Discuss Question regarding instant water heater fuse and main fuse box question in the DIY Electrical Advice area at ElectriciansForums.net

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darrenbilly

Good evening all, I have two questions for you, which I would very much appreciate input on :>)

1:
I have a Stiebel Eltron DHC hydraulic instantaneous water heater in my toilet room, next to my bedroom. It has not worked since we moved in two weeks ago. It has a switch spur in close proximity, that had a 13a fuse in, which I have found is not sufficient. I have found that it needs a 30a fuse however, I have not seen a 30a fuse that would fit in to a switch spur, so what's the deal with that...? Wrongly installed, or do they actually exist?

2:
After only 12 days of living here, I worked out how much electricity we had used (we have moved in to an electric only bungalow, with eco 7). Not being use to the setup, I wanted to see what the bill would be. After this relatively short period, we had used £130 of electric. On that basis we were looking at paying £260 for one month. I felt this was wrong and that there may have been an issue with the meter. Then three days ago the lights,fridge and microwave started flickering. Then I noticed the main fuse, where the electricity enters the house (the little black box) was making a clicking/scraping noise, as we had not been here long we assumed it had always done that but, the next morning I was awoken by the microwave turning on and off (it beeps when it powers up) and loud hissing/banging coming from the fuse box, we knew there was something wrong, but could not deal with it at the time, so when we returned home in the evening and noticed the lights going on a mad one and then blue sparks coming out of said fuse box, we were glad when it shut itself off. National Grid were called and turned up within two hours, they noticed right away that the neutral cable entering the fuse box was very hot and loose. I must point out that we noticed the little wire clips had been cut on this beforehand... They were quite shocked at what had happened, but said due to its age it wasn't unsurprising to have worked itself loose... They changed the cable and everything is fine. Since that happened I have been taking meter readings and working out the cost, only around £4 a day, far less than it was. SO my question, at last, is it possible this serious cabling error was causing the meter to clock up faster than it should have? We are using the same amount of electric, but the unit usage has gone down considerably. Is it at all possible?

Thank you in advance
 
You're being charged for all that heating up of the cable(s), it doesn't come free you know!! lol!!

What for the life of me i can't understand, is that you left the system on and working ''Knowing'' that something was very wrong. You should think yourself lucky you had a house to come home too!!
 
I take it from your post that you moved in not knowing what had been done, correct? You need to get your electrical installation checked out as a matter of urgency, you have been extremely lucky so far as Eng 54 says, get it checked out, see if you can find out who the cowboy was who installed this heater and get him back, if it's a rental speak to the landlord, if it's a private buy, well I don't know.
 
if you can get the KW rating of the water heater we can then determine what type of circuit it will need. as said above, an inspection of the installation is recommended. if you post your location..........
 
1) As Tel says give us the kW rating of the heater so we can determine the rating required but I think I can say with 99% confidence that if its an instant hot water heater 13A is not the correct rating!

2) As Pete recommends, if you've had problem with the supply Neutral (and the water heater fusing) I would be worried about what eles may be wrong in the house so get someone in to do an EICR for your piece of mind! Next time you might not be so lucky ......
 

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