Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 3Jul 15, 2019 9:55 am Simeon McGovern Affordable Custom Homes, We design and build to your budget Ashington Homes www.ashingtonhomes.com.au Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 4Jul 15, 2019 2:07 pm Hi, We are looking forward to a new build in Schofields, Sydney as well and completely confused with the electrical requirements. Can you share the electricians details. We'd love to use his expertise to guide us as Im not to comfortable with having all configuration done with the builders. Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 5Jul 15, 2019 3:10 pm amigo Hi, We are looking forward to a new build in Schofields, Sydney as well and completely confused with the electrical requirements. Can you share the electricians details. We'd love to use his expertise to guide us as Im not to comfortable with having all configuration done with the builders. Hi Amigo My electrician is Infinity Electrical Group - speak to Jason 0414 227 897. He is genuinely one of the nicest tradespeople you will ever deal with and his prices are really fair. I think he might be on leave this week but back next week cheers S Simeon McGovern Affordable Custom Homes, We design and build to your budget Ashington Homes www.ashingtonhomes.com.au Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 6Jan 03, 2020 1:59 pm chiggles I am building a new house with a volume builder, and because of the nature of the land, I am getting all the service connections done myself (otherwise the builder will charge a fortune). I am looking at single vs 3 phase power. I know the pros & cons, costs etc, I just need to confirm what I think I need in terms of size and type of cable. (p.s. I have already spoken to an electrician but was not 100% confident they gave me the best advice). Hey chiggles - go with 3-phase straight away, as you would not want to do a retrofit later on. Is this build in NSW or VIC? Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 7Jan 03, 2020 6:58 pm chiggles I am building a new house with a volume builder, and because of the nature of the land, I am getting all the service connections done myself (otherwise the builder will charge a fortune). I am looking at single vs 3 phase power. I know the pros & cons, costs etc, I just need to confirm what I think I need in terms of size and type of cable. (p.s. I have already spoken to an electrician but was not 100% confident they gave me the best advice). The driveway from street to house is 110m. There is 50mm conduit with draw string laid underneath the driveway. Max load I estimate to be about 80-90A. Assume 5% max voltage drop. I am looking at using XLPE cable. If I go with single phase, I think I need 2 x 35mm2 XLPE + 1 x 10mm2 earth. If I go with 3 phase, I think I need 4 x 16mm2 XLPE + 1 x 10mm2 earth. First, are the above sizes about right? Second, if I go with 3 phase, am I better to run 4 x XLPE single core cables + earth, or use a 1 x 4 core cable + earth? (Keep in mind the 50mm conduit size when answering this question). I don't really need 3 phase right now, but if its only going to be an extra $1k or so in cables, I will get it to provide for possible future use (i.e. refrigerated cooling, swimming pool / spa heater etc) We have just started a new build & decided to run 3 phase to the shed & house as it was available in the pit. Length of the run was about 180 meters from the pit to meter box using 4x 70mm2 XLPE in a 63mm HD conduit, worked out at roughly 8k for materials & labor with me providing the trench. The electrician said basically nobody uses multi core as its more expensive pm than buying 4 lengths of XLPE & harder to manage on the drum etc. Just based on that i think you could be up for a bit more than 1k, hope that helps. Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 8Jan 04, 2020 5:06 pm With a run of 42m, the extra for three-phase in my case is $350, so $1k might be max. With 6.6 kW solar and a 5 kW three-phase inverter ($4,000) I might be better off with three-phase as the inverter balances the outputs. Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 9Sep 04, 2020 1:54 pm Just hijacking this thread as im contemplating the same thing at the moment - single vs three phase. I dont think there is any immediate need for three phase for us but is it worth putting it in anyway so its there for the future? We are planning our build at the moment so i assume it will be cheaper to pop it in now rather than retrofit later on. Are there any pros/cons to having three phase power when you dont really have any need for it immediately? Follow my build here: https://www.instagram.com/ivy5custom Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 10Sep 05, 2020 8:44 am I am putting it in as it has a benefit apart from reducing the energy loss in the wiring along a long drive way. I am also putting in a three-phase solar inverter at greater cost as I believe dedicating one phase from the solar to the H/W system will help me as in WA the feed-in tariff has dropped to a ridiculous 3c/kWh, but gone up to 10c after 3PM. So not feeding to the grid and using one out of three phases for the H/W seems to make sense, but I do not have a "black belt in electrickery" to explain it better. Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 11Sep 05, 2020 4:30 pm Monty85 Just hijacking this thread as im contemplating the same thing at the moment - single vs three phase. I dont think there is any immediate need for three phase for us but is it worth putting it in anyway so its there for the future? We are planning our build at the moment so i assume it will be cheaper to pop it in now rather than retrofit later on. Are there any pros/cons to having three phase power when you dont really have any need for it immediately? It will cost you more to go 3 phase but will give you more flexibility long term. For instance induction cooktops technically draw a huge current. If this load can be split over 3 phases it helps a lot. RC AC also draws a big current. Depending on the size of your house just those two items can see you get close too or exceed the max theoretical draw on a single phase. If you have the option to balance that draw over 3 phases it can makes it far easier. Accessible Carpentry & Cabinets accessiblecarpentry@gmail.com accessiblecarpentry.com.au https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accessible-Carpentry-Cabinets/583314911709039 Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 12Sep 05, 2020 6:23 pm chippy It will cost you more to go 3 phase but will give you more flexibility long term. I don't have a price yet but from what i can tell i don't think its too big of a hit if you do it from the start during a new build. I could be wrong though. But if that's the case it just makes me wonder why it's not more common. Follow my build here: https://www.instagram.com/ivy5custom Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 13Sep 05, 2020 6:52 pm I'm sure some builders charge a pretty penny to upgrade simply because many people wouldn't know the actual cost. A lot of standard builders homes have had a combination of gas cooking and hws. That really only leave the AC and possibly the ovens as big current draws. Many are now moving away from gas as an energy source and going completely electric meaning the need to draw more current. Hence the need for 3 phase. I'd always opt for 3 phase even if I didn't think I needed it. Accessible Carpentry & Cabinets accessiblecarpentry@gmail.com accessiblecarpentry.com.au https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accessible-Carpentry-Cabinets/583314911709039 Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 14Sep 05, 2020 8:07 pm Definitely go 3 phase now for future proofing. We're building in Brisbane and we'll be having a combination of gas and electric appliances. The cost to upgrade from single phase to three phase was $1500, so I went with it. I've also got solar installed and the solar tech strongly recommended I get 3 phase. Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 16Oct 23, 2020 7:42 pm Thylacene 3 phase is cheap at initial construction. 3 phase is a bloody expensive retrofit Yep we ended up adding it in. For $650 extra it was an easy decision. Follow my build here: https://www.instagram.com/ivy5custom Re: Single Phase vs 3 Phase Electricity (New Build) 17Oct 23, 2020 7:46 pm Monty85 Thylacene 3 phase is cheap at initial construction. 3 phase is a bloody expensive retrofit Yep we ended up adding it in. For $650 extra it was an easy decision. Can get very expensive if the fitted meter doesn't support it or you have to put another conduit in 1 62024 Hello All 🙂 We are planning to start our journey of construction our first home. We zeroed down on Metricon and henley homes based on design suitable for our lot and… 0 8204 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17615 |