Moving gas and electric meters outside

dbriggs

I'm having an inspection next month because my gas meter is in the garage and the meter reading man reported me to National Grid If they have to move it outside they will bill me at their own rate apparently. I'm hoping they will leave it where it is! Anyone else had this problem?

fezster

dbriggs wrote: »

I'm having an inspection next month because my gas meter is in the garage and the meter reading man reported me to National Grid If they have to move it outside they will bill me at their own rate apparently. I'm hoping they will leave it where it is! Anyone else had this problem?

What's wrong with the gas meter being in the garage? I had mine moved to the garage a couple of years ago.

OP - for gas, if you are not moving the main isolation valve, then you can move the meter up to a metre (as much as the flexible hose allows), as long as the RGI has a MAT1 certificate. If you want to move the meter any further, the incoming main needs to be moved also, and this needs to be done through your local transco (not the same as your energy supplier). Prices are high, as you can imagine.

Not sure about electricity, but as posted above by others, seems to be something similar.

Ozzuk

I looked at buying a house last year that needed this doing, after talking to a few people who had had it done I was budgeting £1500 for them both in my refurb plan.

PasturesNew

I'd not fancy a gas meter in a garage in case the car spontaneously combusted it'd take out the whole gas main. But I'm King of the Worriers.

Rain_Shadow

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd not fancy a gas meter in a garage in case the car spontaneously combusted it'd take out the whole gas main. But I'm King of the Worriers.

Not Queen of The Worriers?

dbriggs

fezster wrote: »

What's wrong with the gas meter being in the garage? I had mine moved to the garage a couple of years ago.

You tell me! Although the garage is attached to the house it's not exactly airtight. They said something about it being a 'built over service' and if they have to move it they will need to lay a new pipe from the street (digging up the side of my cobbled drive) and then dig up my garage floor, to get it from the side of the garage back into the house. I have a feeling it's going to cost a large amount which I don't have - but they tell me they can legally turn off the gas supply if I don't comply.

phoenix_w

dbriggs wrote: »

They said something about it being a 'built over service'

"Built over service" refers to someone having built a structure over a gas service pipe. So the meter reader is reporting you for having built your garage (or some kind of extension, porch, etc.) over the service pipe.

Is this likely to have happened? Has your property been extended between the road your house is on and the meter? If the garage was part of the original house and the meter is in it's original location this is unlikely to have happened.

In fact, if the garage isn't part of the original building (and assuming it's not in the garage by virtue of the meter cupboard being there before the garage was built) I'd be questioning why this is a problem now given that the gas distributor sited it there without issue.

dbriggs

phoenix_w wrote: »

"Built over service" refers to someone having built a structure over a gas service pipe. So the meter reader is reporting you for having built your garage (or some kind of extension, porch, etc.) over the service pipe.

Is this likely to have happened? Has your property been extended between the road your house is on and the meter? If the garage was part of the original house and the meter is in it's original location this is unlikely to have happened.

In fact, if the garage isn't part of the original building (and assuming it's not in the garage by virtue of the meter cupboard being there before the garage was built) I'd be questioning why this is a problem now given that the gas distributor sited it there without issue.

Yes, the garage is part of an extension. The person who built it should have had it moved from (what was) the side of the house to outside of the garage, before laying the garage floor or building the extension. He didn't, and now I'm probably going to have to pay for him saving a few quid when he owned the house. I'm hoping that the person who comes to inspect it will give me a break as it's been that way for 10 years and not been a problem.

completeneatfreak

We've just been quoted over £1600 to have an electricity meter moved about a metre! Surely this is day light robbery!

divadee

My mum had this done in 2010. The prices then were £750 for electricity and £800 for gas but with the gas we had to supply the external meter cupboard and dig a great big hole for the pipe work. The electricity company provided everything for that price and dug a hole and filled it in so a lot cheaper than the gas. Still a rip off though.