An off the wall question

Posted by: Consciousmess on 10 October 2017

There is a slight pun to that title, as arriving home yesterday I noticed the cable from the electrify metre on the outside wall is only about 2cm in diameter. This is for the entire large three bedroom house.  2cm! And that is an outside cable no doubt with weather protection.

i doubt others’ houses aren’t much different or are they? Because as we are renovating this house right now, I feel I am not getting the electricity I could get and ultimately benefit audibly.

Could and should a qualified electrician reinstall e.g 10cm diameter cable for the house? There’s only so far Powerlines go.

Posted on: 10 October 2017 by Richard Dane

A 10cm diameter seems more appropriate for a power sub-station than a domestic dwelling.

How much more electricity are you after?

Posted on: 10 October 2017 by Mike-B

To replace the property incoming main is not a job for your electrician,  it has to be done by the electricity board.   The cable into your house is connected to your neighbourhood power distribution network & is constantly live.    

The cable used in domestic mains is nothing like a 3 core such as the PowerLine,  they are normally a coaxial type cable called split concentric, they have a single inner live core of 16mm or 25mm & the outer neutral (+PME earth) which has an equal or greater total area to the inner core.     A cable with a 25mm/2 core has an external diameter of aprx 18.5mm (1.85cm)  so my guess is thats your cable supply size

Posted on: 10 October 2017 by Huge

On the other had disconnecting the external cable doesn't have to be done by the electricity supply company (even thought it should be done by them), it can be done by any incompetent workman using a JCB!

Posted on: 10 October 2017 by james n

One thing worth checking is the rating of your supply fuse. Most get upgraded to 100A when power showers etc are added so it's worth getting yours checked (it's not DIY if you need it uprated !!!!) 

Posted on: 10 October 2017 by Richard Dane
Huge posted:

On the other had disconnecting the external cable doesn't have to be done by the electricity supply company (even thought it should be done by them), it can be done by any incompetent workman using a JCB!

They're especially good at that round these parts.