Faulty meter? Supplier wants to fit smart as replacements

egyptiancotton

I suspect my electricity meter might be faulty. I noticed the fuse cutout was leaking a few weeks ago and shut the electricity off as a precaution before ringing Western Power. I noticed the meter disc was still spinning for a while after all the power was turned off. It did eventually look like it stopped (took a while) but the disc was moving very, very slowly even after the power had been turned off for a few hours. It was barely moving but I expected it to stop moving altogether.

Once Western Power confirmed the fuse cutout leak wasn't a danger, I turned the power back on and called Avro the next day about the electricity meter possibly being faulty. They didn't even suggest testing it - they offered to replace both the gas and electricity meters with smart meters.

Can I insist the electricity meter is tested to see if it is actually faulty? Is it worth switching to smart meters anyway?

Phones4Chris

Insisting it's tested might cost you if it isn't faulty. If you don't have anything against smart meters, that's up to you BUT where did you turn off the power, was it at the consumer unit? If you on economy seven or similar tariff with a time switch (especially if it's an old electro-mechanical type), that will consume a very very small amount of power, so the meter disc will still move fractionally as they are normally connected direct to the meter (maybe via a link box) not via any consumer unit.

What exactly do you mean by "the fuse cutout was leaking a few weeks ago" can you explain in more detail and/or provide a photo. Has anyone from Western Power been out to inspect it? What grounds did they have for saying it wasn't a danger?

brewerdave

lloydyyy said:

Once Western Power confirmed the fuse cutout leak wasn't a danger, I turned the power back on and called Avro the next day about the electricity meter possibly being faulty. They didn't even suggest testing it - they offered to replace both the gas and electricity meters with smart meters.

Can I insist the electricity meter is tested to see if it is actually faulty? Is it worth switching to smart meters anyway?

Note that AVRO install Smart meters - but can't read them remotely ,so you have to read yourself manually !!!

Ectophile

Leaking from a cutout is usually pitch.  If you are drawing a lot of current, the fuse and cutout gets hot, and the pitch that was used as waterproofing starts to melt.

The DNOs seem to be pretty relaxed about it.

Phones4Chris

Ectophile said:

Leaking from a cutout is usually pitch.  If you are drawing a lot of current, the fuse and cutout gets hot, and the pitch that was used as waterproofing starts to melt.

The DNOs seem to be pretty relaxed about it.

They could be too relaxed IMHO. I have come across situations where a connection hasn't been tighten correctly and things are getting too hot! That, ultimately, could be a fire hazard 

egyptiancotton

Western Power said that as the leak from the cutout was cold and didn't smell, then it was safe to turn the power back on and engineers would be sent out a few days afterwards to replace the cutout.

Ectophile

Phones4Chris said:

Ectophile said:

Leaking from a cutout is usually pitch.  If you are drawing a lot of current, the fuse and cutout gets hot, and the pitch that was used as waterproofing starts to melt.

The DNOs seem to be pretty relaxed about it.

They could be too relaxed IMHO. I have come across situations where a connection hasn't been tighten correctly and things are getting too hot! That, ultimately, could be a fire hazard 

They are relaxed about fire hazards too.  There's now precendent from previous court cases that they are not responsible if the cutout catches fire, since they have no statutory obligation to carry out any regular inspections on them.