We were asked to find out why the feed to a Portacabin staffroom, at a garden centre kept tripping. On opening the Consumer unit in the staffroom we found it was being fed with a 2.5 SWA from a board 50m away. The armouring had also not been terminated in anyway and no sign of core identifiers.
Not a major issue you may think but it was running:
2 x 1000w panel heaters,
2 x 3kw fast boil Kettles
1 x 3kw water heater
1 x 500w PIR flood light
1 x 800w microwave
1 x 300w fridge
as well as general sockets and florescent lighting!
At full tilt it was pulling 54amps on a cable rated at 31amps, The cable was running more than a little warm when we arrived!
Using a set of relays and small night storage heaters, we designed a controller to ensure that when the heaters were on during the night, the power to the other appliances was disconnected (not fridge!) and vice versa. LED lighting and a review of the kettle situation reduced the overall consumption back to a safe level!
