storage heaters where taken out before I moved into the house. I will not need a charging point for a car as I don't like electric cars.

 

[ericmark]

A google says

Is there a standing charge for 3-phase supply?

Three phase or single phase, the standing charges are the same. If the supply is larger than 70kVa, there will be an availability charge levied by the DNO which will appear on the bill, as will the climate levy charge.12 Mar 2021

My standing charge for a split tariff single phase supply is 59.14p per day, for the single tariff it was 62.21p per day, so what is your standing charge? It does vary supplier to supplier, but unless your paying over the odds to have a three phase supply, then no point in getting rid of it.

 

[JohnW2]

.... I got told that it is a three phase wiring and it doesn't need to be now so I can get it all updated. So I know who to ring can anyone explain what bits can be done by which engineers ?

I'm sure that you do not "need" a 3-phase supply at the moment, but there's no harm, in having it, and with most (all?) suppliers it doesn't make any difference to what you pay (if you look on-line, you can get 'quotes' for electricity supply tariffs without being asked whether it is a single-phase or 3-phase installation).

As everything gradually changes from other fuels to electricity (electric vehicles, heat pumps etc.) it's not impossible that you might need (or, at least, benefit by having) a 3-phase supply in the future -so if I were in your position I would keep the 3-phase supply. If you reverted to a single-phase supply now, and then wanted/need to have it upgraded to 3-phase at some point in the future that upgrading probably would cost yopu a significant amount.

For what it's worth, I'm in essentially the same position. When I moved to my present home, a few decades ago, I inherited a 3-phase supply. I have never 'needed' it to be 3-phase, but there's no way I would even consider having it changed to single-phase.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

Hallo, I've moved into a house that used to have storage heaters but is now on an oil boiler for heating. All the storage heaters have now been removed and there are just a lot of blank fronted electrical boxes where they used to be. I got told that it is a three phase wiring and it doesn't need to be now so I can get it all updated. So I know who to ring can anyone explain what bits can be done by which engineers ?

Do i need to call the electricity company the electricity supplier or a local electrician to remove it all ? I'm hoping that one person can do everything including removing all four fuseboxes inside the house to save having lots of different engineers around.

A photo of the box outside. Thankyou

View attachment 353261

Just contact the energy supplier to ensure you are on the best tariff for your needs.
The existing points can be converted to sockets etc, there is likely to be some changes needed at the consumer units which any adequate electrician can do.

 

[canteron]

Sorry to make you all wait so long but it took a while to move all the bits in front of the boxes but here is the best picture I could get. My flash is not working on my phone so it is a bit dull. The previous owner said that the only box that is working now is the one marked with a number three. I would like to be able to get all the boxes that do not need to be there taken away but my neighbour said something about having to get a new meter fitted as well because the one that is in the meter box outside is not the right one. That is why I would like to know who I should be getting in to do the work. He said the only people who are allowed to touch anything inside the meter box are the electricity company. Is that correct ?
Thank you

 

[JohnW2]

... The previous owner said that the only box that is working now is the one marked with a number three. I would like to be able to get all the boxes that do not need to be there taken away ...

That presumably means that only one of the 3 phases is currently being used. There's no reason why you couldn't have all the currently unused consumer units (and associated bit) removed, but still retain the 3-phase supply.

... but my neighbour said something about having to get a new meter fitted as well because the one that is in the meter box outside is not the right one.

It is presumably a 3-phase meter, but will still work fine (and register the right usage - they only know about the total across all 3-phases, even if two of them have 'zero' usage) if you are only using one of the three phases. Indeed, neither the DNO nor your supplier need to even know that you are only using one of the phases - but, as I've said, I believe that it would be sensible to retain all three, just in case you need them in the future.

That is why I would like to know who I should be getting in to do the work. He said the only people who are allowed to touch anything inside the meter box are the electricity company. Is that correct ?

Any electrician could remove the 'unused bits', but the DNO or supplier might have to deactivate the installation (by removing the service fuses) whilst the electrician does that.

Kind Regards, John

 

[canteron]

Thankyou JohnW2 so do I need to contact all three really and get them to come on the same day to get the work done or would there be some way for them to do there part of the job then go and come back when the other people have done there part to put there part back again ?

I was surprised to see so many pieces of equipment in the meter box outside as in my old house there was just a meter a big fuse and a very big red switch that i could turn the whole supply off into the house with. There is not one of those in this house so how would the electrician turn everything off when he does the work ? Woudl he have to fit one of those type of switches on every phase of the wires in the box to make it safer ?

 

[JohnW2]

Thankyou JohnW2 so do I need to contact all three really and get them to come on the same day to get the work done ...

