Access to meters/supply post smart meter installation

DaveHunter

We have our gas and electricity meters in a really awkward space in our kitchen and leaving access to it has meant I built this crazy movable cupboard unit that I can pull out into the kitchen to let us do readings (or if any maintenance work was required). Does anyone know what the access requirements will be once smart meters are installed. I would assume that you no longer need to physically get to the main gas/electricity entry into your home in the same way. We have a panel that you can pull out to get to the main gas valve if you need to switch it off and the same with the electricity. Is it likely that will be enough in the future? We are thinking of doing a big refurbishment on the kitchen and I am trying to decide what access we will need to provide.

Robin9

You will need the same access as today for safety reasons.

System

The supplier is likely to need access for a number of reasons. For example, your meters are likely to be first generation (SMETS1) and they will either need to be replaced with SMETS2 meters or a comms hub upgrade. What happens if the meter fails or it needs to be re-set following a cyber hack or power failure? Suppliers also have a statutory duty to carry out safety checks. Personally, I would not box them in.

Further research:

The actual standards you are looking for are not set by Ofgem but by the industry.

For gas the MAMCOP cites British Standard 6400 - (i.e. there is an expectation that meter installations will conform to that standard under the code of practice).

I would not expect you to have access to BS6400, but it says in section 6.9 of the standard ;

"6.9.1.1 the meter installation shall be sited so;

a) as to enable the installation adjustment, servicing and exchange of the regulator and exchange of the meter itself
b) the meter is easily accessible for inspection itself. "

Electricity metering standards are easier to access as MOCOPA have them on line. The document below has the following on electricity meters

`accessible to the customer so that they can reasonably read their meter' (6.3.3 Page 68).

http://www.mocopa.org.uk/assets/document...

ic

It'll cost, but could you not get them relocated, rather than build a kitchen around their existing location?

badmemory

I would go for as accessable as possible. Over the years I have had both meters replaced and each time the new meter is harder to read than the old one. From what I have read the new smart meters are even harder to read and once they are no longer smart (through change of supplier) they become virtually impossible.

And don't even get me started on the gas leak they left me with when they changed that meter (and tried to charge me for)

System

I am reading smart meters all day for British Gas and we need the same access to them as before. i m not sure of the frequency we look at these meters, probably at least every two years. The early ones may have sim card problems. i seem to be getting more refusals when I come knocking to read a smart meter after the meter fitters have gone around blabbing that you will never see another meter reader. Why they say this is beyond me, no one has told them to say this and they should stop it as its making my life harder and BG have ended up getting the occasional warrant of access ( paid for by the occupier ) to legally inspect a smart meter. I have found a couple of fiddled smart meters lately and this is due to meter fitters telling people that no one will ever come again to see the meter. Stop it lads ! I know it makes your life easier trying to get these meters fitted without refusals but telling blatant lies is completely wrong, and fill in the meter removed cards as well while you are at it and do the job properly.

Rubidium

House_Martin wrote: »

I am reading smart meters all day for British Gas and we need the same access to them as before. i m not sure of the frequency we look at these meters, probably at least every two years. The early ones may have sim card problems. i seem to be getting more refusals when I come knocking to read a smart meter after the meter fitters have gone around blabbing that you will never see another meter reader. Why they say this is beyond me, no one has told them to say this and they should stop it as its making my life harder and BG have ended up getting the occasional warrant of access ( paid for by the occupier ) to legally inspect a smart meter. I have found a couple of fiddled smart meters lately and this is due to meter fitters telling people that no one will ever come again to see the meter. Stop it lads ! I know it makes your life easier trying to get these meters fitted without refusals but telling blatant lies is completely wrong, and fill in the meter removed cards as well while you are at it and do the job properly.

You have posted that smart meters could not be fiddled like conventional meters and that this would be picked up immediately, proving that the hype that you preach about how wonderful smart meters are is pure fiction and factually incorrect.

