Lee and Peter Sailing Trip was for Four not Two Years. Now an Italian adventure

The electrician came to assess our electric wiring. Most of it is OK but some needs upgrading. The wire from the meter to the house is just two thin wires with a total capacity of about 4kW. The intention was just to pull a new wire through the pipe that connects the meter to the house. Recall the meter is about 50 meters away at the top of a grass hill. The plan was to use the old wire to pull two strings from the meter to the house, then use one of the strings to pull the old wire back and later use the other string to pull a bigger wire to the meter. But….”The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley.” Unfortunately, the old wire would not move, we poked around what we thought was the path the pipe would take with no success. It seems that some of the tree roots had moved or blocked the pipe trapping the wire. This means that the wire may well break at any time in the future.

A new plan was made to lay a new pipe from the meter to the top of the house and enter the house via the roof. The old wire went to the bottom of the house near the front door a much longer and steeper path and also then went under the foundations into the house. The new wire would go over the access bridge to the roof space through the roof space and connect to the existing distribution panel. A much simpler and more accessible route. The wire must be buried 1 meter in the ground so a trench digger was arranged.

On the appointed day the digger arrived on the back of the truck. It went up the side of the house and dug the new trench. The digging laying the pipe and covering the trench took one day.

Later the new thicker wire/cable was pulled through and connected.

A big adventure but the final result is a much more secure connection and will be easy to extend to a new extension to the house that we are planning.

Having upgraded the wiring we put a new funky light in the kitchen area to celebrate.