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Single or Three phase


Mongoo
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I had a problem with three phase supply to modern house 20 to 25 years old. During stormy weather we got 400 volts at the sockets. EDF checked lines and say all is ok. We have removed a large tree that had branches resting on the overhead cable to the house and all seems to be stable at present. However has anyone any thoughts on changing to single phase? We have Electric cooker and washing machie. then just normal lights ketttle and general sockets. the house can sleep a max. of 8 people. I understand there is a 150 Euro charge approx for this.

Hi all, I have an update to this message, if anyone can help that would be good. Last night in a no storm situation the electricity weant mad in our house and we have had to cancel some people that were going to visit the house as we now consider it could be dangerous. The lighting in part of the house went V. bright! Some of the sockets in the house have failed and others have blown up yet more of our stuff, microwave, phone chargers etc. ordinary cooker stopped working. Its as though phases are linking then unlinking, if thats possible. I say ordinary cooker, but I will have to check that its not a 3 phase cooker, with gas rings including 1 electric ring. Anyway the question is has anyone got any thoughts as to what typically can cause this to happen, its starting to drive me bonkers and I suspect I will have to have a French artisan take a look.

Paul
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Welcome to the forum.

Are you sure you got 400V at the sockets, how do you know that. 400v would have instantly destroyed anything which was plugged in and switched on at the time, even on standby, like the TV for instance, and possibly even stuff not switched on, is that how [:'(]

Unfortunately changing from 3ph to single is not just a question of paying EDF €150!

Firstly it may not be possible. Depending how far away you are from a substation or transformer you may need 3ph to get the level of power which you want/need. This is the reason for utilising 3ph in the first place, to extend the reach of an electricity supply, and only EDF can tell you whether a change is possible or not.

Secondly, if you are able to switch you will also be looking at replacing your tableau (fusebox for want of a better description) and an associated rewiring job so not a project to be taken on without understanding the full scope and costs.

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[quote user="AnOther"]Secondly, if you are able to switch you will also be looking at replacing your tableau (fusebox for want of a better description) and an associated rewiring job so not a project to be taken on without understanding the full scope and costs.

[/quote]

I don't think changing from three-phase to single phase would require replacing the tableau (doing it the other way round would, though), or any re-wiring other than some minor additional connections in the tableau itself. But on the other hand I'm not an electrician, so what do I know?

However it would be worth (a) asking an electrician what's involved, and (b) finding out from EDF if they think it would be possible. They probably wouldn't charge (no pun intended) if it can't be done. If it can, they will have to send someone to look at the current (ditto) set up before quoting for the cost of conversion.

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You're right that you could probably could get away with reusing the same fuses or breakers but after 25 years I think it would be wise and sensible to update, it's needn't be a big or expensive job if you can do it yourself. If the OP's tableau is anything like mine, which is of a similar vintage and cramped with so many wires coming in as to make it virtually impossible to work on, then starting from scratch would most definitely be quicker and the lesser of the evils and in fact it's on my list of things to do - eventually !

Of course if the existing 3ph installation has been recently updated that would change things.

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The house is a holiday home and on returning to it we quite often fount the main trip had tripped. Didnt know why, but knew that French supply could be a bit up & down during bad weather etc. On one occasion my partner was in residence and during a storm we lost a digibox, not the Tv? flourescent light, boiler programmer, hair dryer, straighteners, iphone charger and a few othjer things, the Geminox boiler programmer type 101 costs over 700 Euros. We thought it was lightning that had damaged them. I was not present at the time. However on a later date I was there and the electicity trip dropped out during a storm, I reset it and all was ok for a time, then lights went bright, (realy bright!!) then went dull some failed altogether, I quickly got my multi meter and measured the voltage at the sockets, it shot up to 400V for a while then I went to the distribution board and measured phase to phase, phase to neutral and phase to earth. For a while any phase to neutral was at 400v. we switched every thing off at the trip and went to bed next day nice and sunny all phases were as they should be.

I dont mind having a 3phase supply but was quite concerned about the safety of it, especially in view of what happened. Thanks so far for all your input, no pun intended:-)
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