Current capacity of a "40A" electricity meter

[JohnW2]

'routine meter changes'

Given that there were well over 25 million households in the UK in 2008 changing meters to any programme is a huge task.

Quite so - which is why I am surprised by how often ours has been changed. However, I've just had a quick chat with a 'contact', and he suggested that one of the reasons may be that many of the recent/modern meters come with instructions saying that they must be re-calibrated every X years (he thought that X was usually about 10), and that companies may vary in terms of how nervous they are leaving in service meters whole calibration could be said to have 'expired'. A bit like using an MFT after it's calibration certificate/sticker has expired, I suppose.

Often it relies on the meter readers being tasked to flag up certain types, but that depends on gaining access which can be difficult

My electricity bills bear the serial number of my meter. If they store such information, I would have thought that they would also keep a record of make/type/model of meter.

Kind Regards, John

 

[nomisr]

Thanks for the replies so far. It seems that I need not worry too much about overloading the existing meter, so I won't be changing it.

For info, the DNO in our area is SSEPD and the meter is also stamped with "Property of The Southern Electricity Board". SSEPD are moving the supply, but they told me to contact my energy provider (Scottish Power) if I wanted the meter swapping out.

The meter hasn't been changed since we bought the house in 1996. I can't find any dates on it but there is a sticker that says "CERTIFIED 90NE", so that could be 1990? The house was built in 1971.

I was a bit surprised that Scottish Power didn't offer to replace the meter with a digital one now. Even if I paid for the swap they said I'd get a refurbished mechanical meter.

Cheers,
Nomis