Octopus Smart meter install

tebacious_bag

Hi all. Newbie posting so bear with...
Octopus came and installed a smart meter yesterday as we have just bought an EV and a charger and I wanted the cheap tarriff. All seemed to go well until we went to bed last night and all the lights on the top floor did not work. Checked the consumer unit and all circuits are on, checked the bulbs and they work. Mains sockets etc are all working so it is just the lighting circuit. Got onto Octopus this morning to ask them to send an engineer back to rectify and they have said that "turning off the power to change the meter will unlikely have had an effect on one floor of the house and would have affected the whole property and therefore we cannot send an engineer and you will need call out an electrician". I have replied stating that everything was working fine before the engineer arrived and now is not afterwards and that I am not prepared to pay for an electrician. 🤯. What else can I do and where do I stand with this?
Thanks

TadleyBaggie

The meter feeds the consumer unit, if most circuits are working it can't be a fault with the meter. The fault is most likely a breaker that has opened when the power was off but appears to be on. Reset all the 5amp breakers to reset the lighting circuits. If this doesn't fix it, the appropriate breaker may be faulty.

I'm with Octopus, this isn't their issue, it's a fault with the internal electrics. 

user1977

It depends what has caused the problem, but if it was something like an existing loose connection which has been wobbled out of a terminal by the work, I doubt you can expect Octopus to sort it.

Keep_pedalling

Changing the meter is not going to effect a single lighting ring as they do not touch the consumer unit, which is obviously getting power from the supply. This is got to be a wiring fault or a failure of the cut out serving that lighting circuit. It is possible it was triggered by the meter change when the power was restored but if that was the case then it was an inherent fault just waiting to happen.

Get an electrician out to fix it. In the unlikely event that the electrician thinks it was caused by the meter fitter doing something wrong then you will have a claim against Octopus but without an expert opinion on the fault you will get nowhere with Octopus.

Aylesbury_Duck

Where do you stand if you're not prepared to pay for an electrician?  In the dark tonight, I suspect.

As advised, check and reset the breaker on the affected circuit.  If you don't know how to do that or it doesn't work, you'll need an electrician.  If s/he confirms it's somehow linked to the meter installation (and was a fault caused by the installation, rather than an existing fault that was triggered by a perfectly normal installation) then you have something to complain to Octopus about.  At the moment, they're probably mystified that you're telling them you refuse to pay for an electrician.  Who's losing out as a result?  It isn't them sat in the dark.

Mark_d

If your fuse box is anything like mine, when you flick the main switch off/on there's a danger that one of the trip switches could trip.  This could affect one or more circuits.  It should be simple enough to check your fuse box.  You shouldn't need an electrician do to this.

Keep_pedalling

Mark_d said:

If your fuse box is anything like mine, when you flick the main switch off/on there's a danger that one of the trip switches could trip.  This could affect one or more circuits.  It should be simple enough to check your fuse box.  You shouldn't need an electrician do to this.

The OP did say that all the switches in the CU were on. 

TadleyBaggie

Keep_pedalling said:

Mark_d said:

If your fuse box is anything like mine, when you flick the main switch off/on there's a danger that one of the trip switches could trip.  This could affect one or more circuits.  It should be simple enough to check your fuse box.  You shouldn't need an electrician do to this.

The OP did say that all the switches in the CU were on. 

The breaker can trip but the physical switch might stick, giving the appearance it is on.