Three phase at home?

We currently have a single phase meter, but according to the electrician who replaced our consumer unit a couple of years ago, have three phase incoming to a fuse box upstream of the meter. At the time I thought it’d be handy to have three phase, for possible future electric car charging, solar panels, and old workshop machinery, so put in a request to have the meter changed to 3ph. And then forgot all about it. Last week we reached the top of the list and have been offered a meter upgrade next month. Just wondering if anyone on here has similar, and if it’s actually worth doing to allow potential future upgrades? As far as I can tell there’s no cost for the meter and no change to the tariff. Presumably there’s a neutral in already, so shouldn’t need to change anything other than the meter for now.

No reason not to. Also helpful for the DNO, especially if it’s an outside cabinet, for fault finding in case of an LV fault. Also means that if the phase you’re in is faulty, it’s not a big deal for them to restore you by swapping phases

The hardest part about getting 3 phase is the connection to the main which it sounds like you already have. The meter is easy, if time consuming. Just a question of what you’re going to do with it

It would allow a 22kW car charger if you had a compatible car. (Mine only has a 7kW onboard inverter).

Think about what you’ll use it for.

You get the opportunity to go for 11kW of G98 solar but unless your demand is 3ph that’s not particularly useful. My house has 8kW of G99 1ph solar which fills the roof and offers up to my demand.

You might be able to get a battery system that absorbs 3ph and outputs only on the phase your demand is on – technically possible but I don’t think I’ve seen one specifically designed for this.

The house would need existing demand rewiring to use 3ph and the benefit is marginal.

An EV could be charged via 3ph, but if it’s AC charging it may only move from 7.2kW to 11kW due to the car’s on board charger arrangement. A DC charger could do more but won’t be that cheap and the common ones might be a little large for your 3ph supply (ie it might only be 18kW per phase.

A heat pump is more interesting. In general 3ph motors run smoother and last longer but whether that’s an option is down to your circumstances.

If it’s cheap / free I’d have it. But unless your electricity use is designed around it (and most domestic isn’t) it will be a very marginal gain.

Two very similar answers there.

Thought note we could only swap you between phases on a fault if you’re only using one phase.

I’m an electrician. Only a few people would benefit from the ‘upgrade’, as IGM mentions above are some reasons. Downsides are you will pay more for your standing charge. If you have a 3 phase car charger, it will charge quicker, but is that really an advantage? Most domestic users are quite happy to plug in at 8pm and unplug their full car at 7am. Solar/PV, why export, get a few batteries and use that power, rather than exporting at 10p a unit, to have to buy it back at night at 30p a unit.
Heat pumps, only the largest HPs can be bought in 3 phase, the single phase ones already have inverters on board to convert for their motors, so little advantage in going 3 phase, especially if you need a HP of less than 15kW+ output.Even ordering in a large domestic 3 phase unit is not straightforward, as they are so rare.
I’d only recommend 3 ph if its a new build (3 phase consumer unit,and balanced load from new), or you are a heavy user of electric. Losing one phase of the supply is not a plus point of having 3 phase, the DNO will not swap phases over in your cut out head unless it is a very long wait for the repair, and any 3 phase appliances will not work with one phase out. Of course, with a 3 phase consumer unit, you could still use the power on the other phases, but really, how often does one phase go down, leaving the others working? Also, if it isnt a balanced load, you could (will?) be paying for the most expensive phase for all three phases, there are tariffs that do that. Oh, and have you seen the price of 3 phase consumer units? Its a big investment to go 3 phase properly, with few benefits for most home owners. If they are only putting the 3 phase meter in, and you are staying at single phase, then thats fine, but be sure they are not going to charge you for supplying the 3 phase, even though you are not using it.

Could be useful for future-proofing?

As demand based pricing becomes more and more mainstream (octopus were apparently paying people to use energy for a while yesterday) it could enable you to charge cars, batteries etc more quickly while it’s cheap and sell back later.

but really, how often does one phase go down, leaving the others working?

A domestic supply may well be different of course, I’ve no idea.  But we had three-phase into our old office and losing a single phase was a fairly common occurrence.  In the server room we had two Commando sockets on different phases for each comms rack, when the power went I could hop the rack cable between sockets to restore service.

I don’t know the whys and wherefores, but from talking with others it seemed to be an issue across the industrial estate generally rather than with us specifically.

“but really, how often does one phase go down, leaving the others working?”

I spend over a decade working on the repairs side of a DNO. Single phase open circuit fault is a common enough occurrence. People often don’t notice because they’re too focused on their own power cut but look outside, maybe the street lights, or a neighbour are still on supply.

An LV distribution cable has 3 cores, one for each phase. When two lengths of cable come together the cores are bolted together and insulation around them. If one of these connections fail, the other two phases can happily carry on as normal. Or perhaps someone has stuck a pick through the outer earth conductor and only one phase.

Had a 3 phase head at an old house and the only use for me was the rare occasion a phase went down and being able to swap to another phase. But if you can’t do that yourself then it’s pointless anyway.
The only other useful reason I can see is if you are into using lathes and other such small industrial machines as a 3ph supply will let them run at full capacity as opposed to a single-3ph inverter as losing the top speed and torque of the motor