Stealing gas and electricity

dizziblonde

SailorSam wrote: »

On a previous thread here that talked about meter fiddling someone pointed out you can buy your own meter to swap around off Ebay. What legitamate use are these, shouldn't something be done to take these off the market.

Husband had a random meter he'd acquired from somewhere on his work desk for about a year before the office told him to get rid of it cos it was annoying them all.

There was the one a good few years back where if you put your sky viewing card in the gas prepayment meter it was giving you free credit! (Didn't stop 99% of the stuff on the telly being repeats though)

[Deleted User]

Ich wrote: »

Totally agree, the favourite, especially with the Canabis Farms, is to joint a new service onto the existing cable before even the cut-out!!
Smart meters cannot prevent this and considering they can be using around 100amps (23kW) continuously they are responsible for a large proportion of the lost revenue

smart prepay will know when thats bypassed before the meter as it stopped the standing charge building up. It takes a lot more to bypass before the meter . The usual chavs have got it so easy with a prepay its not true. the big full house growers and industial growers are going to beat them proberbly but 99 out of a 100 are the small ones now doing maybe 28 plants for two people. Gypsy camps grow loads but claim various gypsy names for each small batch. The whole thing has got out of hand now with progs like "Benefits Street " showing someones batch of plants on the grow to utilise the spare bedroom.

Ich_2

smart prepay will know when thats bypassed before the meter as it stopped the standing charge building up. It takes a lot more to bypass before the meter

Er nope! They are being found in domestic premises where a "2nd supply" has been connected for the farm, but the original metered supply is still being used for the domestic usage.

[Deleted User]

PollySouthend wrote: »

look we always have the same conversation.

You think smarts are the ONLY way to stop theft, I don't.

Hang on Polly, who said i think its the ONLY way, its just one way.MY way, and i have offered this to BG RPU people is to feed me with , say 200 addresses a week in my area, who are low or non purchasers and I would soon get round them all at evenings and nights just monitoring if they are obviously using. The bypassers usually go mad on electic with every light on. Then it would be a much simpler matter to approach with warrents and get in, and of course at least prosecute them properly

tinkledom

SailorSam wrote: »

On a previous thread here that talked about meter fiddling someone pointed out you can buy your own meter to swap around off Ebay. What legitamate use are these, shouldn't something be done to take these off the market.

This one's good value
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100A-DDS353C-Electric-Electrical-Reading-Meter-High-Precision-Single-Phase-kWh-/131009656059?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item1e80c8b4fb

silverwhistle

sacsquacco wrote: »

Virtually no one but a couple of oddballs and weirdos have got any problems with them and never refuse point blank to have them. Of course the usual pro moaners and the anti fracking brigade are shouting their mouths off ,but no one takes any notice of them

It's a real shame you had to say that as it really taints a lot of your arguments. I'm anti-fracking, and would rather the RECs prioritised dealing with the existing stealing rather than pushing ahead with smart meters, whose rationale is far more with demand management than with curbing theft.

Personally I already do my own demand management: peak loads go on when the sun is out and my panels are generating!

As you have pointed out, they don't currently adequately deal with the existing problem and the existing thieves, but smart meters impact on all of us as well.

[Deleted User]

Ich wrote: »

Er nope! They are being found in domestic premises where a "2nd supply" has been connected for the farm, but the original metered supply is still being used for the domestic usage.

That will be beyond the usual N.e.e.t /chav/long termdoley. they are used to hacking the seal off, usually damaging the surrounds in doing so, and getting to the wires with a sharp kitchen knife chewing up the screws. the mess they make says it all, they dont even possess an insulated screwdriver

I_have_spoken

This one's good value
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100A-DDS35...item1e80c8b4fb

I can see why you need a gas meter to act as regulator, but why swap the electric meter rather than just bridge the cables with a copper bar?

ollski

SailorSam wrote: »

On a previous thread here that talked about meter fiddling someone pointed out you can buy your own meter to swap around off Ebay. What legitamate use are these, shouldn't something be done to take these off the market.

They are a five minute knock up for anyone with basic plumbing skills anyway, not sure you can ban a piece of tube with a couple of connectors on.
I'm sure a smart meter fitted with a gyro and lockout that needed a reset code could stamp down on meter tampering fairly quickly.

[Deleted User]

ollski wrote: »

They are a five minute knock up for anyone with basic plumbing skills anyway, not sure you can ban a piece of tube with a couple of connectors on.
I'm sure a smart meter fitted with a gyro and lockout that needed a reset code could stamp down on meter tampering fairly quickly.

Really excellent advice Ollski, why dont they do it then ? its baffling,its almost unbelievable the way its run,the more I work in this job the more sloppy and useless they ve become. BG are the shining light to some degree, the rest should have their licence to supply terminated. As one of the UK bosses at BG RPU told me, " now OFGEM are getting tough they will have nowhere to hide " he was talking about the other big 5. I havent noticed any improvements, if anything BG have gone back as they re not that fussed about lecky scams