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| Tripping Breaker welding |
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| framey:
is this welder running on the ring? what else is on the ring that may be drawing load whilst the welders running? |
| Darren:
Hi, Nothing else except maybe just a radio .... |
| Fred Bloggs:
Darren Sorry for not getting back sooner again! A few more answers / assumptions to your last post! "now I'm wondering if my incoming mains is up to regs !!" (be aware that the DNO's follow their own set of rules :borg:) I presume that your property once had overhead cables but has since had underground cable fitted, if so the "SWA" you mention will most likely be concentric cable, see following link. http://www.batt.co.uk/upload/files/straightconcentric_1253109778.pdf It looks from the outside like SWA but is not , and is only used by DNO's (utilities), it also has a very small outside diameter, 12mm outside diameter equates to a phase conductor having a cross sectional area of 25mm˛ which is sufficient for an 80Amp feed to a property. Another thing must remember is that all DNO's apply diversity to properties, i.e. they assume that you will not be using anything like 80amps all the time (for example my house base load during the night is 75watts per hour-300mA but during cooking and washing sesssions can be 10kW/hr for short periods), the DNO's rely on the periods of low power consumption as cooling off periods for the cables. (had a clients telecomms site supply cable catch fire because the DNO engineers had dropped a B$%^&(k and applied diversity to a 500kVA LV supply to site that runs balls out 24/7, the cable melted and took out the busbars in the incoming panel as well , it was right next to the 11kV sub, lots of fault current when she blew :bugeye: You also state that the lights dip, I'll bet that its more noticable when the local grid is heavily loaded, especially evenings and Sunday afternoons when all the sunday roasts are in the ovens :lol: not a lot you can do about the lights dipping other than putting lots of copper in your system to minimise the volts drop. Best go as she who must be obeyed is grumbling about me being on the computer again :wack: If you want any more info or questions answered feel free to ask Best Regards Fred |
| Fred Bloggs:
Darren Have you finished pondering yet :med: Best Regards Fred |
| Darren:
Hi Fred, I have decided to follow your suggestion and use a spare way in the garage consumer unit to feed a dedicated outlet for the welder with a class C MCB. Looking at all the options it seems the best way to deal with the issue. If that fails then I'll just have to accept that I have what I have. I was going to use the spare way to feed a nearby shed via a 2.5mm SWA, about a 20m run. Just a simple light and maybe a couple of sockets. Nothing heavy to go in there just some smaller single phase machines maybe? The concentric cable sounds like a bodge? I can't help thinking that it sounds unsuitable for this row of properties? Our property was once a small 20 bed hotel though half of it has since been knocked down, but it's last commercial use about 2.5 ago was a restaurant with a full commercial kitchen. Therefore I assumed our supply should have been more than up to the of what I would ever be asking of it. Next door is four properties now joined as one private dwelling recently. But they were all businesses too. Then there was another property on the far end, also commercia,l that has since been knocked down. On the the other side of us is a public house which closed last year. All these are fed from the same single cable supply. That's seven commercial properties and now only two domestic remain. To think my supply may not be up to the task of a small welder sounds ridiculous to me? Comments appreciated as always .... |
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