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3-phase supply to a garage from a house

I've got a 3-phase (4-wire) supplied to my house, and are looking to get the 3-phase supply to the garage. The supply is fed via 3 x 60 A fuses.  I assume a 3-phase isolator with internal fuses is a typical way to do this. 

I was looking at the Axiom range, in particular the SF63

https://www.cedelectrical.co.uk/pdf/axiom_industrial.pdf

These seem significantly cheaper than similar units from Hager and elsewhere, and I was wondering what the quality is like. Since it is going to be located in  the house, supplying power to the garage, it is not going to get much use, like in an industrial location. It will probably only get switched once per year or so on average.

Is it acceptable to have the switch in one box, and isolator in the other, rather than both in the one box? Having these separate might be preferable, as I assume the depth will be less.  I have only 167 mm between the mounting surface and a sliding cupboard. It's not clear from the above data sheet if the 141 mm includes the handle or not. If so, that would fit, but if not, the handle will probably prevent the cupboard being closed.  In which case, I assume a switch in one box and fuses in another would probably allow for a smaller overall depth, but maybe I am mistaken on that. (On that particular range, the boxes are the same sizes, irrespective of whether there are fuses or not in there.

Currently the garage has a single-phase supply, fused at 60 A, but there is a 4-core cable, as some of the cores were used to supply economy 7 heating, although that's not being used any more. The conductors are 16 mm^2.

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  • I guess the first question is what are you supplying in the garage? Is it going to be a 3 phase distribution board?

    There’s a couple of ways you could do it but yes a 3 phase switch fuse would be a good way. I’ve used the 100a version of the unit you link to and I would say it was “ok”. Not as nicely designed or nice to install maybe as other brands but as you say it is significantly cheaper and perfectly adequate. I’m pretty sure the dimensions do include the handle so should fit into your space. 

  • Hi,

    Thank you for getting back. In the garage a few things will be powered.

    1) A lathe and/or a milling machine. I don't have either at the minute, but typically these  have 3-phase motors, so that's why I want to get a 3-phase supply in the garage.

    2) Some single phase items - lighting, air-conditioning, 13 A sockets, and a 7.2 kW water heater, used to wash hands. That will only every run for a few minutes at a time.

    Although this is a garage, I have made a small section into a laboratory. That bit is air-conditioned. I forget what the maximum power that can draw is, but I don't think it is any more than 3 kW, and probably not more than 2 kW.

    So in essences, there will be one or two 3-phase items, and the rest will be single-phase.

    Since you say the Axiom range is perfectly adequate, that will be good enough for me. I will get an electrician to do this, but I want to have some idea of what the cost of the parts are. If he says the idolator is £300, I can reasonably say that one can be obtained for a lot less.

    I noticed a Hager 63 A fused isolator. The depth was given, and that would have been okay, but then it said something like "plus 70 mm for the handle". That would have made it too big. That's why I was concerned about the size. I found a data sheet on the Axiom one, but it was not exactly very informative. I have seen better data sheets.

    Dave

Reply
  • Hi,

    Thank you for getting back. In the garage a few things will be powered.

    1) A lathe and/or a milling machine. I don't have either at the minute, but typically these  have 3-phase motors, so that's why I want to get a 3-phase supply in the garage.

    2) Some single phase items - lighting, air-conditioning, 13 A sockets, and a 7.2 kW water heater, used to wash hands. That will only every run for a few minutes at a time.

    Although this is a garage, I have made a small section into a laboratory. That bit is air-conditioned. I forget what the maximum power that can draw is, but I don't think it is any more than 3 kW, and probably not more than 2 kW.

    So in essences, there will be one or two 3-phase items, and the rest will be single-phase.

    Since you say the Axiom range is perfectly adequate, that will be good enough for me. I will get an electrician to do this, but I want to have some idea of what the cost of the parts are. If he says the idolator is £300, I can reasonably say that one can be obtained for a lot less.

    I noticed a Hager 63 A fused isolator. The depth was given, and that would have been okay, but then it said something like "plus 70 mm for the handle". That would have made it too big. That's why I was concerned about the size. I found a data sheet on the Axiom one, but it was not exactly very informative. I have seen better data sheets.

    Dave

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