Domestic 3 phase.

[armalites]

I did some work in my brother old house years a go, the economy 7 meter fell off the wall and landed neatly in a box . The chap who came to take it out was more than happy as he had an easy day

I friend of mine has 3 phase and when they set it up years a go they wanted to charge him for a bigger transformer, he sent them some calculations showing that all the houses cooking a Sunday roast would be far more load than anything he had. They eventually agreed and he got it installed quite cheaply.

I don't see why you should have any issues as long as you make it clear what you want and accept the fact your standing charge will be higher, they will be more than happy to take your money. Just sure they don't try and charge you for installing 3ph

 

[WorkshopChris]

Thats the way i would go.

personally... I'd just add in a small box with a 3 phase rcd/mcb/whatever is required these days

run a wire from that to your garage, and a 3 phase fuse box there


then just phone up the DNO and tell them you have a new fuse box and need the meter tails connecting/moving (because you're not alowed to do that yourself)

if you want to swap to a normal meter, tell them that at the same time - normal meter + tails to new fuse box instead of timer meter please
(does it actually matter what kind of meter he has? - just because he has an E7 type meter he can still be on a normal tariff? - check your bill OP?)


no need to tell them you're going to start using 3 phase or going into detail at all... and the guy who comes to do it won't care

anything else just makes things more complicated

Im not trying to play on the doom just had direct experience of the DNO in question however i have no idea of the op's local area he may have a nice healthy local networks with plenty of capacity, just ours and its struggling, although they will never officialy say that.

 

[knighty]

^^ thing is, it's better for them if he runs 3 phase instead of single phase ? (if he's using the same amount of power)

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I'm still in two minds. I'm renting and know I have 8 years before the property goes on the market. But swapping all my machines to 440v 3p would leave me in a hole if I decided to move and 3p was costly to install.

Any opinions on 240v inv/vfd 3p over a 3p supply and 440v vfd controlling the motors.
Would remove hassles if I decide to move in a few years.

 

[Barking Mat]

60 amp, 3 phase, that's enormous. I have 3 phase in my house but not 60 amp!

What can't you run off that?

 

[WorkshopChris]

I'm still in two minds. I'm renting and know I have 8 years before the property goes on the market. But swapping all my machines to 440v 3p would leave me in a hole if I decided to move and 3p was costly to install.

Any opinions on 240v inv/vfd 3p over a 3p supply and 440v vfd controlling the motors.
Would remove hassles if I decide to move in a few years.

If you need to at a later date you could get a phase converter.

 

[Barking Mat]

Excuse my ignorance, but that could power a small factory Shirley?

 

[MrFluffy]

60 amp, 3 phase, that's enormous. I have 3 phase in my house but not 60 amp!

What can't you run off that?

The relevant thing that springs to mind is the likes of a boc adr 375 ac/dc tig set. They want 90 amps per phase to run at full 375amp chat. I dont weld too much 2" thick brass together though so I bought a transformer set that goes up to 300amp on a measly 20amp supply and suddenly found welding aluminium was much easier...
Now, even the wire edm doesnt draw full load.

.

 

[Stueeee]

I don't see why you should have any issues as long as you make it clear what you want and accept the fact your standing charge will be higher, they will be more than happy to take your money.

Would definitely worth arguing the toss on any increase in standing charge IMO.

I have single phase to my house, and a separate 100A per phase 415V supply to the garages/workshops here, they're both on the same tariff and the standing charge is the same for both supplies.

I did have some argy bargy with the original supplier back in the 90's once the new supply was installed; they wanted to charge some kind of industrial tariff, I pointed out that it was actually domestic, it was just that I happened to have a lot of 415V kit in my "hobby space". I've since moved to cheaper supplier, still have the same tariff on both supplies.

 

[8ob]

The relevant thing that springs to mind is the likes of a boc adr 375 ac/dc tig set. They want 90 amps per phase to run at full 375amp chat. I dont weld too much 2" thick brass together though so I bought a transformer set that goes up to 300amp on a measly 20amp supply and suddenly found welding aluminium was much easier...
Now, even the wire edm doesnt draw full load.

.

So if I crank it up the street lights will dim? The butyl feed cable does not look that big

 

[knighty]

it's a little off topic.. but I run a 500amp mig turned all the way up from a 3 phase 32amp socket no problems.. not sure how many amps I'm actually using... I guess how ever much 1.2mm wire can suck up at a pretty fast (fill the holes) feed rate ?

my 3 phase supply at work is charged almost exactly as my home single phase supply per kwh
(last time I checked anyway)

 

[R-D-R]

This is interesting, i'm currently in discussions with a design engineer for our DNO about 3phase. Not so much for the mancave (he says) but electric car charging. We have a BMW I3 and a Tesla Model X on order so will be charging two cars potentially at the same time for hours at a time. We are already maxed out on our current supply and I'm being told 3phase is the only option. I'm sure the engineer that came to do the survey said they would be looking to future proof and go for 100amps I presume he meant per phase. Im waiting for the report and the quote

if i was in a house that had 3phase i would certainly keep it as it could be quite desirable to future owners with the BEVs.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

This is interesting, i'm currently in discussions with a design engineer for our DNO about 3phase. Not so much for the mancave (he says) but electric car charging. We have a BMW I3 and a Tesla Model X on order so will be charging two cars potentially at the same time for hours at a time. We are already maxed out on our current supply and I'm being told 3phase is the only option. I'm sure the engineer that came to do the survey said they would be looking to future proof and go for 100amps I presume he meant per phase. Im waiting for the report and the quote

if i was in a house that had 3phase i would certainly keep it as it could be quite desirable to future owners with the BEVs.

That's a very good point. The feed is there thankfully so any future owners would have an easy option if I didn't go ahead with a DB.

 

[armalites]

This is interesting, i'm currently in discussions with a design engineer for our DNO about 3phase. Not so much for the mancave (he says) but electric car charging. We have a BMW I3 and a Tesla Model X on order so will be charging two cars potentially at the same time for hours at a time. We are already maxed out on our current supply and I'm being told 3phase is the only option. I'm sure the engineer that came to do the survey said they would be looking to future proof and go for 100amps I presume he meant per phase. Im waiting for the report and the quote

if i was in a house that had 3phase i would certainly keep it as it could be quite desirable to future owners with the BEVs.

If you have 3ph then I think you can get the Tesla Supercharger which will charge the car in a hour or two.

 

[DennisCA]

100A per phase?? Or even 60? That's pretty insane, I have 25 per phase which is the standard here, farms and such with bigger requirements might have 35A per phase hookup.

 

[MrFluffy]

So if I crank it up the street lights will dim? The butyl feed cable does not look that big

Its off the data plate on the rear, above where the cable enters the lower housing. It might be peak load for inrush current, I'd have to go look. I can't run mine on anything above the second power level, and even then I have to start on the pedal in number 2 as our supply breaker throws out the first time you exceed the current demand. I remember needing to do some heavier arc work, and 3 months tarrif for the extra supply rating was more than the inverter set I use cost.

 

[R-D-R]

We are looking to support at minimum of two 32amp 3phase evse's running concurrently which supply the cars onboard 3phase chargers plus have room for future proofing. one day superchargers might be available for home i think they suck a fair bit of power though ill report back on what the report is recommending i may have misheard the 100amps.