Eon not able to install smart meter due to insufficent cable lengths in current install

Chris_b2z

doodling said:

I'm pretty sure that the tails from the meter to the consumer unit belong to the property owner so it is the OPs tails that are too short.

But the tails are perfect for the currently installed meter. Is there a requirement listed in the electrical regulations that sufficient slack must be provided for replacement meters in the future?

This problem only arose when EON attempted to replace their meter.

BarelySentientAI

Chris_b2z said:

doodling said:

I'm pretty sure that the tails from the meter to the consumer unit belong to the property owner so it is the OPs tails that are too short.

But the tails are perfect for the currently installed meter. Is there a requirement listed in the electrical regulations that sufficient slack must be provided for replacement meters in the future?

This problem only arose when EON attempted to replace their meter.

No. There isn't.

Scot_39

Currently their are potentially 2 parts of the OP's Economy 7 circuit.

The white - Ampy 5196D - and the black box - which I am guessing as it has what looks like 5 meter tails - is some form of electro-mechanical time switch for the OP's restricted power economy 7 circuits - and possibly the meter tariff itself (some similar meters had a pull to live / pull to neutral optional input (*)).

(*) Cannot find the manual for that model  but a similar model the Ampy 5235D (which one forum post suggests was a slightly later Ampy model for dual rate metering ) - was 4 port with a tariff selection low amp input (pulled to live for the L - pulled to N for the N) to select rate 2 / off peak register if I understand the specs

In reality both these boxes - could then potentially be simply replaced by one simple 5 port E7 smets2 smart meter.

The meter fitter therefore might need full unrestricted access to the wiring to both those existing devices - both of which are now running through that conduit.

It's impossible to say exactly what needs doing - and if that timeswitch is still in use - and how it is wired in relation to other devices and the meter.

But the chances are it's never going to happen with the conduit in place in it's current form.

And it seems unlikely EOn would have installed it the way it was. 

doodling

Hi,

Chris_b2z said:

doodling said:

I'm pretty sure that the tails from the meter to the consumer unit belong to the property owner so it is the OPs tails that are too short.

But the tails are perfect for the currently installed meter. Is there a requirement listed in the electrical regulations that sufficient slack must be provided for replacement meters in the future?

This problem only arose when EON attempted to replace their meter.

No, there is no requirement.  Equally, there is no requirement for the electricity supplier to accommodate the over-tidied arrangement you have.  Whilst flats are different because often the main fuse isn't located next to the meter and therefore you dont always have the traditional electricity suppliers wooden / chipboard / whatever board, it would still be reasonable for the electricity supplier to expect a space for the meter, probably at least 300mm square 

It would be interesting to see how things were arranged before the tidying was carried out - I suspect that there wouldn't have been a problem before that work was done.

Phones4Chris

ccaasjf A picture with the cover removed from the trunking could be helpful.
What is the unit to the right of the time switch?
The meter doesn't appear to have a seal, did the smart meter installer remove it or was it already missing?
Where is the DNO cut-out?
Was it a 5-port Smart Meter that it was Planned to instal?

ccaasjf

The unit to the right of the time switch is the clock for turning e7 on and off. The units have not been moved they are in exactly the same position as they were before the refurb, the wooden board they are attached to has been replaced. I think the seal was already missing I have pictures of before the refurb and teh unit looks the same. The mains isolator is to the right of the mechanical clock.

The removal of the mechanical clock would give more than enough space, the installer confirmed that it was there intention to remove it.

These items (meter and clock)  were already installed before I bought the flat in 2005.

Phones4Chris

ccaasjf said:

The unit to the right of the time switch is the clock for turning e7 on and off. .....................................

Eh?  That's what the time switch normally does!
Some more pictures showing these items, with covers removed would be helpful.

mmmmikey

My thought on this is the real issue is that when the re-wiring was done, no or insufficient thoughts was given to the need to swap out the meter at some stage. The smart meter rollout was well underway when the electrical work was done a couple of years ago so some thought really should have been given to this.

By way of comparison, if you look inside a professionally wired consumer unit it is common to carefully bend and loop wires to leave slack for future work or changes. What should have happened is the same thought processes should have kicked in and the re-wiring done in a way that would accommodate future changes.

It feels really unfriendly to be saying this because it's obvious from the photo that the re-wiring was done by someone who takes pride in their work. But it does appear to me that whoever did the re-wiring has caused the problem and it would fair game to ask them to rectify it.

By and large, the smart meter installers seem to have been very accommodating and quite willing to fit isolation switches, extend cables with Henley blocks and so on. But if you were a smart meter installer, would you really want to start removing the trunking to create space for Henley blocks and leave such a tidy installation looking messy. You'd be leaving yourself open to quite reasonable complaints so I can see why they declined to do the work.

I'd suggest trying to get hold of the electrician who did the instant seeing if you can come to an arrangement with them to rectify the issue. If they play ball then great, but if not I fear this could end up with lots of people pointing the finger at each other and resulting in you having to pay for the work yourself. IMHO that would be a grossly unfair outcome but as the property owner you're going to be left with the problem and life isn't always fair :-(

On a more positive note, I can't imagine the supplier will give you a hard time and try and charge you more while you try and get it sorted. Sounds like your new tariff doesn't need a smart meter and they've made it smart meter dependant to make it easier to deal with smart meter objectors.

Good luck with getting things sorted.

Reed_Richards

When the engineer came to fit my smart meter he said that there wasn't enough room and went away again.  My old meter was a small box with a digital display, a smart meter is a smallish box with a digital display but with another box stacked on top of it that handles the communications and makes it smart.  Anyway, I wanted a smart meter so I could get a time-of-use tariff so I had to pay an electrician to move other things around it my meter cupboard to make room for the smart meter.

In this case a condition of the tariff was to agree to get a smart meter fitted and the OP did that.  So there shouldn't be a problem retaining the tariff.

ccaasjf

Thank you for all your feedback, interesting comments they are appeciated.