Farmer Nick Gasson has used equipment from Claude Lyons Limited, as a cost-effective method of bringing an electricity supply to a barn conversion building used for holiday lets.

Like so many farmers, Nick will be using the redundant building to boost the income of the farm. The barn is more than half a mile from the main farm buildings and the cost estimated by the local electricity board to bring power to the conversion was enormous.

“I felt I was being held to ransom by a company that wanted £21,000 to install a high voltage line and transformer to the barn,"

Fortunately, a friend who had been in a similar situation advised Nick to contact Claude Lyons. The company was able to provide a solution based on its voltage stabiliser equipment. In this instance, the system steps up the voltage supply to about 550 at the main building and then supplies power along 1200m of cable to the barn, at which point the voltage is reduced back to the standard 230 volts. This method produces an adequate and stable supply to the barn conversion at a fraction of the cost of the alternative suggested by the electricity company.

This is one of many similar problems solved by Claude Lyons whose voltage stabilisers are increasingly used to overcome electricity supply problems to widely spaced outlets. They prove a particularly attractive option to people living in isolated houses or farms needing increased power supply to remote buildings.

More traditionally, they have been used in industrial applications such as the London Underground, where the equipment is used to ensure adequate power supply to stations situated a long distance from the nearest sub station.