A warning about houses fuses

[CarterHounslow]

I recently had an incident with my home charger, and it's worth reading and checking on this in your homes as I've heard of this happen to someone else.

If you didn't know this, aside from your main fuse box (or consumer unit if you have proper breakers like most modern units) there is the main home fuse which connects directly to then 240 volt feed coming in. Legally in the UK you're not allowed to touch this and there is a silver cable that runs through it so they know if its been tampered with.

We have an old bakerite style, 80 amp sticker on it. This means the house can only pull 80 amps. 7kw chargers pull around 31 amps, so quite a lot of the home's capacity but still enough that I never have current limited to the charger.

My charger was installed by pod point in march 21 (during lockdown, this is an important issue) and has worked fine since. However, I sent an email to them in April 21 saying the house fuse (the 80 amp was getting hot). They never replied on that point. By the way, the home fuse should never get hot, it's a sign of a loose connection. Also there was always a smell which I attributed to it being dusty.

Skip to December 22 and a lot of charging (I've covered 23,000 miles in 21 months). I get in from picking my wife up, plug my car in. She puts our son to bed, comes down and says there's an awful smell in the hall. I check the cupboard, move the current monitor which is wrapped around the live coming out of the fuse, it's black and burnt. I shut off power immediately. Thankfully uk power networks came out within an hour at 10.30 at night and replaced the fuse free of charge and I now have a brand new 80 amp plastic fuse. That stays stone cold even if it's being used for 5 hours. They said to me that normally they get asked to come out and check the house fuse if a car charger is being installed and they also said if the wiring in my house had been 25mm not 18, they would have put in a 100 amp fuse, but I'm fine with 80.

I really need to put in a complaint to pod point as they should have got the fuse checked and also I'd even told them the fuse was getting hot. That could have been an electrical fire in the middle of the night. Wasn't amused.

If your house fuse looks ancient or gets hot, get it checked. Heat is sign of a loose connection and eventually the copper will go and burn out.

[daern]

I had a bit of a faff with mine. To get my charger installed, the installer insisted that I had a master isolator installed between the meter and the consumer unit(s). I paid for this to be done, and at the same time the chap doing it (Siemens, IIRC) said "oh, this is for an EV charger? Better check that the fuse (which was labelled 100A) really is actually 100A." And, indeed, it wasn't. They then replaced it with an actual 100A one when reconnecting after finishing the work. All proceeded until the day before the installer was due to arrive when I received telling me that "they couldn't proceed until the house fuse was increased to 100A". I told them that this had already been done, but they were having none of - Northern Power Grid's systems said 80A, so 80A it is and I'd have to pay for them to come out and replace it.

It took a few calls, before I persuaded Bulb to talk to Siemens and get a confirmation from them that they did indeed replace the 80A fuse, but not update it on NPG's systems. Eventually they did and, with great reluctance it must be said, the installation went ahead with something of an air of "now don't you be trying this on again..."

Ho hum, but bear in mind that in normal use, it costs money to uprate incoming fuses and it's a separate piece of work to anything that needs to be done on the house side of the meter.

[sidehaas]

The fuse upgrade should be done free of charge by the DNO when they are notified (by your installer) that you have booked the install. This of course is if it is required. The installer should survey your property before contacting the DNO and the provide them with the correct information.

[daern]

The fuse upgrade should be done free of charge by the DNO when they are notified (by your installer) that you have booked the install. This of course is if it is required. The installer should survey your property before contacting the DNO and the provide them with the correct information.

Pretty sure that this is not the case. Certainly, NPG charge a flat £140+vat for it: https://www.northernpowergrid.com/connection-service and despite much arguing they would absolutely not have done this for me FOC had it not been done on the side by the chap installing the isolator.

[MotMot]

Ours was changed (from an old bakerlite one) when we had our smart meter fitted. The fitter said he couldn’t touch our supply until that was changed. He rang up Nw power three times (in a row) until he got someone to agree to get it changed - later on that day! FOC. They are responsible for everything where the feed comes in - and if your fuse got hot and caused a fire (for example) they would be liable. It’s a basic safety issue.

[Kwr68]

The fuse upgrade should be done free of charge by the DNO when they are notified (by your installer) that you have booked the install. This of course is if it is required. The installer should survey your property before contacting the DNO and the provide them with the correct information.

Pretty sure that this is not the case. Certainly, NPG charge a flat £140+vat for it: https://www.northernpowergrid.com/connection-service and despite much arguing they would absolutely not have done this for me FOC had it not been done on the side by the chap installing the isolator.

