Hi All,
Can anyone help me identify the different components of my electricity meter cupboard? I want to find out how I can turn the electricity off to my house so I can disconnect the oven but there's no single switch labelled 'OFF'. I am also interested to find out what all the different boxes in there actually are!?
If it helps, my house has electric heating via a storage heater and immersion heater. It is also on Economy 7.
If you need any close-up photos of any of the components let me know and I will post them up here. I numbered the components in the second pic for reference.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
1 is your meter
2 inside that is a massive fuse that you don't touch.
From jere i am guessing i'm not an electrician.
3 & 4 would appear to be a split.
You're most interested in the bottom 2 does the big switch on 5 not kill the lot? I bet it says off when you flick it up!
6 looks to be your "fuse board proper.
Heaters will be on 32 amp circuits
As will your hob.
Your oven could be just plugged in?
But do you not have a great big red isolation switch in your kitchen?
Just turn them all off and try turning your oven on. If it doesnt turn on you've killed the supply?
*not an electrician so if you blow up it's not my fault*
It looks like 3 and 4 are the first breakers from the output of the meter. If you turn them off the whole house should go dead
Down at the bottom looks like your distribution board. The cooker will almost certainly be on a 32amp breaker. If you switch that off the cooker shouldnt work. I'd be going for the main breakers though.. if the whole house is if it's safer....
Good luck!
Your mains supply goes into your meter.
Two separate supplies leave the meter. One for Econ7, the other is live all the time. These separate supplies go though the two double pole isolators.
The mains tails then go from each isolator into their respective fuse board.
It's hard to tell as I can't zoom in on the pic but it looks like the LHS isolator supplies the domestic DB and the RHS feeds the Econ7 DB.
Each DB also has an isolator of it's own, the black switch at the left of the DB.
My advice, get a sparky in before you blow yourself up 😉
Or at least a proper voltage tester to make sure it's not live!
...almost certainly be on a 32amp breaker
An oven alone could be on a 16A radial circuit, for example
Don't rely on advice from a photo-diagnosis. Always prove that the system is dead, using proper test procedures, and I would recommend that an electrician does that for you
Is the cooker all electric? Or electric and Gas?
You'll need a gas engineer if its gas.
If in any doubt then just turn the whole lot off, disconnect the cooker, and then turn it all back on.
Try the switches on the two small boxes first.
Looks like you have Fuses on the bottom unit there, they should pull out.
All electric cookers can chug a fair amount of electric current so could be on a 25A fuse depending on your cooker.
Most electric cookers should have a Cooker Control Unit (CCU) on the wall near to them, basically a big looking switch that you can turn off to isolate the cooker.
Worth getting an electric test meter to check all is "dead" before you go disconnecting things.
If not sure then get someone in who knows what they're doing.
1 is the meter
2 is the power supplier mains fuse sealed with a bit of wire and a seal
5 appears to have a missing fuse, and the slots are live, DONT POKE A SCREWDRIVER IN THERE.
First thing I did when wiring up the workshop was install a 100A breaker after the meter, so I could isolate the whole lot properly. Saves having to keep taking the supply fuse out each time I want to work on it.
footflaps - Member
First thing I did when wiring up the workshop was install a 100A breaker after the meter, so I could isolate the whole lot properly. Saves having to keep taking the supply fuse out each time I want to work on it.
I was under the impression that the supply fuse is not yours to do with as you please and network operator was responsible
I was under the impression that the supply fuse is not yours to do with as you please and network operator was responsible
Technically yes, but no one can tell. I just pulled it out, added in a switch and re-sealed it will the same style lead security seal (bought off eBay). If you're really paranoid you can even stamp the same initials in the replacement seal tag (normally they have a two letter code for the chap who sealed it). Although, talking to an electrician who does meter swap outs, something like 30% have missing seals and whilst they're supposed to flag missing seals, no one bothers as they don't care (being contractors). There is no record of what initials are supposed to be on which meters, so it's all largely on trust.
The two top isolator will isolate the whole house, the cooker could also be on anything up to a 40amp breaker.
Get some test leads to prove dead, if you don't know how to do this get a spark in
3 is the main isolator for the domestic supply, 4 is the isolator for domestic heating via box 5, (neutral comes straight from the bottom of the cut out/ main fuse)
Hope that helps.