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TRIP SWITCH


Angie
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Our EDF meter box is sited at the edge of our property, some 100 metres away.  During the winter months when our consumption of electricity is high our supply keeps tripping (we are totally electric at the property) although this can also occur for no reason during the summer!!   It is extremely inconvenient to have to keep traipsing down the driveway to switch the electricity back on especially at night and were wondering if we can ask that the box be located closer to the house, or indeed whether there is a way of having the trip switch fitted indoors?  Thanks in advance.

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Depending on the complexity of your set up it may be possible to fit a circuit breaker on you box set at a lower rating than the EDF supply.

It may be possible to increase the EDF rating for a small increase in annual charge or

Search on 'delesteur' and post if you need more information. Proably a delesteur cuts the power to some none critical bits of equipment like the water heater and some room heater when a kettle or toaster is the last straw which would normally trip the system. Not cheap but better than a walk in the  wet and dark.

Sorry fonts seem to have mutined this morning

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[quote user="Anton Redman"]

Depending on the complexity of your set up it may be possible to fit a circuit breaker on you box set at a lower rating than the EDF supply.

It may be possible to increase the EDF rating for a small increase in annual charge or

Search on 'delesteur' and post if you need more information. Proably a delesteur cuts the power to some none critical bits of equipment like the water heater and some room heater when a kettle or toaster is the last straw which would normally trip the system. Not cheap but better than a walk in the  wet and dark.

[/quote]

We used to have the OP's problem as well what with being basically an all electric house although fortunately my 'trip' was down in the basement and I didn't get wet or cold. With the heating on and the oven running just using the kettle made it trip. About 6 years ago we had a 'delesteur' fitted and all the problems went away. As Anton said, not cheap but well worth it. Ours is two stage, first the water heaters and then the lounge heaters. If you can't upgrade the supply then this is the way to go.

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Thanks so much Anton and Quillan, this sounds just what we are looking for.  I did search "delesteur" and other people seem to have solved their problem with one of these.  Does anyone know how much one of these would cost to have installed - I assume I can have this fitted to my electricity panel which is conveniently located in the kitchen?   
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I can't remember it was a while ago, I think it might have been around the €100 mark. You need to make sure you have enough space in your existing consumer unit, it takes up about three slots (the size of three breakers side by side). Takes under an hour to fit normally. If you buy one yourself I seem to remember it comes in two separate halves, a switch unit and a coil/pickup which you buy separately.

Hope that helps.

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Most folks consume more electricity during the winter so would it not be easier (and EDF do it for free) to have your tariff upgraded? The standing charge is more but it saves the worry, and in your case venturing outside, of the electricty tripping out.
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Brilliant, Gary; just what I need! How can they say it's useless? [:D]

Anyway, Happy New Year to you!

We still have trip-switch problems here but not associated with consumption/overload. Our main switch trips out during storms regardless of whether we've got anything running. We don't have a particularly high electricity use here anyway and we're on the low tariff  6kw.

It happens at least 3 or 4 times a year and the last time it happened we were away; only the freezer was switched on; when we returned a week later the food was ruined of course.

I've written to our electricity supplier, SEOLIS, asking if they would change the disjoncteur; it has a date of 1989 on it so I reckon it might be old and "over sensitive" (maybe I'm old and over sensistive!), but they won't do it, even at my expense! They suggest that we get a neighbour to check on a regular basis! That's a workaround, but hardly a proper solution in this day and age!

I tried to download the instructions for the "useless box" just for amusement, but my AVG anti-virus warned of a threat on the website, on a second attempt the warning has disappeared!! Very odd.

All the best

Sid

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