Inadvisable coax route

Overhead mains cables used to consist of four wires along the street, with
each house connected by two wires to neutral and one of the three phases.

Still lots of that round here!

On 21/05/2014 18:58, NY wrote:

But a few years ago there was a programme of replacing these four
separate wires by a single loosely-twisted cable, with the same sort of
tap for the two wires to each house. Does anyone know why electricity
companies introduced this change? My parents were affected by such a
change: they were without electricity for a while during the changeover,
and our street was disconnected from the national grid for a few days
and driven off a very noisy diesel generator in the field during a
similar change.

Round here (North Hampshi SEB) that was done about twenty years
ago. I presume, it looks neater only having a single thick cable,
than four thinner ones. The whole thing is insulated, so safer ?

In my folks village, the lines would often get tangled up in branches of
trees, and during windy weather would short. The SEB were constantly
round to trim the branches. Now, it's not so important, and of course
no shorts in windy weather. My parents have a pole in their back garden,
and their feed came as a two phase spur (three conductors) from
the main lines along the road. The SEB replaced those three conductors
too. They wanted to replace the drop cables into the house, but my
father had years before moved them behind the soffit boards, so
they quietly ignored that directive, and moved on.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

Mark Carver wrote:
They wanted to replace the drop cables into the house, but my
father had years before moved them behind the soffit boards

These Carvers are a whole load of trouble. I bet Great Grandma Carver
was a suffragette.

Bill

On 22/05/2014 14:40, Bill Wright wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:
They wanted to replace the drop cables into the house, but my
father had years before moved them behind the soffit boards

These Carvers are a whole load of trouble. I bet Great Grandma Carver
was a suffragette.

Ha !

A few years ago some H&S droid from the SEB (or whatever they're called
now) came and fixed a big yellow 'DANGER: LIVE CABLES: DO NOT CLIMB, etc
etc' label on their pole, which rather spoilt the look and feel of the
back garden. Mum had prized it off, before Mr SEB-H&S had even vacated
the premises in his van. Last year mun and dad painted the first 8 ft of
the pole in rather fetching turquoise fence paint, along with the fence
that's behind it, which means it's very well camouflaged now, (that's
probably violated goodness knows how many arcane laws)


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

Mark Carver wrote:
On 22/05/2014 14:40, Bill Wright wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:
They wanted to replace the drop cables into the house, but my
father had years before moved them behind the soffit boards

These Carvers are a whole load of trouble. I bet Great Grandma Carver
was a suffragette.

Ha !

A few years ago some H&S droid from the SEB (or whatever they're called
now) came and fixed a big yellow 'DANGER: LIVE CABLES: DO NOT CLIMB, etc
etc' label on their pole, which rather spoilt the look and feel of the
back garden. Mum had prized it off, before Mr SEB-H&S had even vacated
the premises in his van. Last year mun and dad painted the first 8 ft of
the pole in rather fetching turquoise fence paint, along with the fence
that's behind it, which means it's very well camouflaged now, (that's
probably violated goodness knows how many arcane laws)



Some years ago the used to be a YEB pole in my field, and they paid me
£4 a year rental.

Bill

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
On 21/05/2014 18:58, NY wrote:

But a few years ago there was a programme of replacing these four
separate wires by a single loosely-twisted cable, with the same sort of
tap for the two wires to each house. Does anyone know why electricity
companies introduced this change? My parents were affected by such a
change: they were without electricity for a while during the changeover,
and our street was disconnected from the national grid for a few days
and driven off a very noisy diesel generator in the field during a
similar change.

Round here (North Hampshi SEB) that was done about twenty years
ago. I presume, it looks neater only having a single thick cable,
than four thinner ones. The whole thing is insulated, so safer ?

I hadn't realised until I saw this discussion that any of the overhead
wires, either in the street or to the individual houses, weren't insulated.
I'd assumed that all wires suspended above the street were fully insulated.

