No Gas Meter

Robin9

Correct there is no need to turn the gas off  but the service engineer on the Gas Safety Inspection Report has to declare the the ECV  is accessible and that any electrical bonding is in place. (or say why not)   Another puzzle 

victor2

OP doesn't come on here very often, but if he's had the situation for 8 years, I suppose he sees no urgency. 
A boiler failure or massive "estimated" bill might incentivise him though!

Mstty

Some of the responses were getting a little bit much.

I hope they return to let us know the outcome.

brewerdave

Ectophile said:

My gas has never been turned off while servicing a boiler.  I can't think why you would need to do that.  Installing a new boiler is another matter.

Well I've just had my boiler serviced /certificated and the engineer turned the main valve off to check for pressure drop to the boiler/gas hob (to rule out leaks) using a manometer on the meter outlet - apparently there is a max. specified drop over time - and then relit both.

MWT

brewerdave said:

Ectophile said:

My gas has never been turned off while servicing a boiler.  I can't think why you would need to do that.  Installing a new boiler is another matter.

Well I've just had my boiler serviced /certificated and the engineer turned the main valve off to check for pressure drop to the boiler/gas hob (to rule out leaks) using a manometer on the meter outlet - apparently there is a max. specified drop over time - and then relit both.

That is my experience as well.

This has been dragging on for months, if there was serious intent to sort it out it would have been resolved within days or hours.

Sea_Shell

MWT said:

brewerdave said:

Ectophile said:

My gas has never been turned off while servicing a boiler.  I can't think why you would need to do that.  Installing a new boiler is another matter.

Well I've just had my boiler serviced /certificated and the engineer turned the main valve off to check for pressure drop to the boiler/gas hob (to rule out leaks) using a manometer on the meter outlet - apparently there is a max. specified drop over time - and then relit both.

That is my experience as well.

This has been dragging on for months, if there was serious intent to sort it out it would have been resolved within days or hours.

I agree.  If it were me, I couldn't rest until I knew everything was in order and safe.

8 years is a looong time to not have a proper meter check/service, both from a safety and accurate metering point of view.

Maybe this will be another thread without resolution ☹️


I can't find it...but what was OPs last estimated gas bill based on (kWh or M³)?

BeerSavesMoney

@JulesSheah have you removed the cover yet? I bet you’d get quite a few views if you did it by live stream! I’ve been following this thread and curious to find out what’s inside!

rp1974

BeerSavesMoney said:

@JulesSheah have you removed the cover yet? I bet you’d get quite a few views if you did it by live stream! I’ve been following this thread and curious to find out what’s inside!

It's a little early for pantomime,but my hunch would be that oh,no they haven't.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

mmm, would think maybe leave things as they are, happy with the estimated bills, but there could be a huge catchup.

AgileServices

I am Gas Safe registered.

What you would expect to find in the meter location are:-

1.  An inlet pipe terminating in an Emergency Control Valve ( ECV ) which "falls to off" and has a label which shows the off position.

2.  A meter to register the gas consumption.

3.  An earth bond 6mm2 wire going back to the property's electrical main earthing point.  This must be fitted on the outlet pipe within 600mm of the meter.

What he might find inside could be the expected meter, because the builders did not have the proper meter box and cover and improvised with a simple panel as shown.

When building new properties, the boiler installer needs a gas supply to test and commission the boiler.  This can be provided ( illegally ) by fitting a "meter bypass" either bought or easily made up.  They are sometimes used to avoid a meter reading on the meter in order to steal gas.  This is why the suppliers want to take a meter reading at least once a year to confirm a meter is indeed present.

A boiler service engineer, if diligent, would inspect the meter, confirm the earth bond is present and do the check to confirm there are no gas leaks in the property. 

I have encountered one flat where they had a meter but no gas supplier so no bills. She wanted the sell the property but no supplier seemed to want to accept responsibility for supplying the property.

Another I discovered was potentially very dangerous!  Turning off the ECV did not turn off the gas supply!  I discovered that the builders during the flat conversion work had paralleled two flat's gas supplies so to isolate the gas in either flat BOTH ECVs needed to be turned off.  It also meant that the gas supplied was through two meters so neither was a true reading on that flat.

The whole idea of the ECV is to enable the gas to be turned off by the occupier in case of any emergency !  So all occupier's must have access to the ECV and know where it is.  It must be accessible and not in a locked basement, another flat or other inaccessible location.

I went to a flat where a flexible gas hose had wrongly been fitted under a hob.  It had overheated and started leaking and caught fire.  Not a huge fire but it caused smoke damage to the whole flat.  Very luckily the Somali tenant knew how to turn the ECV off and averted a far worse fire.

I strongly recommend the OP in this thread removes the panel ( starting at one corner ) to find out what is inside and gain access to the ECV and ensure there is an earth bond as well.  It is potentially quite risky living in a house without access to an ECV ( and without an earth bond on the gas pipes )

Tony