Lads and lassies, I was wondering if any of you were employed in, or ran a Sparks business.
Have a friend looking to move to the "black north" ;) from the worse "black Dublin", he's a spark and wants to know what the situ is up here?
Any info greatly appreciated.
The Real LaoisLad, but I heard he's dodgy at best...
Quote from: ziggysego on August 27, 2008, 01:25:21 PM
The Real LaoisLad, but I heard he's dodgy at best...
Don't believe a word of it
Ok response not been great so far, is there anyone out there who has any contacts (family/friends) in the Sparks business in the North?
Or anyone know how the industry is doing at the minute, are there many jobs out there?
not a big pile of work, a lot travelling to england and scotland for work, plus for someone moving into to an area where they have no contacts it would be extremely difficult! a guy i know moved home after 7 years in san fran and although he still knows plenty of people they have moved on to other joiners and he is finding it extremely difficult! thats in down by the way, may be different in other parts of the 'black' north but i dont think it!
Quote from: lfdown2 on August 28, 2008, 09:56:18 AM
not a big pile of work, a lot travelling to england and scotland for work, plus for someone moving into to an area where they have no contacts it would be extremely difficult! a guy i know moved home after 7 years in san fran and although he still knows plenty of people they have moved on to other joiners and he is finding it extremely difficult! thats in down by the way, may be different in other parts of the 'black' north but i dont think it!
Thanks IFdown2, any work in the Antrim/Down/Armagh area would be good for him.
Are any of the bigger employers, builders/manufacturers/industrial etc employing at the minute?
p.s. was being tongue in cheek with the black north/dublin, on this occasion. ;)
Nobody's hiring. More likely to be laying off.
as above!
bad time to be moving to the grren north! ;D
If he as anyway decent and not a cowboy he'll get a job anywhere
even if there is no work??
Quote from: lfdown2 on August 29, 2008, 09:39:39 AM
even if there is no work??
Don't be fooled,There will always be work..Its at a time like this the cream rises to the top
Father in law and brother in law are sparks. They have work regular enough but they are known around their area. If the lad is coming up with few contacts he might find it hard.
Quote from: brokencrossbar1 on August 29, 2008, 09:46:03 AM
Father in law and brother in law are sparks. They have work regular enough but they are known around their area. If the lad is coming up with few contacts he might find it hard.
Yeah he'll find it hard alright bc1 but the thing is to get ahead nowadays you have to be more than a Electrician
Any Electrician worth his salt can wire a house etc but if he really wants a job in these times he should do a course on Alarm wiring or PLC's(Programmable Logic Controllers) or he should do something like Solar Panels or Energy saving like i did..
I'm sick and tired of hearing lads complaining they have no work etc,If some of them got off their holes and done something about it rather than waiting for a job to fall into their laps they would be better off.
When times were good in Ireland their wasn't enough men to do the work,so what happened was a lot of fellas became Electricians,Plasterers,Carpenters over night,Now that things have slowed down these cowboys are been weeded out and imho its for the better
btw I'm not for one minute suggesting this fella is a cowboy but in my experience there will always work for a Electrician its just a matter of doing the work to get ahead to be better than the next fella
I know Laoislad is an electrician so if he or anyone else can help I'd appreciate.
I run a gaming arcade and over the years the number of machines we have and sophistication of said machines as risen dramatically to the level where I wonder if the ESB supply is fit for purpose with the bill now coming in at roughly €750 per month... This morning I got a letter from ESB Networks advising me of our responsibilities as customers connected to the Electricity distribution system so I can only guess its being flagged up at their end that I'm using too much electric.
It tells me that my MIC and Duos tariff group will determine my capacity charges, can I find these out for myself or is it just a ring an electrician straight away scenario? Its single phase by the way and finally if it is not fit for purpose what is the likely next step and how much will it cost??
Quote from: Boycey on February 02, 2016, 03:49:25 PM
I know Laoislad is an electrician so if he or anyone else can help I'd appreciate.
I run a gaming arcade and over the years the number of machines we have and sophistication of said machines as risen dramatically to the level where I wonder if the ESB supply is fit for purpose with the bill now coming in at roughly €750 per month... This morning I got a letter from ESB Networks advising me of our responsibilities as customers connected to the Electricity distribution system so I can only guess its being flagged up at their end that I'm using too much electric.
It tells me that my MIC and Duos tariff group will determine my capacity charges, can I find these out for myself or is it just a ring an electrician straight away scenario? Its single phase by the way and finally if it is not fit for purpose what is the likely next step and how much will it cost??
Stick a magnet on your electric box and your bill will be £100 a month...I've never done it TBH but i hear it's quite common practice
Quote from: Boycey on February 02, 2016, 03:49:25 PM
I know Laoislad is an electrician so if he or anyone else can help I'd appreciate.
