Our connection to the electric company currently runs through the summer kitchen and from there to the house. It is embedded in the structure.
- The main above-ground cable runs from the road to a post sticking out of the summer kitchen roof. (top foreground)
- A main cut-off switch is installed on the outside wall (bottom front – small black box on pink wall)
- The line to the house also protrudes from another spot in the roof (top background)
The meter and antiquated main fuses are in the small hallway of the summer kitchen (right under the post in the background of the top image):
This interferes with our ability to renovate. The wall on which the meter is mounted is going to be torn down and so is the roof. So we’ve had to create an alternative path.
Our original wish was to install a completely new three-phase system with all cables buried in the ground. However, after consulting with an electrician we decided to stay with an upgraded single-phase installation that will be moved out of the summer kitchen.
As you can see in the previous post, we’d already buried a new cable that runs to the house from this hole in the ground (next to the summer kitchen):
We leveled the floor of this whole and stacked in it cement blocks to create an initial form:
The PVC pipe carrying the cable through the concrete was placed inside this form:
We had a large (and heavy) metal pipe (7.5cm diameter, ~7 meters long) lying around (it’s been here since we moved to Bhudeva) and it is going to become the post. It was quite a project for the two of us and these pictures don’t do the effort justice … but we managed to get the metal post into the concrete form and to orient it vertically straight in place:
The next step was backfilling (and tamping) and putting in rebar:
This is after the initial concrete pour (the rebars laid on top were moved aside for the pour and placed returned later):
Then we added a frame for the top part which would encase the form created by the blocks. Originally the form was placed as you see in the picture below – oriented with the blocks. On second thought I re-oriented it a bit (no picture) to be better aligned with its surroundings (I realized just before the next pour that we had not given any attention to its orientation … we’d simply followed through with the orientation the excavator was able to create while digging the hole):
And the 2nd concrete pour took place the next day:
While that was setting we completed a penetration under the wall of the summer kitchen for a new main power line from the house to the summer kitchen – inside:
outside:
and to the house:
… and runs all the way to the electric fuse box (another project that felt like way more than 9 words worth – those are two hefty cables … they don’t do stretching!) that is at the entrance to the house where they will be patched in after the electricians install the new main box on the pole (planned for this Wednesday):
And today we stripped the forms and our electric seems ready to go:
and it seems to be close to the same height of the existing pole:
… electric pole … check!