ESB - New Yellow and Orange Tape on Facia

RDWRER_

Driving around D5 I've noticed a lot of houses have recently been adorned with bundles of yellow warning tape and bright orange insulation wrapped around the wires where they join the facia of the property. Looks to be the main electricity feed in to the house.

Is this a new thing ESB are rolling out?

It looks an absolute mess and i can't believe it's been done. Big bright yellow balls of tape that look as if they've been thrown on like tinsel. Curious to know if it is new or if I'm only just noticing it - nothing on my street yet...

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058372583/esb-new-yellow-and-orange-tape-on-facia

house is probably getting wrapped in outside insulation so the wires are covered to prevent electric shock when working close by

Doolittle51

Most likely being done at the request of Virgin Media, to ensure their workers are safe when installing fibre along the eaves of houses.

It has been done in my area too, with varying levels of neatness. Some, like my own thankfully, look fine. Some look really awful. Where some houses have two or more cables, it's just a big mess of yellow plastic wrapped in insulation tape.

There must be a neater solution, but ESB have taken the cheapest easiest option. A lot of the cables are safe anyway, fully insulated and no exposed connections. On the flip side, there are some houses nearby which are fed with uninsulated cables, so obviously very dangerous for anybody working close to them.

Also, the ESB lads act like they own the place, don't even bother to call in to the house to say they'll be putting a ladder up etc. The Virgin lads were respectful and left a note to say they'd need access, call to the door on the day, and even asked if they could access the side passage to pick up the ends of cables ties that they had snipped off while installing their cables.

RDWRER_

Ah i see. Was worried about this, the ESB lads just turning up and throwing up a crap job. I don't want it full stop whether neat or not to be honest. Like you say our supply is fully insulated anyway.

I've the SIRO fibre from the pole already on the house so hopefully we're good unless the neighbor wants it i suppose and they want to run across the house. Sorry lads I've endangered bats living in those eaves, you'll have to try another house.

zg3409

If you have virgin media running along the eves they will probably want to upgrade every house. If you refuse they may run a centenary wire across the road twice and prevent you getting virgin media fibre in the future along with TV service. The old ESB wires can have broken insulation and with rain and wet walls of houses it can be a danger to workers.

Esel

^ catenary, I think.

tom1ie

The “fully insulated” wires you are talking about I presume are ABC (aerial bundle conductor).

These ABC wires can still pose an electric shock hazard if the insulation has broken down and hence should be treated the same as bare conductor.

The reason the extra Insulation is going up is to provide extra known (recently tested and approved) Insulation to cover any areas virgin media workers or anyone else may come into contact with.

This is absolutely the appropriate thing to do regardless of what people may or may not think of the look of it.

Public safety is paramount.

RDWRER_

The orange insulation I can understand. This seems to only be on certain sections of wire on some properties, presumably areas where the existing has failed. The enormous ball of yellow "warning tape" with zero insulating properties I can not.

tom1ie

the orange insulation would be for around the ABC.
The yellow warning tape is probably the wave lock sheeting or is over the wave lock sheeting that covers the insulators and joint to the conductor (s) coming down the wall to the FCU.