Storm Arwen

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I was in a house the other day where they put a normal 3 pin socket on the genny and they plugged it into the oven outlet on the wall (as that’s thicker cable) and it powered the whole house and the fuse box shut off so it didn’t put power into the grid

Yes it can be done, I was advised by a WPD engineer that if they came across this, they would take action against the householder. What would happen, I have no idea....

The conversation came about as we have having an outage as an underground was blown, and I said I was going to put a gennie on, which made him ask me how I was doing it! Happy when I told him a CoS was installed, but he came and had a look....
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Depends on your setup but If you just have a single phase supply a switch is about £100. 32 amp socket maybe £20 plus max 2 hours electricians time.
3 phase will be more.
Plugging in as mentioned in @michael N123 post is risky. Maybe even illegal. What if someone forgets to knock off the main switch and power goes up the line and someone is up a pole & gets electrocuted
haven't used it, but when the electrician wired up my pump for the borehole, he put a switch in the supply, that is either for mains or generator supply with a tail and a female blue 240v socket, so I either use mains supply or generator, but need to get the generator back from the mechanic, last time I used it, I left it with fuel in and it evaporated and blocked up the jets in the carb.
 

aangus

Member
Location
cumbria
I have some roof damage here and can’t get anyone until after the Christmas holidays, what happens in the meantime if there’s more storms and more damage to the same roof?
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
I was quoted £700 all in for 100 amp changeover switch and flying lead to connect to generator.
100 amp is quite a big supply, a cooker circuit for a house is only 16 amp. Need a big generator to supply that much!

 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
haven't used it, but when the electrician wired up my pump for the borehole, he put a switch in the supply, that is either for mains or generator supply with a tail and a female blue 240v socket, so I either use mains supply or generator, but need to get the generator back from the mechanic, last time I used it, I left it with fuel in and it evaporated and blocked up the jets in the carb.
Get some Stabil fuel treatment into the petrol before you top up the gennie again.

Which reminds me..... I need another bottle ordering... thanks @Ffermer Bach :)

 
Last edited:

hally

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cumbria
I was in a house the other day where they put a normal 3 pin socket on the genny and they plugged it into the oven outlet on the wall (as that’s thicker cable) and it powered the whole house and the fuse box shut off so it didn’t put power into the grid
That’s what we do but not sure if its legal
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
We did just this. I made up the cable from bits i gathered at screw fix. We had the old style fuse box with the huge metal handle you switch mains off. I used to unscrew the handle when i had the gennie connected so no chance of sending power to the grid. Old house was part of big estate and the owners went bust. Main power thingy blew up so when the leccy board came out. They refused to repair it until the bill was paid. There were a total of 8 houses on the estate supply. Some decided to start legal action. My neighbour and I just fired up the generators then ran extensions leads to other neighbors to keep their fridges going etc... The power company knew what we were doing so came round and asked us to unplu generators before they repowered the grid (local). They werent that bothered as they said they always check before powring up .
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
We did just this. I made up the cable from bits i gathered at screw fix. We had the old style fuse box with the huge metal handle you switch mains off. I used to unscrew the handle when i had the gennie connected so no chance of sending power to the grid. Old house was part of big estate and the owners went bust. Main power thingy blew up so when the leccy board came out. They refused to repair it until the bill was paid. There were a total of 8 houses on the estate supply. Some decided to start legal action. My neighbour and I just fired up the generators then ran extensions leads to other neighbors to keep their fridges going etc... The power company knew what we were doing so came round and asked us to unplu generators before they repowered the grid (local). They werent that bothered as they said they always check before powring up .
That sounds fine, extensions to the houses, and your solution sounded grand.

The problem comes when they don't know if someone has a generator running....
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
We did just this. I made up the cable from bits i gathered at screw fix. We had the old style fuse box with the huge metal handle you switch mains off. I used to unscrew the handle when i had the gennie connected so no chance of sending power to the grid. Old house was part of big estate and the owners went bust. Main power thingy blew up so when the leccy board came out. They refused to repair it until the bill was paid. There were a total of 8 houses on the estate supply. Some decided to start legal action. My neighbour and I just fired up the generators then ran extensions leads to other neighbors to keep their fridges going etc... The power company knew what we were doing so came round and asked us to unplu generators before they repowered the grid (local). They werent that bothered as they said they always check before powring up .

That sounds fine, extensions to the houses, and your solution sounded grand.

The problem comes when they don't know if someone has a generator running....


Remember, worse case scenario, Manslaughter charge :(
 
Erk! Not a cheap option.... Was it awkward to get to the supply cables?

But 100amp CoS will be more than a wee 16amp
Had a look and can get changeover switches for between 70 and 140 quid. My set up is quite easy to do as can interrupt supply between double pole fuse and consumer unit. Is a new house so all layed out on a board with good access, will look at getting another electrician to do as homer as on face of it its excessive for max 2 hours work and couple of hundred max in parts.
 
100 amp is quite a big supply, a cooker circuit for a house is only 16 amp. Need a big generator to supply that much!

Advised as its on SSEN incomer which has 100 amp fuse needs to be same rating changeover as supply.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Had a look and can get changeover switches for between 70 and 140 quid. My set up is quite easy to do as can interrupt supply between double pole fuse and consumer unit. Is a new house so all layed out on a board with good access, will look at getting another electrician to do as homer as on face of it its excessive for max 2 hours work and couple of hundred max in parts.
Sounds similiar to what I have here.

Hope you find a sensible sparky ASAP.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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