:rotfl:

System

The Government would have us all believe that smart meters are invulnerable. Experts have a different view:

https://boingboing.net/2016/12/31/your-smart-meter-is-very-secur.html

System

Of course I have never said they cannot be fiddled ! how stupid would that be . You know as well as I do that any meter can be bypassed especially by bent electricians ! I have stated many times on here that they will not be fiddled easily by the usual half brained idiots who easily defeat the key and card meters. Anyone trying to thieve electricity are leaving an electronic trail behind them which times the bypass to the second. The error codes and sensors will be recording the time it is bypassed then the next move is up to the supplier who has the evidence before them to either shut down the supply remotely or send round an engineer in the first place and RPU armed with a warrant if that is not successful.The important thing is that the fiddle does nt last long unlike the normal credit meters which can go as long as 10 years and more before the suppliers twig or they drop their guard and accidently let someone in.Smart meter bypass is short lived. A fantastic thing for everyone including the doom mongers we get on here poisoning peoples minds about smart meters. We all pay approx £60 a year extra keeping the toerags in free energy.You should be applauding the new technology not getting in petty squabbles about SMETS 1 or 2.
Another thing you may well see me harping on about as often as I can is that the suppliers ( BG excepted ) are not interested in stopping thieving. Its cheaper to let them get away with it than to employ solicitors to drag them to court only to win the case but lose the recouping of all the money that they have thieved.Rarely do the suppliers get money back from the usual toe rags that is why RPU s target fast food joints as they know they will get their money back and their percentage of the take !
I have found two smart meters fiddled in the 8 years BG started to install. When I returned to work a couple of months ago (after a long spell caring for someone seriously ill ) I found 6 fiddles in one week in a rough area I normally work. That is how easy it is to fiddle a normal prepayment meter.

Rubidium

House_Martin wrote: »

Of course I have never said they cannot be fiddled ! how stupid would that be .

Yes it would be stupid, so you deny posting this then:

Smart meters have built in sensors to stop bypassing both on gas and electric meters.

Yes we get that you think that they are the best thing since sliced bread but that is not a view held by the majority, who can see what an utter farce the roll-out has been over far too many years and there are still many issues yet to be resolved.

It is no more difficult to fiddle a smart meter than a conventional dumb meter and you keep telling us that only one supplier is interested in taking lost revenue recovery action. There are many million more conventional meters fitted in comparison to the small number who have been convinced to be guinea pigs for the suppliers with the promise of saving money, so it is no surprise that you have not found anywhere near as many fiddled smart meters is it.

One thing is certain meter reading monkey, you have posted more incorrect information about smart meters on this forum than any other poster!

System

Its a lot more difficult to fiddle smart meters than dumb meters, because "they have built in sensors to stop bypassing both on electric and gas meters "..fact ! and when they do attempt it, it is known that the meter is bypassed.
What do YOU know about the difficulty of fiddling any meters, smart or dumb ? British Gas have fitted over two million smart meters and virtually every meter they fit now is a smart meter.The rest of the "foreign suppliers " have just woken up to OFGEMS order to get a move on and get them fitted, and most meters they are installing now are smart meters. There are the usual bunch of oddballs and weird beards who live in a paranoid world who are against anything new and they will be refusing one at the moment until it hits them in the pocket when they get billed extra for their refusals.
I am knocking on doors all day nowadays to inspect smart meters which have been fitted for years. The overwhelming amount of these meters are working flawlessly and they have much less "issues " than cheap rubbish credit meters which cost a fiver each which fail constantly ..
They are the best thing since sliced bread because they will transform the prepayment meter market and lower their tariffs to the best one year fixes eventually, as it should be because they are paying their money upfront in advance .Northern Ireland is showing this to be possible. Takeaway the huge theft of energy from dumb prepays,and their constant need to be repaired and managed and the price of prepayment energy can only go down when suppliers have the confidence in the new cheap to run meters with no middle man taking a cut.