You wouldn't need both DNO and supplier, and maybe no either. Arrange an electrician and then she/he will hopefully sort out anyone else that's needed.

... or would there be some way for them to do there part of the job then go and come back when the other people have done there part to put there part back again ?

If DNO or supplier are needed, they would have to both disconnect and reconnect your supply and, between those two activities,you'd have no electricity at all - so 'on different days' would probably not be a very clever idea. Hopefully, your electrician will be able to arrange for someone to disconnect the supply, then wait whilst she/he just disconnects the unwanted bits from it, whereupon the supply can be re-connected. The rest of the electrician's work can then be done 'at their leisure'

I was surprised to see so many pieces of equipment in the meter box outside ...

Is that all in an outside meter box? It shouldn't be!

... a very big red switch that i could turn the whole supply off into the house with. There is not one of those in this house so how would the electrician turn everything off when he does the work ? ...

The (one an d only) reason the electrician may need to involve DNO/supplier is to 'turn everything off' whilst she/he did the initial parts opf the work

Woudl he have to fit one of those type of switches on every phase of the wires in the box to make it safer ?

You can discuss that with the electrician. It could well be a good idea 'for the future' (for when other work is required.

Kind Regards, John

 

[canteron]

Thankyou again JohnW2, it is very helpful all this information. It will stop me looking like a fool when I contact an electrician. One of my work colleagues has just had some work done at his house and was very happy with the workmanship. Alternatively I suppose I could use that checker trade site as I've been told they do not allow advertisements on there unless they have been verified.

I would not be worried about losing electricity for a few days as I could just have a few days away somewhere while the work is done and arrange for the keys to be dropped off with the electrician if they where happy with that arrangement.

All the boxes in the second picture are in the utility room part of the house not the meter box. Sorry if I made it sound like they where. I was just referring to the extra boxes that are above the big fuse and the meter inside the meter box in the first picture. Would that white box above the big fuse be an isolating switch like I had in my old house but just a different type with a switch behind the cover ? Just thinking that maybe if it is that might make it a lot easier for the electrician to do his job. Or if I decide to leave the three phase as it is would it require three isolators fitting ? I am just a bit concerned that it might need a bigger meter box fitting with all the associated extra work.

I have not had any paperwork from eon yet as I have only been in the house for 2 days and I will be honest that I have not contacted them yet because the electricity was working and the previous owner had left a copy of the meter readings he had given to them. I will also be asking if I can have a smart meter put in so I wanted to try to do it all in one go with as few telephone calls as possible. I do not like calling companies up because of all the different options that you have to work through before you get to talk to a real person so the less times I have to do that the better.

So just to recap once the Electrician has been down to do all his work would I just be left with the one wire coming into the house instead of three and just the one switch box (is that what you called the CU ?) instead of eight like there is at the moment ? That would be perfect as it would tidy that part of the utility room up superbly.

One last thing. How come there are four different coloured wires in the meter box ? I thought the colours where blue brown and a green yellow like my old house but this one has a lot of grey ones as well. Is this because it is three phase ?

Thankyou again JohnW2 (and all the other repliers) for your assistance. I like to try to get an understanding of what will happen before I get any work done so I do not get any nasty shocks when I see everything getting removed !

 

[SUNRAY]

As John mentions, contact an electrician and arrange a visit. There is a reasonable chance some of those existing circuits can be re-used to add more sockets with insignificant amounts of effort.

The row of clear fronted boxes between the consumer units are very likely controlled to active the old heater points during cheap rate (overnight), and also very likely to be the only reason the other 3 consumer units don't currently do anything.

How big is this house? without being able to read the MCB labels to see what they do that seems to be a lot of circuits. Is it possible to to take closer picture of all 4 consumer units with the lid open, more like this:

So we can read the labels?

The lid looks to be hinged at the top like a fanlight window.

 

[canteron]

Thankyou SUNRAY. The house is a five bedroom detached but not what I would call huge. There are a total of thirteen different rooms including a first floor bathroom and a downstairs shower room and toilet combined. Every room used to have at least one storage heater or two in the two living areas. The previous owner did used to have a fairly large workshop which isn't there anymore but it was just for his hobby of woodwork. He didn't have any massive machines in there as it was all basically DIY.

As I mentioned earlier the flash facility on my phone isn't working for some reason so I will take some more pictures tomorrow when it is brighter and try to get them to be a bit better and hopefully in focus. I do not have a phone that has lots of different features on it as I just tend to use it for being able to keep in touch when I am out and about so it is not like the type you can get today that is like a computer but I will do my best and copy them to hear when I can.