Installing 3-Phase Outlet(s) for High-Wattage Requirements

[RomeoWhiskey]

So I have a rather big issue, or at least I may just be overthinking and making it seem bigger than it really is.

I work on cars all the time, but for my own projects I want to try a few things out. I'm looking in to completely restoring one of my vehicles before heavily tuning it. I've got everything planned up, including paint supplier, compressor, air lines for personal ventilation and supply to the spray guns, bake/cure lights etc. Everything in fact, except for one thing - my lighting will require over 12,000 watts, not to mention I will still need to ventilate the spray tent and my lungs while I observe during a bake. I'm about to move in to a new house (not a new build, just new to me) and I'm fully unaware of whether or not the property has 3 phase supply, there are no outlets to utilise it anyway. I was wondering what you lot may think about the costs of having it installed.

No, I will not have someone else paint it. I don't want to rent a paint booth either as I need the vehicle in my possession. I'm a qualified body repair technician and really hate the idea of anyone other than an MOT center tech touching my car.

TL;DR: I want to install phase 3 at my new house, want ideas of what it may cost. I am a UK resident if that helps.

Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it.

Ryan

 

[NickGrogan]

Ryan

Its very unlikely that the house will have a 3 phase supply, so you'll need to look at upgrading the supply. Depending on the setup you may need to get the cabling upgraded back to the road, or further back.

You'll need to talk to your local electricity distributor. You can find this on your bill - its not the same as the supplier, or you can use my website to find out from your postcode.

https://www.energybrokers.co.uk/electricity/PES-Distributor-areas.htm

Or PM me your postcode if you prefer.

Once you know the distributor, you can ask them if its possible and costs.

If it's an intermittent or limited need, it might be cheaper to look at hiring a generator for the time you need it.

 

[RomeoWhiskey]

Excellent, thanks for your reply. I was actually just wondering if I could use a step-up or even multiple step ups for this. I can't imagine it'd be a great idea as I assume I'd need to use multiple different sockets for that anyway. Which sort of generator would you recommend for about my requirements? Oadby is missing from your East Midlands list by the way.

 

[Raw Rob]

It's not usual to have 3 phase for residential properties in the UK. But not sure you even need it. It seems that the standard for the UK would give you 24,000 watts anyway, check with the electricity company. Read this for a little more explanation:
https://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/980/kva-load-for-my-property

 

[RomeoWhiskey]

Ah, see now that's interesting. Cheers mate, I'll look in to it.

 

[paulears]

Sadly, most incomers have 60A available in older installations with 100A available in some newer ones. If you have a smallish home, then you'll probably find that if you add up the MCB values in your consumer unit, they will come to more than the size of the typical 63A RCD or breaker you have fitted. This is called diversity - the expectation being that it's unlikely you will ever have every circuit loaded to maximum. Heaters in every room loading your ring main to max, all the lights on and the cooker and hob going full tilt. I assume your 12K lighting are heat lamps? These are going to eat up over 50 amps.

You don't actually need 3 phase power, if you can run your house on the remainder of the the 100A, if that is available in your property. For your requirements, another 100A supply from the road to your workshop might be the thing to enquire about - a dedicated supply and meter for the workshop area. Three phase cabling plus three phase metering is expensive to put in, and probably means domestic tariffs are out too. A new single phase supply as an extra could be the cheapest option.

 

[RomeoWhiskey]

Well I've managed to get my power consumption down to 8000w for my infrared lighting. The thing is I shouldn't need them up for more than 15 minutes at a time and only 3 times across the day. I'm wondering if this is perhaps a bit better for my situation. Thanks for your input Paulears, that's really useful but the property is a rental and I can't imagine the owner actually being alright with me having an extra supply installed. It's a four bed property with two garages, but it's reasonably small.

 

[paulears]

Check your consumer unit and see what the capacity is - a 4 bed property with two garages sounds like 100A capacity is perhaps going to be possible. 35 amps wish for the infrared could be doable? If the garage is where you are working, check to see if this is fed with a separate feed to a sub-consumer unit in the garage. check it's capacity and what the breaker in the main consumer unit has for it - if this is a 32 amp MCB then that's not going to give you much spare. You could find the cable fitted is capable of a bit more, or not? Get a local sparks you trust to come and have look and advise on the available capacity without rewiring.