Changing Electric supply from overhead to underground etc...

[Nell]

At present our electricity comes into the house via overhead cable attached to the roof (under the eaves) and from there into a meter inside the house. We need to put a new roof on, but cannot proceed because of the main electric cable.

I have contacted EDF for an appointment for them to come out and give me a devis to have this changed to (hopefully) underground with the meter outside, as now seems to be the norm. If the meter is placed outside, is it then our responsibility to supply the connection from the house to the outside meter box.

Who makes this connection?

Has anyone experience of this?

Does this seem a reasonable request?

Any ideas on timescales, from request to implementation?

How about costs?

I know this is a lot of questions, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nick Trollope]

To answer your questions, in order......

I have contacted EDF for an appointment for them to come out and give

me a devis to have this changed to (hopefully) underground with the

meter outside, as now seems to be the norm. If the meter is placed

outside, is it then our responsibility to supply the connection from

the house to the outside meter box.

Yes.

Your electrician, typically

Yes thanks!

Yes

EDF are fairly quick to respond to most requests

If it involves crossing a road, alot. Quite alot in any circumstances.

The trend is towards buried cables, but don't assume that EDF will want to do the work. Discuss the problem with the guy who comes to see you, there may be (cheaper) alternatives. Why is the overhead a problem?

[DorothyJ]

We had work similar to this done in 2004 when we were updating our electrics. Our house had 2 meter boxes - both 520 x 520 set into the wall outside the kitchen door (very ugly) and overhead cables attached to the wall via a triangle of heavy metal over to an electric pole in our neighbour's garden. As the house needed re-wiring we decided to have a new meter box set into an outhouse wall next to the pole, bury the cable and come into the house into a new box. We thought it was very expensive - 750 euros for the whole lot including fixing the internal EDF meter box to a new fuse box which our electrician had left ready. I think we waited around 6 weeks from receipt of the devis to the work being completed but we could have delayed asking them as we had to dig the trench (quite deep) to house the cable. BUT we are so glad we went underground as the house is around 15th/16th century and the iron bars on the house were enormous! Probably would not have been able to afford it now!

PS 'had to dig a trench' euphemism for 'getting in a man with a minipele'.