I run a gaming arcade and over the years the number of machines we have and sophistication of said machines as risen dramatically to the level where I wonder if the ESB supply is fit for purpose with the bill now coming in at roughly €750 per month... This morning I got a letter from ESB Networks advising me of our responsibilities as customers connected to the Electricity distribution system so I can only guess its being flagged up at their end that I'm using too much electric.
It tells me that my MIC and Duos tariff group will determine my capacity charges, can I find these out for myself or is it just a ring an electrician straight away scenario? Its single phase by the way and finally if it is not fit for purpose what is the likely next step and how much will it cost??
Contact electricitysaverireland.com they specialise in lowering electricity costs for firms like yours, they are based in Armagh and Dundalk.
Quote from: mackers on February 02, 2016, 04:41:33 PM
Quote from: Boycey on February 02, 2016, 03:49:25 PM
I know Laoislad is an electrician so if he or anyone else can help I'd appreciate.
I run a gaming arcade and over the years the number of machines we have and sophistication of said machines as risen dramatically to the level where I wonder if the ESB supply is fit for purpose with the bill now coming in at roughly €750 per month... This morning I got a letter from ESB Networks advising me of our responsibilities as customers connected to the Electricity distribution system so I can only guess its being flagged up at their end that I'm using too much electric.
It tells me that my MIC and Duos tariff group will determine my capacity charges, can I find these out for myself or is it just a ring an electrician straight away scenario? Its single phase by the way and finally if it is not fit for purpose what is the likely next step and how much will it cost??
Contact electricitysaverireland.com they specialise in lowering electricity costs for firms like yours, they are based in Armagh and Dundalk.
I switch providers regularly so its not the cost I'm interested in rather that the set up isn't up to coping with the load that's being placed on it...
Quote from: Boycey on February 02, 2016, 03:49:25 PM
I know Laoislad is an electrician so if he or anyone else can help I'd appreciate.
I run a gaming arcade and over the years the number of machines we have and sophistication of said machines as risen dramatically to the level where I wonder if the ESB supply is fit for purpose with the bill now coming in at roughly €750 per month... This morning I got a letter from ESB Networks advising me of our responsibilities as customers connected to the Electricity distribution system so I can only guess its being flagged up at their end that I'm using too much electric.
It tells me that my MIC and Duos tariff group will determine my capacity charges, can I find these out for myself or is it just a ring an electrician straight away scenario? Its single phase by the way and finally if it is not fit for purpose what is the likely next step and how much will it cost??
OK let's break it down.
MIC is the max import capacity. Which basically means what the connection you have at the moment can take on full load.
I would assume if you are single phase then you have at the very most a 100amp connection. Most domestic houses would be 63amp so I'm guessing yours would be this as it's a commercial premises though it may not be higher,maybe 80amps?
Duos is what category this connection falls into.
Here's a table to help you decide.. Sorry about the long Web address I'm on my phone and don't know how to shorten it
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.esb.ie/esbnetworks/en/commercial-downloads/description_duos_mcc.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwioo9nzxNnKAhUFYA4KHXDxBRAQFggkMAA&usg=AFQjCNHUT3k30c5u1mM35sALDtb6_wNGfQ
It would be my guess that you are DG6? Would you agree?
I don't know how this relates to ESB pricing and if you got 3 phase installed would it bring down the price by placing you in a different duos category,but I'm sure each category has its own pricing tariff.
Putting in 3phase won't reduce the overall load, it will just spread the load across 3 phases of say 63amps rather than one fuse taking all the load.
You could now of course install many more machines if you so wished as you would have a much larger capacity.
Have you thought about reducing your load? I persume you have lights running nearly 24/7? Changing these to Led will help considerably. There are other ways of reducing your total usage also if you want any advice on that as I do a lot of energy saving work or anything else just let me know.
Hope some of that helps.
Thanks for the reply
Actually on looking again the letter tells me my MIC is 15 kVA and DUoS is DG5 as opposed to DG6 that you said. Where do I find the amp connection? in the meter cabinet somewhere I guess??
Obviously I'm interested in anything that brings the price down but in the immediate term I'd be more interested in finding out is the thing fit for purpose as it is if that makes any sense? I mean if the load is too big am I in danger of the whole thing grinding to a shuddering halt some fine day? We also bought a machine for a lot of money about 12months ago and it has been beset with troubles and its got to the stage where I'm not believing that its all down to the machine but rather there is something in the environment that's causing it that's why I considered the electric as being a possible source of the problem.
What you need to do is get someone to put an amp meter on your incoming supply when you are at your busiest time, this should give you a fair Idea of what you are pulling at near full load.
Find your main fuse board, the main switch on that should have a figure wrote on it. It's possible you are only 63amps I couldn't be sure without looking myself obviously.
