[Closed] Utility musings

Perhaps your supply cable is copper and the meter tails aluminium. Perhaps the electrical insulation and/or mechanical protection is different in each. Perhaps your meter tails have been over specified.

It’s just two different perspectives.

Perspective one the electrical designer for the building company thinks I will apply a bit if diversity as no one will have an oven on, an electric shower and all the sockets on with hairdryers, irons and kettles at the same time. So they size up the meter tails for a 60amp load normally (occasionally 100amp).

The 2nd perspective is the utility company. They get an order to hookup a housing development with electricity say 24 new build houses. Now if they base it on a worst case scenario 100amps for each house they would have to put in a lot of copper and a huge main feeder. So they apply a big diversity factor assuming not all householders will cook their supper or boil a kettle at the same time. They then assume a load of say 20amps per house.

You then end up with 6 sq mm incomer installed by the utility company and 16 sq mm or bigger meter tails into the consumer unit.

if its old enough to have been retrofitted, your leccy meter might also be feeding (unmetered) power to your neighbouring properties (they did this to save running cable all the way from the street). My old house was like this, and the insulation on the meter was melting a bit (slow drips forming, I guess when all 3 houses were using it) - the leccy board were so slow to sort it that it was still like that when I sold it.

Does that mean Aluminium conductors can be smaller for the same load then?

If diversification is being assumed what fuse would they put in the bit before the meter. Mines a 100 amp one (well that’s what the spark told me)

I think my parents house had that same issue- there was like tar coming out of the supply cable.