Is there any rule about high-voltage wires (11/22 kV or 132/400 kV pylon
wires) needing to be insulated where they pass over houses/roads, or is it
hoped that a fallen wire will always hit something earthed rather than a
person etc, and so will trip the circuit breakers before it can do any
damage? I remember seeing a petrol station on my way to school which had a
huge metal cage above the pumps (in the days before garages tended to have
roofs over the pumps) which had metal legs and a metal net on top,
presumably in case the EHT pylon wires above the garage fell down - to
prevent them sparking close to the pumps and igniting the petrol.

On 23/05/2014 00:26, wrote:

Short sections of 11/22/33kV where they crossed roads with lower
voltage power cables and phone lines were often seen with insulation
but it doesn't appear to be universal.

We used to have some 33kV lines that ran along a footpath that runs
alongside our house. (The lines were there long before our house, and
the footpath were built)

I gather the lines were deemed to be too close to our house (about 4
metres horizontally, and lower than our roofline), but
it took the SEB literally years to remove them. House was built in 1985,
the SEB laid about a mile's worth of underground cables in 2003, but it
wasn't until 2011 that they swapped the circuit over to the underground
cables, then another three months before the poles and cables were removed.

Anyway, the lines were totally uninsulated.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

On Fri, 23 May 2014 09:08:43 +0100, Mark Carver
wrote:

On 23/05/2014 00:26, wrote:

Short sections of 11/22/33kV where they crossed roads with lower
voltage power cables and phone lines were often seen with insulation
but it doesn't appear to be universal.

We used to have some 33kV lines that ran along a footpath that runs
alongside our house. (The lines were there long before our house, and
the footpath were built)

I gather the lines were deemed to be too close to our house (about 4
metres horizontally, and lower than our roofline), but
it took the SEB literally years to remove them. House was built in 1985,
the SEB laid about a mile's worth of underground cables in 2003, but it
wasn't until 2011 that they swapped the circuit over to the underground
cables, then another three months before the poles and cables were removed.

Anyway, the lines were totally uninsulated.


Not quite what we are talking about, and I may have posted them here
before, but interesting nonetheless.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjz7rr3p


--

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

I hadn't realised until I saw this discussion that any of the overhead
wires, either in the street or to the individual houses, weren't insulated.
I'd assumed that all wires suspended above the street were fully insulated.

Is there any rule about high-voltage wires (11/22 kV or 132/400 kV pylon
wires) needing to be insulated where they pass over houses/roads, or is it
hoped that a fallen wire will always hit something earthed rather than a
person etc, and so will trip the circuit breakers before it can do any
damage? I remember seeing a petrol station on my way to school which had a
huge metal cage above the pumps (in the days before garages tended to have
roofs over the pumps)

Thats the one near Manchester it think its more to do with induced
voltages etc rather then a line falling which did happen on that estate
built around a power line near Eltham at 132 kV....

Never heard of the 132 and up conductors being insulated or even 33 or
11 come to that...


which had metal legs and a metal net on top,
presumably in case the EHT pylon wires above the garage fell down - to
prevent them sparking close to the pumps and igniting the petrol.


--
Tony Sayer

In article , Mark Carver
scribeth thus
On 23/05/2014 00:26, wrote:

Short sections of 11/22/33kV where they crossed roads with lower
voltage power cables and phone lines were often seen with insulation
but it doesn't appear to be universal.

We used to have some 33kV lines that ran along a footpath that runs
alongside our house. (The lines were there long before our house, and
the footpath were built)

I gather the lines were deemed to be too close to our house (about 4
metres horizontally, and lower than our roofline), but

Bit like this one here then;?...

Not in my backyard!..

http://tinyurl.com/pft68sj

Or front garden either;!..

http://tinyurl.com/ou4dzzn

it took the SEB literally years to remove them. House was built in 1985,
the SEB laid about a mile's worth of underground cables in 2003, but it
wasn't until 2011 that they swapped the circuit over to the underground
cables, then another three months before the poles and cables were removed.

Yep, bet their MD didn't live anywhere near there did he;?....


Anyway, the lines were totally uninsulated.



--
Tony Sayer