Mine was free of charge by national power grid be it a 80 watt fuse because that’s the limit for our incoming mains cable

[Daveion]

The fuse upgrade should be done free of charge by the DNO when they are notified (by your installer) that you have booked the install. This of course is if it is required. The installer should survey your property before contacting the DNO and the provide them with the correct information.

Pretty sure that this is not the case. Certainly, NPG charge a flat £140+vat for it: https://www.northernpowergrid.com/connection-service and despite much arguing they would absolutely not have done this for me FOC had it not been done on the side by the chap installing the isolator.

Mine was free of charge by national power grid be it a 80 watt fuse because that’s the limit for our incoming mains cable

Amps

[Goode]

The DNO will visit your house free of charge to see what needs to be done. The may, as mine did, upgrade the fuse there and then, and make no further charge. If they need to make another visit they will most likely charge.

[CG38]

I think it also just depends on your DNO. I didn't just need a new fuse, I had to be completely unlooped from my neighbour and this required lots of work, and I now have a 3-phase supply. This was done free of charge by Scottish Power Energy Networks, but as I understand, some DNOs will charge for this.

[CarterHounslow]

I think it also just depends on your DNO. I didn't just need a new fuse, I had to be completely unlooped from my neighbour and this required lots of work, and I now have a 3-phase supply. This was done free of charge by Scottish Power Energy Networks, but as I understand, some DNOs will charge for this.

You got three phase free of charge? That's insane, they charge thousands for that normally.

[CG38]

You got three phase free of charge? That's insane, they charge thousands for that normally.

Yeah, and it’s daft since I live in a 2 bed end terrace. Luckily I had my charge point installed first as turns out my installer doesn’t touch 3 phase supplies.

Scottish Power were awful though. Absolutely no communications and turning up at random times/days to do stuff with no planning.

[MotMot]

Unlooping should always be FOC…

[EdinburghID3]

I think it also just depends on your DNO. I didn't just need a new fuse, I had to be completely unlooped from my neighbour and this required lots of work, and I now have a 3-phase supply. This was done free of charge by Scottish Power Energy Networks, but as I understand, some DNOs will charge for this.

Exact same for me here (Edinburgh). Unlooped and upgraded to 3 phase for free. Took about 5 days as they had to dig up the street as well as my driveway etc. my only gripe was that there was no mention of digging up the street (including blocking 2 neighbours driveways for a couple of days) when the surveyor came out. I would have warmed up my neighbours first but thankfully we get on well and were ok about it. The surveyor also mentioned there will be a national programme of works at some point to upgrade everyone but guessing thats a long way off yet.

Still, amazed it was all done FOC but I guess that its not my fault the infrastructure bill as done on the cheap back in the day.

[G43FAN]

I think it also just depends on your DNO. I didn't just need a new fuse, I had to be completely unlooped from my neighbour and this required lots of work, and I now have a 3-phase supply. This was done free of charge by Scottish Power Energy Networks, but as I understand, some DNOs will charge for this.

Exact same for me here (Edinburgh). Unlooped and upgraded to 3 phase for free. Took about 5 days as they had to dig up the street as well as my driveway etc. my only gripe was that there was no mention of digging up the street (including blocking 2 neighbours driveways for a couple of days) when the surveyor came out. I would have warmed up my neighbours first but thankfully we get on well and were ok about it. The surveyor also mentioned there will be a national programme of works at some point to upgrade everyone but guessing thats a long way off yet.

Still, amazed it was all done FOC but I guess that its not my fault the infrastructure bill as done on the cheap back in the day.

Surprised it was canged to 3 phase. So have you got a 3 phase Zappi installed?

[EdinburghID3]

I think it also just depends on your DNO. I didn't just need a new fuse, I had to be completely unlooped from my neighbour and this required lots of work, and I now have a 3-phase supply. This was done free of charge by Scottish Power Energy Networks, but as I understand, some DNOs will charge for this.

Exact same for me here (Edinburgh). Unlooped and upgraded to 3 phase for free. Took about 5 days as they had to dig up the street as well as my driveway etc. my only gripe was that there was no mention of digging up the street (including blocking 2 neighbours driveways for a couple of days) when the surveyor came out. I would have warmed up my neighbours first but thankfully we get on well and were ok about it. The surveyor also mentioned there will be a national programme of works at some point to upgrade everyone but guessing thats a long way off yet.

Still, amazed it was all done FOC but I guess that its not my fault the infrastructure bill as done on the cheap back in the day.

Surprised it was canged to 3 phase. So have you got a 3 phase Zappi installed?

No, didn’t see the need. I believe that would have then required additional work (expense) at my fuseboard. My car sits on the driveway every night too so 7kw absolutely fine for my needs.