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

Qyburn

Assuming we're talking about the tails from meter to consumer unit, is the customer actually allowed to work on them or are they sealed and out of bounds at th meter ends?

pete-20-11

Is the solution as follows?

Electrician removes meter tails from consumer box end. Connects that to a Henley Block near the current meter - close enough so the existing tails can be used. 

Electrician puts in new tails between the consumer unit and the new Henley Block

meter installer replaces meter and puts in new tails between the new meter and the newish Henley Block as required. 

Perhaps ask the electrician to leave some cable to one side, as part of the job, not connected at either end! Just spare ready for the meter installer to use and cut to size as required when they come. 

mmmmikey

Qyburn said:

Assuming we're talking about the tails from meter to consumer unit, is the customer actually allowed to work on them or are they sealed and out of bounds at th meter ends?

In the old days, the electrician would connect the tails at the consumer unit end and leave them for the electricity board to connect them to the meter. In order to isolate the consumer unit for work or replacement, the pukka thing to do was to arrange for the electricity board to come and remove the main fuse (before the meter), which was sealed. But it was very common practice for electricians to cut the seal and pull the fuse themselves and by and large the electricity boards would turn a blind eye to this.

Current practice is to put a switch between the consumer unit and meter, with the meter installer responsible for the wiring from meter to switch the and customer / electrician from switch to consumer unit. That allows the electrician to isloate the consumer unit without needing to involve the meter provider.

In my previous post (in response to the photograph) the work I was referring to that I think the customer needs to commission is moving the domestic wiring away from the meter tails, and removing part of the ducting. That should then give the meter installer sufficient space / length of tails to do the installation, or alternatively extend the tails with Henley blocks.

Phones4Chris

It is difficult to come up with any sensible suggestions without seeing the rest of the cabling to the right in the trunking and all the interconnections to that time-switch etc. and everything to the right hand side.
It's difficult enough with the untidy wiring in that bit of trunking to deduce exactly what is going on.
It looks as though the consumer tails from the meter go straight down to/through the CU below, there's also another CU below that.
Where does the power into the timeswitch connect, where do the cables from its output go? We need those pictures to the right side of what's already been posted.
There's two thinner cables from the meter, obviously from the ALCS, where do they end up?
I can't see any need to go cutting any trunking!
The meter installer is quite capable, and should be replacing the tails between the DNO cut-out and the new Smart Meter which will allow it to be fitted further away from the trunking/ The consumer tails should be just long enough to go to some Henley blocks which would then go on to an Isolator switch BUT as we can't see the rest of the cabling, I can't deduce whether a 4-port or 5-port meter would be best and so how everything else might be interconnected as some of the time-switch cabling could be redundant or need altering to suit a 5-port meter.
My conclusion is that an electrician will likely need to be on-site at the same time as the meter installer unless he was willing to change/modify the consumer tails out of the currently unsealed meter beforehand.

ccaasjf

All,

Thank you to everyone for your comments.

I am in a fortunate position to have a significant retention for the refurbishment work including the electrics that were completed last year in 2023, we have had numerous electrical defects with the installation and hopefully this will be last of them to be rectified. 

Simon

ccaasjf

Update - 2nd attempt today to fit a smart meter and we are no further forward.

Last week we had our own electrician fit new extended tails and check the install was down correctly from our original contractor, the excess for tails 1,2 are within the consumer box and the excess for tails 3,4 are within the trunking. The smart meter installer refused to pull the tails through from the consumer box because they were in the consumer box, he also complained that the 5 cables going into the clock mechanism were not labelled, I pointed out that this has been unchanged since I bough the flat back in 2005 and it was not my electrician responsibility to do so and I don’t own that part of the equipment the elctrical supplier does.

We have now asked them to put everything in writing that needs to be changed so that is no further ambiguity.

Phones4Chris

I can't say I'm surprised at the current situation. IMHO I don't think you or your electrician understand what is required for the installation of a modern smart meter for an E7 supply.
You have an E7 supply which presumably you want to keep as you have off-peak heating/water heating?

With a smart meter for E7, the big old time-switch would be redundant and the cabling to it other than the switched output would become redundant and need to be removed, that really would not be the job of the meter installer as the cables are not labelled and appear to go to/through the consumer units maybe to some hidden Henley blocks if not connected somewhere in the consumer units.

The tail that is the switched output from the time-switch presumably goes direct to the off-peak consumer unit and that would connect direct to the 5th port on the new smart meter - that's assuming that they were going to install a 5-port smart meter which would be the correct thing to do, rather than a 4-port where the ALCS wiring would control a contactor for the off-peak BUT that latter method would require extra tails and frankly is not the ideal way to do things.

You came here for some suggestions. I asked in an earlier post for pictures of the cabling in the trunking to the right of your last picture which would be that below the time-switch and to the right which would include that going to the DNO's cut-out if your previous information was understood correctly. Without that we can only guess, and as you haven't even provided a picture of what your electrician has now done, one has again to guess at the best way forward.

On the assumption that the tails your electrician has extended are the 4 standard tails that would connect to a 4 port meter (as you have at present) and they now allow a new meter to be easily connected, then presumably if the tail from the switched output of that time-switch goes leftwards along the trunking (before going down into the consumer units), it will be long enough to be removed from the time-switch and then connect directly to the 5th port on a 5-port smart meter. That is a job the meter installer CAN AND SHOULD do PROVIDING that one is clearly labelled for him.
Although I had suggest that your electrician be present when the meter installer came, that is probably not essential as the time-switch and all the redundant cabling to it could be removed at a later time.

If my guesses and assumptions are correct, you should check that they were bringing and going to install a 5-port smart meter. If they weren't, then you need to ask them WHY NOT as that would be the simplest and most professionally correct way to do it and I would stand my ground on that, including if needed, a formal complaint if they refused to do so. There is absolutely no need to make the installation unnecessarily complex.

ccaasjf

Hopefully last update - escalated the meter install through EON, today two senior guys attended site, fitted Henley blocks, used the extended tails we had fitted a couple of weeks ago and successfully comissioned a smart meter for us. Both gentlemen were a pleasure to have within our home all completed in about 2.5 hours, just need to wait now for our contracted tariff to download to the device itself.

Phones4Chris

If you are on an E7 tariff, and unless you are changing tariff, the E7 tariff should have already been put on the meter when it was commissioned! Obviously any other tariff will depend on how quickly EON act.