There is some tolerance of course. Just because your main fuse is 63amp doesn't mean it will blow as soon as you reach 63amps load. You'll probably reach 70+ before you'll get problems. The worst I have seen was on a farm yard down in Cork. I was installing energy monitors for An Teagasc and the farm was pulling 92amps on a 63amp fuse! But in theory yes you could be in danger of everything just going bang one day.
As I said you really need to measure the load when you have most equipment turned on.
It sounds like you need 3ph to be honest.
Laoislad my outside breaker keeps tripping (the one in the meter box with the incomer). Any ideas? When it trips it can mostly be switched back on without issue but sometimes it repeatedly trips 4 or 5 times and then comes on. All breakers inside the house are on. Fault in the box somewhere or load coming from the transformer on the pole near the house?
Quote from: Tony Baloney on January 22, 2019, 07:30:43 PM
Laoislad my outside breaker keeps tripping (the one in the meter box with the incomer). Any ideas? When it trips it can mostly be switched back on without issue but sometimes it repeatedly trips 4 or 5 times and then comes on. All breakers inside the house are on. Fault in the box somewhere or load coming from the transformer on the pole near the house?
What's it rated at? Though you shouldn't really be overloading the main breaker.I'd be getting on to your ESB(Or whatever ye call them up there) to have a look simply because it is in the meter box. Could be a surge from transformer or something like loose connections or an earth fault or any number of things to be honest.
Have you noticed any patterns of when it trips or is it random? What I mean is,would it trip when ye are all there and there could be a load of things switched on at once like washing machine,dishwasher etc.
Main breakers shouldn't really be tripping as most would be rated at 63amp or more.
Quote from: laoislad on January 22, 2019, 07:57:39 PM
Quote from: Tony Baloney on January 22, 2019, 07:30:43 PM
Laoislad my outside breaker keeps tripping (the one in the meter box with the incomer). Any ideas? When it trips it can mostly be switched back on without issue but sometimes it repeatedly trips 4 or 5 times and then comes on. All breakers inside the house are on. Fault in the box somewhere or load coming from the transformer on the pole near the house?
What's it rated at? Though you shouldn't really be overloading the main breaker.I'd be getting on to your ESB(Or whatever ye call them up there) to have a look simply because it is in the meter box. Could be a surge from transformer or something like loose connections or an earth fault or any number of things to be honest.
Have you noticed any patterns of when it trips or is it random? What I mean is,would it trip when ye are all there and there could be a load of things switched on at once like washing machine,dishwasher etc.
Main breakers shouldn't really be tripping as most would be rated at 63amp or more.
No I asked the missus as mostly happens when I'm out but nothing unusual. I'll contact Power NI.
Quote from: Tony Baloney on January 22, 2019, 08:37:05 PM
Quote from: laoislad on January 22, 2019, 07:57:39 PM
Quote from: Tony Baloney on January 22, 2019, 07:30:43 PM
Laoislad my outside breaker keeps tripping (the one in the meter box with the incomer). Any ideas? When it trips it can mostly be switched back on without issue but sometimes it repeatedly trips 4 or 5 times and then comes on. All breakers inside the house are on. Fault in the box somewhere or load coming from the transformer on the pole near the house?
What's it rated at? Though you shouldn't really be overloading the main breaker.I'd be getting on to your ESB(Or whatever ye call them up there) to have a look simply because it is in the meter box. Could be a surge from transformer or something like loose connections or an earth fault or any number of things to be honest.
Have you noticed any patterns of when it trips or is it random? What I mean is,would it trip when ye are all there and there could be a load of things switched on at once like washing machine,dishwasher etc.
Main breakers shouldn't really be tripping as most would be rated at 63amp or more.
No I asked the missus as mostly happens when I'm out but nothing unusual. I'll contact Power NI.
Had a similar issue a couple of years back, no pattern to it. I always needed to bring the load back up gradually, turning off all switches, resetting the main trip and turning on the switches 1 at a time. It turned out to be a faulty trip switch. The trip was replaced and the issue went away.
Cheers Leo. It's only about once a week at present (the missus said it's usually a Sunday). I mentioned that it might be because that's the only day she uses the oven which didn't go down too well :P
Quote from: Tony Baloney on January 23, 2019, 11:23:54 PM
Cheers Leo. It's only about once a week at present (the missus said it's usually a Sunday). I mentioned that it might be because that's the only day she uses the oven which didn't go down too well :P
What other electrical devices does she handle? Ironing while oven is on? I'd be quizzing her on items that the batteries need recharging on as well!!!
I lived in Italy for a spell and I could not put the electric kettle on at the same time the washing machine was on, as the draw was enough to trip the breaker. I think that was intentional by the power company to avoid peak usage though, rather than any sub-par installations.