Distance from Meter to Fusebox
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what-a-mess
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Distance from Meter to Fusebox

by what-a-mess » Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:24 pm

I'm looking at buying a property which has its electricity meter in an adjacent agricultural shed which is owned by someone else. Aside from the inconvenience, which I think we can live with, I am slightly concerened by the distance between the meter and the house, which must be about 100m.

We will be getting everything re-wired so would probably replace the cabelling between the meter and fusebox anyway but would be interested to know if there are any technical issues that might cause us problems. We haven't started getting quotes for the work yet so want to know if this is something to look into before we finalise the purchase of the property or if it is relatively straight forward - obvioulsy I don't want to get hit with the cost of moving the meter if it is something we could have used as a barganing tool in the purchase.

After a brief look over the property the arrangement seems to be that the supply comes from a pole mounted transformer into the agrigultural building and then through a separate meter. The cable must then run through the roof space of this agricultural building, probably a length of 100m or so until is spans across to the house and then enters the fuse box.

Any thoughts are welcome.

sparx
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by sparx » Sun Aug 26, 2007 9:46 pm

Hi one main question to ask, & I suspect I know the answer already,
Who owns the meter? If the incoming main goes to the barn, then there will almost certainly be a company meter for anything electrical in the building whose tariff will be set by the supply company, then from a local fuse board your supply will go via a privately owned check meter which the owner of the building can set /charge at ANY rate of his choosing!!!
If on the other hand it is actually your meter direct from a supply company fuse in a 'Service Head Cut-out', via a switch-fuse to your sub-main then it will difficult to get it moved without having a new service main installed at quite high cost £****.**, presume property is leasehold, which can make getting anything changed even more difficult.
If you are set upon the property suggest owner bears cost of seperate supply, his reply may be a guide to attitude over any other issues....
If unsure of supply situation may be worth investing in an electrical survey, not a full Periodic inspection as if getting rewire then will end up with completion certs later anyway, just ask for a report on supply situation,
This does sound like a can of worms so be cautious,regards SPARX

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