Consumer units and equipment outdoors

As a poor mans weep vent and insect excluder, a  short length of plastic tube in a stuffing gland, with a twizzle of glass fibre loft insulation inside will keep the ants out.

Actually the main thing with ‘sealed’ boxes is not really condensation, but pressure equalization between inside and out. On hot and cold days a sealed box of air will be considerably stressed once it is not at temperature it was sealed at, and those stresses (forces) can cause strains ( flexing and deformation) allowing water to be drawn in around the lid joints and seals on glands etc. A box with a puddle of dew on it in a cold morning, with a partial vacuum inside is  very vulnerable to this. Removing the pressure difference helps a lot. It also stops water being wicked along between the wires of flexible cables, which can be an issue.

Other things that help a lot are even the simplest of protections like a canopy or porch, so the dew does not settle on it and the sun does not beat down and de-nature the plastics and peel the paint.

I have seen the use of a second meter box beside the first one, one for the DNO one for the customer kit as a way to do this. However I've also seen the effect of the door being removed/smashed on one in an exposed location and it raining in for a few weeks, and it  is not at all pretty.

Mike.

As a poor mans weep vent and insect excluder, a  short length of plastic tube in a stuffing gland, with a twizzle of glass fibre loft insulation inside will keep the ants out.

Actually the main thing with ‘sealed’ boxes is not really condensation, but pressure equalization between inside and out. On hot and cold days a sealed box of air will be considerably stressed once it is not at temperature it was sealed at, and those stresses (forces) can cause strains ( flexing and deformation) allowing water to be drawn in around the lid joints and seals on glands etc. A box with a puddle of dew on it in a cold morning, with a partial vacuum inside is  very vulnerable to this. Removing the pressure difference helps a lot. It also stops water being wicked along between the wires of flexible cables, which can be an issue.

Other things that help a lot are even the simplest of protections like a canopy or porch, so the dew does not settle on it and the sun does not beat down and de-nature the plastics and peel the paint.

I have seen the use of a second meter box beside the first one, one for the DNO one for the customer kit as a way to do this. However I've also seen the effect of the door being removed/smashed on one in an exposed location and it raining in for a few weeks, and it  is not at all pretty.

Mike.