Octopus insisting we change old meter for smart meters - can we insist they put meter outside?

Qyburn

Veteransaver said:

You also can't move a meter more than a few metres from the consumer unit as there is a limit to how long the thick meter tails (cables) can be (got a feeling they can only be 2m long maximum?), otherwise you'd need to move the consumer unit too 

That's not generally the case, think of all the houses where the meter is outside, not to mention flats where all meters are in the basement.

It may depend on the DNO but sone require a fused isolator if the CU is more than a certain distance, or if the CU is not visible from the meter location. But they dont require the CU to be moved in those cases. 

dunstonh

The car analogy isn't really relevant as by law you will after 3 years old  you have to present for an MOT (Broken things flagged up there have to be fixed) You don't have to do that with a gas boiler for example unless renting in which your landlord has to service and have the boiler certified every year.

I would suspect that many people get their car serviced before the MOT.   They don't wait for things to break.  Items get replaced before they break according to their life expectancy.

I suspect many don't bother getting their boilers serviced. Not just boilers a neighbour in our road had his ASHP 10 years and first service was when it went wrong.

And much the same with cars.  Some will just wait until it breaks.

FreeBear

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

dunstonh said:

Hi, we’ve just been contacted by Octopus to tell us we have old meters and they have to be changed.  Reading other threads it seems we will be forced into having a smart metre at some point (reluctantly).

Why reluctantly?  Especially with Octopus and their TOU tariffs and specials.

We have always been of the perhaps old fashioned view - don’t fix what ain’t broke! 

So, you never get your car serviced or other items that degrade over time?

With something as important as this, you don't wait until it breaks.  

How much control do we have over the process? 

Limited control, but some things they will do.  When our meter was replaced, they upgraded the meter tails and put in an isolator switch as we said we were moving to 100amp as we were getting an EV charging point installed and self generation at some point.

The car analogy isn't really relevant as by law you will after 3 years old  you have to present for an MOT (Broken things flagged up there have to be fixed) You don't have to do that with a gas boiler for example unless renting in which your landlord has to service and have the boiler certified every year.

A landlord is only legally required to maintain a gas appliance in good working order and get a Gas Safety certificate annually. There is nothing in the legislation that compels him to have an annual service.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords/index.htm

BellaBlondykeTheThird

FreeBear said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

dunstonh said:

Hi, we’ve just been contacted by Octopus to tell us we have old meters and they have to be changed.  Reading other threads it seems we will be forced into having a smart metre at some point (reluctantly).

Why reluctantly?  Especially with Octopus and their TOU tariffs and specials.

We have always been of the perhaps old fashioned view - don’t fix what ain’t broke! 

So, you never get your car serviced or other items that degrade over time?

With something as important as this, you don't wait until it breaks.  

How much control do we have over the process? 

Limited control, but some things they will do.  When our meter was replaced, they upgraded the meter tails and put in an isolator switch as we said we were moving to 100amp as we were getting an EV charging point installed and self generation at some point.

The car analogy isn't really relevant as by law you will after 3 years old  you have to present for an MOT (Broken things flagged up there have to be fixed) You don't have to do that with a gas boiler for example unless renting in which your landlord has to service and have the boiler certified every year.

A landlord is only legally required to maintain a gas appliance in good working order and get a Gas Safety certificate annually. There is nothing in the legislation that compels him to have an annual service.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords/index.htm

As a landlord (which I presume you are) have you tried just getting a gas safety certificate without a service. Interested for when I do become a Landlady.

FreeBear

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

FreeBear said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

dunstonh said:

Hi, we’ve just been contacted by Octopus to tell us we have old meters and they have to be changed.  Reading other threads it seems we will be forced into having a smart metre at some point (reluctantly).

Why reluctantly?  Especially with Octopus and their TOU tariffs and specials.

We have always been of the perhaps old fashioned view - don’t fix what ain’t broke! 

So, you never get your car serviced or other items that degrade over time?

With something as important as this, you don't wait until it breaks.  

How much control do we have over the process? 

Limited control, but some things they will do.  When our meter was replaced, they upgraded the meter tails and put in an isolator switch as we said we were moving to 100amp as we were getting an EV charging point installed and self generation at some point.

The car analogy isn't really relevant as by law you will after 3 years old  you have to present for an MOT (Broken things flagged up there have to be fixed) You don't have to do that with a gas boiler for example unless renting in which your landlord has to service and have the boiler certified every year.

A landlord is only legally required to maintain a gas appliance in good working order and get a Gas Safety certificate annually. There is nothing in the legislation that compels him to have an annual service.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords/index.htm

As a landlord (which I presume you are) have you tried just getting a gas safety certificate without a service. Interested for when I do become a Landlady.

Nope. Not a cheap tightwad

Got a warranty to maintain on the newly installed boiler, so will be getting it serviced each year.

Qyburn

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

As a landlord (which I presume you are) have you tried just getting a gas safety certificate without a service. Interested for when I do become a Landlady.

We did when we were landlords.

horsewithnoname

DeeCxx said:

Hi, we’ve just been contacted by Octopus to tell us we have old meters and they have to be changed.  Reading other threads it seems we will be forced into having a smart metre at some point (reluctantly). We have always been of the perhaps old fashioned view - don’t fix what ain’t broke!  However, the meters are currently very inconveniently placed in our living room so my question is, as it’s not our choice to have a new meter installed, can we insist that Octopus place the smart outside and remove the bulky old meters from our living room?  How much control do we have over the process?  I don’t know much about the process, but I know it would cost us a lot of money to have the current old meters relocated outside.  

Octopus told me my meters needed changing to smart meters. I was having difficulty reading the electric meter so I agreed. I got a smart electric meter but he refused to change the gas meter because he thought it might be sat on asbestos. I got my gas engineer to have a look at it, he changed the old pipe on the meter for a new copper pipe and it’s absolutely fine, I still send readings and no one has mentioned changing it since. 

You don’t have to have them if you don’t want to, just be sure they are safe. 

powerful_Rogue

horsewithnoname said:

DeeCxx said:

Hi, we’ve just been contacted by Octopus to tell us we have old meters and they have to be changed.  Reading other threads it seems we will be forced into having a smart metre at some point (reluctantly). We have always been of the perhaps old fashioned view - don’t fix what ain’t broke!  However, the meters are currently very inconveniently placed in our living room so my question is, as it’s not our choice to have a new meter installed, can we insist that Octopus place the smart outside and remove the bulky old meters from our living room?  How much control do we have over the process?  I don’t know much about the process, but I know it would cost us a lot of money to have the current old meters relocated outside.  

Octopus told me my meters needed changing to smart meters. I was having difficulty reading the electric meter so I agreed. I got a smart electric meter but he refused to change the gas meter because he thought it might be sat on asbestos. I got my gas engineer to have a look at it, he changed the old pipe on the meter for a new copper pipe and it’s absolutely fine, I still send readings and no one has mentioned changing it since. 

You don’t have to have them if you don’t want to, just be sure they are safe. 

Yes you do, if your current meters are end of life.

Zandoni

Gas meters used to be left in service far longer than they are now, they have only started or enforced end of life rules since the smart meter programme.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

On this subject anyone watch the channel 5 smart meter programme. It was all going well til they left the door open at the end to the conspiracies about data and what it can show if it gets sold on.