Backup Power when working on an occupied house

[vwes59]

Hi,
Does anyone provide backup power for when having to turn off power to an occupied house for long periods of time ?

I've got to turn off the power to a house next week to trace a ring final fault and it's likely to take all day and the house will be occupied with a young family so they will need access to some kind of power for their fridge and kettle at least.

I know I can safely have the power off for about 3 hours, after which things start to defrost etc, but I seriously think I'll be longer than that, unless I strike lucky and find the fault first time.

The only thing I've seen costs in excess of £1,000. I do have some leisure batteries and an 2000W inverter which might be enough, just need to put them out of reach of little hands.

 

[littlespark]

If you’re working on the rfc, Is there a socket on the cooker switch for essentials?

if not, temporary double socket wired into board somewhere.

freeezer should be fine for 8 hours if the door is kept shut.

 

[loz2754]

Freezers will not start to defrost for at least 12 hours if they're not opened.

Edit: Beaten to it

 

[i=p/u]

Yeah extension lead at most if they wanna rent one

 

[Rockingit]

make yourself up a temp 'builders board' - cheap garage DB on some 10mm tails, couple of metalclads, mount on some ply, probably cost less than £60 to build and it will save your bacon for many years to come.

 

[telectrix]

and it will save your bacon for many years to come

might even cook it for him.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Hi,
Does anyone provide backup power for when having to turn off power to an occupied house for long periods of time ?

I've got to turn off the power to a house next week to trace a ring final fault and it's likely to take all day and the house will be occupied with a young family so they will need access to some kind of power for their fridge and kettle at least.

I know I can safely have the power off for about 3 hours, after which things start to defrost etc, but I seriously think I'll be longer than that, unless I strike lucky and find the fault first time.

The only thing I've seen costs in excess of £1,000. I do have some leisure batteries and an 2000W inverter which might be enough, just need to put them out of reach of little hands.

That's very thoughtful of you but not really necessary. They could have a thermos flask full of hot water for the day and keep the freezers and fridges shut (as much as poss). What have you done in the past when you need to switch power off for a day? Sometimes we just need to tell the customer they will not have power for the day. As long as you inform them before hand then they have the opportunity to prepare.

If they really have to have power, for more pressing things, perhaps a hospital bed etc, then I would do as @Rockingit said in post 5.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Does the whole board need to be off for the duration? Can you disconnect the six conductors of the circuitg under investigation and optionally extend them out of the board so you can test to the ends, and put the remaining circuits back on?

 

[Deleted account]

Does the whole board need to be off for the duration? Can you disconnect the six conductors of the circuitg under investigation and optionally extend them out of the board so you can test to the ends, and put the remaining circuits back on?

That’s thinking outside the box.

 

[UNG]

This reminds me of one I had a few years back, a few days before I was due on site to rewire the socket circuits the customer rang me up very concerned that there would be no power on while I was doing the work I reassured him that there would be at least one live socket for most of the job his response was how could I be so certain my reply was there has to be somewhere to plug the kettle in to keep the job lubricated

 

[vwes59]

Unfortunately to answer the question about not isolating the whole board, there is only one ring for the whole house. In other cases I've been lucky that either the house is empty or the fridges etc have been on their own circuit