Do I have 3 phase Elec supply?

Z

Zuluzebra

Expert Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2009
Messages
1,541
Reaction score
242
Hopefully, you guys can help me.

We have the solar guys at my house today installing inverters etc. According to my knowledge, I have 3 phase supply (outside box inspection confirmed this), and house essentials on 3 different lines at DB. Now I don't need this and want to downgrade to 1 phase only. I went to Citypower earlier today who told me I need to go to the city of JHB for a downgrade submission.

The question is, I don't know if I am being billed according to 3 phase elec supply, how would I know? I want to convert my meter to prepaid but ideally don't want to wait for another process to downgrade. So the thinking was to disconnect 2 wires outside, only use the blue, and add everything inside on the blue wire. Then only ask the city of JHB to convert to prepaid without any downgrades.

Maybe I am missing something?
 
What did your CoJ bill say?

Tshwane is a little different. I have 3 phase but don't get billed extra for that. They simply sum usage across the three meters and then bill accordingly here.
 
Speedster said:
What did your CoJ bill say?

Tshwane is a little different. I have 3 phase but don't get billed extra for that. They simply sum usage across the three meters and then bill accordingly here.
Click to expand...
Just shows a normal bill without any mention of phases.
 
there used to be a penalty for using 3 phase that is unbalanced ,but a lot of areas have done away with that now .you will still probably be paying for a 3 phase connection though but it will probably be the same as a single phase connection ,dont scrap it .
 
Last edited:
I'm on 3 phase, if you have a smart meter (will say 3 phase on the meter btw) you only get 1 amount for the 1 meter ID. Before I had them install the smart meter I had multiple of the old analogue meters for each phase and was billed for each meter. If your house is wired for 3 phase, just stick with 3 phase. My sparky says it can get complicated and somewhat expensive to convert properly. Just have a 3 phase inverter put in, think I have a 16kw one
 
DarkSt0rm said:
I'm on 3 phase, if you have a smart meter (will say 3 phase on the meter btw) you only get 1 amount for the 1 meter ID. Before I had them install the smart meter I had multiple of the old analogue meters for each phase and was billed for each meter. If your house is wired for 3 phase, just stick with 3 phase. My sparky says it can get complicated and somewhat expensive to convert properly. Just have a 3 phase inverter put in, think I have a 16kw one
Click to expand...
no thank you. No need for 3 phase or even the extra cost.

Why would it be such a challenge, they just disconnect 2 wires and bobs your uncle?
 
Chris_SA said:
no thank you. No need for 3 phase or even the extra cost.

Why would it be such a challenge, they just disconnect 2 wires and bobs your uncle?
Click to expand...
depending on age of house , it will be split up into zones to balance the 3 phase ,( if it was ever done) the only changes are inside the db , so instead of say lights and outside area on one phase , plugs on another phase and geyser and stove on the third there should be no other drastic work that needs to be done except joining the 3 circuits in the db into one .but as stated there may be issues with running a 3 phase input with only one phase some 3 phase breakers may trip if they see only a load on one circuit so the 3 phase breaker must be split to 3 single phase breakers , but that may have to happen outside .
 
Last edited:
Chris_SA said:
no thank you. No need for 3 phase or even the extra cost.

Why would it be such a challenge, they just disconnect 2 wires and bobs your uncle?
Click to expand...
AFAIK I don't have any extra cost for 3 phase. Bill is the stupid network charge + usage
 
The hardest part will be closing up the gap from the 3 phase breaker to a single phase breaker , cutting and gluing a piece of plastic can be challenging .just remember and this is a bucket that gets kicked around plenty , 3 phase can be cheaper in the long run cost wise .
 
Erven used or intended to be used for individual residential or religious purposes, per erf and per meter where more than one meter per erf exists
Single phase supplies (EBE821) R 0.00 R 0.00 0.00
Three phase supplies (EBE825) R 0.00 R 0.00 0.00,
may not be the same across all muni though.
 
Didn't see if this was mentioned but is it a true 3phase (phases out of sync) or 3 single phases split at the street
 
DarkSt0rm said:
I'm on 3 phase, if you have a smart meter (will say 3 phase on the meter btw) you only get 1 amount for the 1 meter ID. Before I had them install the smart meter I had multiple of the old analogue meters for each phase and was billed for each meter. If your house is wired for 3 phase, just stick with 3 phase. My sparky says it can get complicated and somewhat expensive to convert properly. Just have a 3 phase inverter put in, think I have a 16kw one
Click to expand...
I just popped everything on one phase with the inverter. The other two phases are dormant now.
 
PsyWulf said:
Didn't see if this was mentioned but is it a true 3phase (phases out of sync) or 3 single phases split at the street
Click to expand...
splitting a single phase supply into 3 phase doesnt really make sense , nothing to gain by it .if its tested at 380 across phases and 230 phase to neutral/earth its 3 phase .
 
Speedster said:
I just popped everything on one phase with the inverter. The other two phases are dormant now.
Click to expand...
Yeah that works fine, sparky initially suggested that, but there were concerns with load and a potential issue with how the suburb had been setup, so just stuck with 3 phase.
 
soulie said:
splitting a single phase supply into 3 phase doesnt really make sense , nothing to gain by it .if its tested at 380 across phases and 230 phase to neutral/earth its 3 phase .
Click to expand...
Yes
But it does happen, don't ask me why
Client of mine had "3 phase" which was a single phase split to 3 circuits at the street to 3 boards in the garage

They had tripping issues so the "solution" was to split it like that with 3 seperate breakers and ELs

When they did a solar install they realised it wasn't true 3phase. I laughed
 
PsyWulf said:
Yes
But it does happen, don't ask me why
Client of mine had "3 phase" which was a single phase split to 3 circuits at the street to 3 boards in the garage

They had tripping issues so the "solution" was to split it like that with 3 seperate breakers and ELs

When they did a solar install they realised it wasn't true 3phase. I laughed
Click to expand...
odd way to do it , all 3 wires would have to originate from the same phase in the outside box , unless the original single phase cable wasnt big enough to handle demand so they split it up to 3 supply wires to handle the load ,or it was on the edge ,still not a logical way to do it , would work out very expensive , probably more than running a single bigger cable to handle the load .thats the only feasible explanation i can think of .never really seen that before , but i suppose it can be done , nothing that says it cant be done like that .weird .it would be a bit of a juggling act across the 3 separate lines as youre bound by the box breaker size and it wont give you more capacity .
 
Last edited:
soulie said:
odd way to do it , all 3 wires would have to originate from the same phase in the outside box , unless the original single phase cable wasnt big enough to handle demand so they split it up to 3 supply wires to handle the load ,or it was on the edge ,still not a logical way to do it , would work out very expensive , probably more than running a single bigger cable to handle the load .thats the only feasible explanation i can think of .never really seen that before , but i suppose it can be done , nothing that says it cant be done like that .weird .it would be a bit of a juggling act across the 3 separate lines as youre bound by the box breaker size and it wont give you more capacity .
Click to expand...
Yes
My best guess is they got conned into splitting to 3 earth leakages but with extra wiring from the street instead of splitting at the board
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X