Any Electricians out there? I need advice...

yus786

Apparently we need two pieces of work done (according to British Gas)

1. There's no bonding between the Electric and water supply
2. We still have the really old meter box (well 2 of them as my house used to be 2 flats years ago). This needs to be replaced with a new one.

Got a quote from BG

£530 for the Meter Change
£170 for the bonding
£300 extra labour as my house is fairly big

Total - a neat £1000

Is this cost justifiable or as usual are BG ripping me off?

Cheers

Bungarm2001

BG are ripping you off..surprise surprise (I have no time for them for various reasons)

The earth bonding can be done by any competent electrician who is NICEIC registered and fully up to date with part p regulations (just to be on the safe side)

As for the meters, we have two in a property we are currently renovating and all we'll be doing is phoning up any electricity supplier to come and remove one and upgrade the other. I've checked out the likely cost for this with various suppliers and the cost has come in as ...zilch...! I think they'll do it for free as long as we sign up to them for the supply. Maybe you could do the same? It's worth a try.

Bungarm2001

PS BG wanted some exorbitant amount to install a new gas meter in the same property we are working in. (the house had never had gas before) We phoned Atlantic, and they installed one for free.

yus786

Thanks

TBH i'm quite happy for them to supply our gas/electric and don't really wanna change.

So would you say i should pay around the £500 mark for the 2 jobs?

phill99

BG are rip offf merchants. The meter change should cost nothing as it is the responsibility of the electricity supplier and not owned by the homeowner. The £300 extra labour is just a ploy too extract more money from you.

adaze

I'd agree with everyone else, get the longest barge pole you can get and make sure you are as far away as possible from BG. They quoted DOUBLE the price to replace a boiler for me, I got a local firm to do it at half BG's quote, which incidentally inluded all kinds of things that wern't really needed and just seemed to be there to bulk out the price. Get a local spark to do the equipotential bonding and call who ever owns your meter and get it switched for free. P.S. Do you mean a meter or a Consumer Unit (Fuse Box)?

yus786

adaze wrote: »

I'd agree with everyone else, get the longest barge pole you can get and make sure you are as far away as possible from BG. They quoted DOUBLE the price to replace a boiler for me, I got a local firm to do it at half BG's quote, which incidentally inluded all kinds of things that wern't really needed and just seemed to be there to bulk out the price. Get a local spark to do the equipotential bonding and call who ever owns your meter and get it switched for free. P.S. Do you mean a meter or a Consumer Unit (Fuse Box)?

Sorry yeah i meant the fuse box - so i'm gonna have to pay for that as BG didn't say anything about replacing it for free (as my gas and electric is provided by them)

Bungarm2001

They should still replace it for free..it belongs to them, not you.

Tell BG that you have been doing a bit of research and if they don't change it for free you'll change supplier.

We have been renovating houses for years and have never yet paid for a meter upgrade or change. Must admit that we thought we might have to pay to have an extra meter removed on the current job, (see my post above) but it turns out that we don't (like you we have two meters from a previous conversion to flats)

I hate BG with a passion...they are ALWAYS ripping people off, or at least trying to...I haven't got a good word to say about them.

Gillianh2

I have aked DH who is a sparky and he has repeated what is said above. He did repeat forcefully that you should on no account pay for a new meter. The meters are and stay the property of the energy supplier. There is also a duty on them to provide meters that are up to date etc; Just my towpenneth.lol

adaze

yus786 wrote: »

Sorry yeah i meant the fuse box - so i'm gonna have to pay for that as BG didn't say anything about replacing it for free (as my gas and electric is provided by them)

Just to reiterate what the OP has said it is not the meter but 2 older fuse boxes that need to be replaced, which will, unfortunately have to be paid for. Though if you are getting this work done have a look and see if you have an old analog meter and if you do get it switched so they don't come along later and do it (this bit will be free).

Whilst you may be with BG for your elec and gas there is no need to use them to do this work and I think everyone is in agreement that unless you have money to burn you should seek out an independant spark.

Bungarm2001

yus786 wrote: »

Sorry yeah i meant the fuse box - so i'm gonna have to pay for that as BG didn't say anything about replacing it for free (as my gas and electric is provided by them)

ahhhh...I seeeeeeeeeee...:D

SORRY...bit of dyslexia there!!! Not usually that non-observant. Must be the mention of BG sending me into a blinding rage!!

Either way, DON'T let BG rip you off...ANY sparks worth his credentials will do this for you for far less than those b*ggers