Consumer Unit to Supply final connection - who do I talk to?

[pdcelec]

What I have seen done is to twist the seal to the side, snip it, remove fuse, connect up, put one side of seal back in, then the other, a dab of super glue in hole and it appears that it has never been touched. Although, I would never do this myself, but come across it quite often

 

[kai]

DO bear in mind that EDF Energy's Call Centre is sometimes staffed by School Leavers who know nothing - one even told me to cut the seal myself, then put an opened-out paper clip into the service fuse holder, to bridge their main fuse, after I lost the whole supply to my house one night.

Eventually I go them to fix the fuse next day after lengthy discussions.

Furthermore I even received an EDF compensation payment of three months standing charges (36 pounds) off my next bill, due to a Supply Failure to my house, beyond my control!

 

[andy]

Problem is (and i'll bow to the expertise in here) the rules are probably different in Engerland

Dinger

i wonder what rules they do have in engerland

 

[andy]

DO bear in mind that EDF Energy's Call Centre is sometimes staffed by School Leavers who know nothing - one even told me to cut the seal myself, then put an opened-out paper clip into the service fuse holder, to bridge their main fuse, after I lost the whole supply to my house one night.

i hope he told you to use insulated pliers! imagine if he told someone who knew nothin about electricity and done that, holding the paper clip in his fingers as he put it in...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

AFAICT, from what people have reported here, is that the fragmentation of the electricity generation/distribution/supply/metering/charging business has produced an environment where nobody really knows who is responsible for what, and therefore where nobody cares if you break the seals, (provided there is no evidence of illegal extraction) because it's not their job to notice.

 

[mikesevers]

Hi again folks,

Sorry to have been away for a day! Lots of interesting replies - thank you all.

ban-all-sheds: Elmbridge appear to be charging me £58.75, the standard rate they would have charged Moben kitchens for a similar commercial job. We did discuss the fact that they'll be having to pay an electrician to do the final testing and that leaves the council out of pocket. However, he was keen to point out that it is by no means the only Buildings Control service that leaves the council out of pocket. I've been very impressed with the council actually - send an email and someone is on the 'phone within a couple of minutes.

During my last conversation with the DNO they told me to ring the supply company and they would be a able to send someone to pull the fuse. I'm sure they'd charge for this though and this hasn't been confirmed by the supply company.

I can see why people just get on and pull the fuse themselves. If everyone goes through this frustrating experience then the tempation must be very strong! I'm going to examine it myself today to see what state it's in. Would an electrician be likely to pull the fuse themselves or would they work live? I cannot imagine that anyone would want to work live in the cramped confines of my stair cupboard - far too much opportunity to slip and touch the wrong part.

Thanks again everyone and good luck to those in a similar situation.

Mike

 

[plugwash]

many sparkys do just pull the fuse themselves.

not that we advise you to do it but if you do decide to go ahead and pull it please bear the following in mind.

1: look at the condition, if it looks in any way damaged do not touch it.
2: make sure that the main switches in all consumer units are off both when pulling and when re-inserting
3: tripple check all connections before re-inserting you really don't wan't to reinsert a service fuse against a short.
4: make sure you don't touch the metal pins of the fuseholder or stick your fingers in the holes that are left when it is pulled

 

[mikesevers]

I hadn't noticed before that as well as a seal on the fuse, the meter has a seal on the customer connection side. I can understand the seal before the meter, but why on the consumer side? I'd have thought the seal was to discourage skipping the meter to get free leccy?

I suppose I could use the tails that go to the original CU to connect to a henley block and then new tails from there to both old and new CU.

Incidentally, the meter is a Siemens digital variety with a flashing light every fraction of a kWh.

Mike

 

[pdcelec]

I hadn't noticed before that as well as a seal on the fuse, the meter has a seal on the customer connection side. I can understand the seal before the meter, but why on the consumer side? I'd have thought the seal was to discourage skipping the meter to get free leccy?

I suppose I could use the tails that go to the original CU to connect to a henley block and then new tails from there to both old and new CU.

Incidentally, the meter is a Siemens digital variety with a flashing light every fraction of a kWh.

Mike

That is where the tails from the supplier to customer go via the meter

cutout fuse ---- meter ----- cu.

the seal is to discourage skipping the meter to get free leccy

 

[mikesevers]

Sorry, I should clarify. There's a total of three seals:

1. Seal on the main supply fuse
2. Seal on the meter's connection for the leads coming from the supply fuse.
3. Seal on the connection for the tails that go to the CU.

I can understand seals 1 and 2, but not seal 3 as this is obviously after the meter.

Mike

 

[pdcelec]

A safety issue maybe?. since there is no way of isolating this section.

 

[plugwash]

or they are just in the habit of putting seals on any connection they make without really thinking.