Came across this yesterday

[JOURNEYMAN]

Domestic supply to a first floor two bedroomed flat above a shop sharing the service head with another flat next door. I haven't been next door so don't know what or how the cable has been terminated but if it's anything like this ......

 

[cprfenom]

That is a total mess! has to be an illegal supply?

 

[Richard Burns]

That cannot have been done by the network operator, though I could imagine a meter fitter doing it!

 

[The Ghost]

Is that two core swa with the neutral bare/swa armour? and the earth the other core??? I'd be on to the DNO with that one.

 

[Dave OCD]

No I'd say it's split concentric.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Agreed it's regular split-con cable. It might be a temporary supply that's accidentally got left in place. Ages ago, one of our neighbours had a service cable joint fail under the carriageway. We have a 2-of-3 phase service from the old DC days, so 100A spare capacity on our head. We let the DNO run a cable from our house to theirs, to restore the supply until the road could be dug up. They did exactly the same thing with a length of split-con, but of course took it out once the new service was live.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I have a job this week with split concentric, getting it ready from CU down to Switched fuse where the meter and service head will be going on a conversion. I hate the damn stuff. i just hate the untwisting and stripping the neutrals as for some reason the insulation is like its glued on! never seems to strip off well. dont get me started on getting the earth sleeving into place either!

Also see the smart meter guy has been around. did they not make comment on the current supply? Unless i am wrong i thought they were meant to check and decide if its safe before switching out meters.. I have the meter at mine and when i had a play with buttons and combinations discovered all sorts of menus that i do not have a clue what they do

 

[johnduffell]

The earth clamp onto the incoming cable is also a mess, looks like one for copper pipes to me!

 

[Des 56]

My God, a saddle with just one screw fixing, its a big sigh of relief that the propriety earth strap was ignored and I do love bare neutrals

 

[I2C]

That looks a mess! The earth clamp (as previously mentioned) looks especially bad and I'd be interested to measure the Ze. Plus there's no labelling at MET.

 

[JOURNEYMAN]

Yes, I can confirm that it's a split concentric. Ze was 0.25 Ohms. I've been asked to price forthcoming works to the bathroom and kitchen and have advised the owner to contact the DNO so that they can attend to their mess! I was surprised too that no one attended after the new meter was installed earlier this year especially as the flat is a rental with a young family in it. The thought of young kids playing hide and seek in the meter cupboard under the stairs with that little lot is worrying to say the least.

 

[stevels4]

The sub main looks very old looking at the wire colours and 10mm, no heat shrink and no 3 finger boot, inadequately clipped, makes me judder to think what the meter end is like.
The incoming Smart meter tails should have been upgraded to 25mm when the meter was installed and a double pole isolator would have been good practice on the load tails.

 

[stevels4]

Although it looks a mess there is no exposed live or neutral on the submain and no Mocopa requirement to notify the DNO.
Ze is within specification for a TNS earthing arrange ( <0.8 Ohms) so doubt the DNO would be concerned although a spring connector or crimp would be an improvement on the current clamp.

 

[JOURNEYMAN]

Here's another pic from a slightly different angle which shows exposed neutral. The DNO have now been informed by the client so I'll update if and when they attend.

 

[stevels4]

Arr, didn't see that until now! Looks like 16mm aluminium tails to the meter so they should have come out and been replaced with 25mm copper, the submain neutral I would have notified as an A07 requiring immediate DNO attendance.
I certainly wouldn't have left it like that with my number on the cut out seals!