Any sparky's on here, need advice.

[petespieces]

Originally Posted by maintenanceman

Neither did I clock the location! A few questions; How many amps per phase? Do local regs require warning signs when two phases are present? Is it a 'TT' type supply ie overhead cables on a post or underground cable?

Re the earth spike. Nasty!

We have a 12kva supply at 230v, that's the highest we are allowed.

Yes a red warning notice has to be displayed.

Overhead cables.

Thanks

Pete.

[louis71]

Just check if your mains supply has a 3 phase RCD fitted, it should have but if not I would definitely recommend getting one installed. I have worked in rural France and Earth spikes are very common. Personally I would concrete the spike in as oppose to driving it in with a hammer then if possible cover the connection with a lid to protect it from the weather. There are earth resistance tests that should be done but the bigger the spike the better the job to be honest. Also try to keep pets/livestock away from this area as they are a lot more sensitive to electrical currents than us humans, low amounts of current can be dangerous to them.
HTH

[petespieces]

Originally Posted by louis71

Just check if your mains supply has a 3 phase RCD fitted, it should have but if not I would definitely recommend getting one installed. I have worked in rural France and Earth spikes are very common. Personally I would concrete the spike in as oppose to driving it in with a hammer then if possible cover the connection with a lid to protect it from the weather. There are earth resistance tests that should be done but the bigger the spike the better the job to be honest. Also try to keep pets/livestock away from this area as they are a lot more sensitive to electrical currents than us humans, low amounts of current can be dangerous to them.
HTH

RCD is fitted, that was ERDF's job.

Because the unit is using two phases I also have to fit a means of disconnection close to the appliance, that can be a three phase plug or a multiple pole switch, switch is preferred.

Earth has been tested by ERDF but I will be fitting an additional spike close to the new unit, never thought about animals, good point.

Pete.

[maintenanceman]

Reading all this has reminded me of a warning given out (quite) a few years ago possibly by the Caravan Club. Apparently members visiting more rural parts of France reported Live/Neutral reversal was quite common resulting in circuits still being live when only switching one pole off. Are French appliance plugs still reversible unlike UK plugs? A ring main tester plug (aka 'Martindale') check was advised once hooking up abroad. I'll elaborate on this tomorrow if this doesn't make sense.

[petespieces]

Originally Posted by maintenanceman

Reading all this has reminded me of a warning given out (quite) a few years ago possibly by the Caravan Club. Apparently members visiting more rural parts of France reported Live/Neutral reversal was quite common resulting in circuits still being live when only switching one pole off. Are French appliance plugs still reversible unlike UK plugs? A ring main tester plug (aka 'Martindale') check was advised once hooking up abroad. I'll elaborate on this tomorrow if this doesn't make sense.

French sockets are not normally switched and modern fuse boxes disconnect both poles.

Reversal of live and neutral is the least of the problems in France, you wouldn't believe some of the things that we have seen, including, believe it or not, using GREEN/YELLOW for live because they had run short of the right colour

One of the most common problems is sockets hanging off the wall, the plugs are such a tight fit that if there is any problem with the fixing then the whole socket comes away.

Another common practice with expats is to use UK cables and sockets and wire up a ring main, the insurance company's love that one.

When we bought our house it was literally a death trap, there was no main fuse box, all the circuits had individual fuses which were in junction boxes scattered around the house, some fuses had been removed and the connections bridged with wire. my first job was to trace and isolate the wiring to all but essential rooms, I then began by fitting a proper fuse box and re-wiring room by room, I luckily had a good understanding of domestic electric's thank's to my father but had to study French regs and three phase. When finished I got ERDF to check everything was OK, the only problem they found was a socket I had installed in the garage.

The plumbing was just as bad, the previous owners (English) had done some work, they had bought over mostly UK 15mm pipe and because it wouldn't connect easily to French sizes they used rubber hose and jubilee clips, they even buried some of those connections underground which I couldn't see and the resulting leak which I only found when the ground started to move near the garage cost us around €300 on our water bill

Don't even get me started on the DIY roof repairs

A friend of the previous owners called around one day, he took great delight in telling us about the work he had helped with on the plumbing, he never came back, strange that

The previous owners also used to rent the place to holidaymakers, I doubt they ever came back for a second vacation

Having said all that we bought the place as a project and are enjoying our life here

Rant over.

Pete.

[petespieces]

I forgot to mention the shower, save that story for another day

[Perrin]

Wow, I'm just reading this out of interest down here in South Africa.
We also have 3 phase to the house, but that depends on what is requested/needed, so some have 1 phase, some have 3.
Since we're such a dry place, we bond the neutral and earth at the meter box with an earth spike for good measure although they really don't do much good IMO.
Colour coding is same as Australia, it's the old UK coding.
Just posting for anyone's interest :-)

[petespieces]

Well you certainly can't describe Brittany as a dry place

[Perrin]

Just out of interest, is it normal to have multiple earth rods on that type of system? Is it possible that there may be a potential difference between the two earths due to different chemistry where they are installed? How does that affect the earth rods themselves (i.e. corroding) and would that cause interference on electronics?
I'm no electrician by trade so I'm just curious.

OP do you then bond all metal such as plumbing to the earth?
Here we do, and it's bonded as i said to the neutral. Works well so long as the neutral is in tact. Neutral was stolen here one night about 10 years ago, and at the time (even with our power off) we still felt shocks occasionally till it was repaired!

[Steve916]

Originally Posted by Perrin

Just out of interest, is it normal to have multiple earth rods on that type of system? Is it possible that there may be a potential difference between the two earths due to different chemistry where they are installed? How does that affect the earth rods themselves (i.e. corroding) and would that cause interference on electronics?
I'm no electrician by trade so I'm just curious.

OP do you then bond all metal such as plumbing to the earth?
Here we do, and it's bonded as i said to the neutral. Works well so long as the neutral is in tact. Neutral was stolen here one night about 10 years ago, and at the time (even with our power off) we still felt shocks occasionally till it was repaired!

Here in the UK this is the most common earthing arrangement, with the neutral and earth connected together at the source of the supply.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/5.2.3.htm
There are links to other earth arrangements on that site, which includes the T-T (terre-terre) system using earthing rods.