Two meters down to one

ban-all-sheds · 27 Jun 2014

DanDIY said:
I wouldnt want to be pulling the fuses myself or working live

Am I correct in thinking that the distribution company are responsible for the isolator? Looking at the schematic in my OSG they are fitted after the meter. So if I booked the distribution company to come and fit an isolator would they have to do both sets of meter tails? I wonder if they'd charge twice

Whoever it is, be prepared for them to refuse to do it. Not all companies do - some take the view that they allow electricians to pull the fuse, some take the view that if ever anybody needs the supply isolated then that person pays them to come and pull the fuse, then later replace.

DanDIY · 27 Jun 2014

Thanks. I think you have both summed up what I need. I'll make some calls and see what I can arrange.

GoodDIYjob · 28 Jun 2014

I recently had a dp isolator fitted to facilitate a CU change.

As other posts before correctly stated - had to arrange this through the supplier, who then co-ordinate with their meter contractor. It was a 10 or 15 working day lead time.

The meter operator was Lowri Beck, who apparently do the majority of these, except for BG and some of the other majors. I had no direct contact with Lowri Beck though until they arrived for the appointment though.

Cost was between £50 and £60 and I had to pay in advance.

ban-all-sheds · 28 Jun 2014

Parts & labour? That doesn't sound too bad at all.

DanDIY - I take it your meter doesn't have a built-in isolator?

GoodDIYjob · 28 Jun 2014

Yes, parts and labour incl. the MEM 100amp isolation switch. Would of preferred the Wylex rec2 enclosure I had here but they use MEM.

I thought the cost was reasonable.

It added a little extra to the cost of having the job done but it's done now and makes it easier if ever there is further work at the CU level.

I didn't even ask how much edit:[de]-energisation and re-energistation visit would of cost but couldn't imagine it would of been much if any cheaper.

DanDIY · 24 Jul 2014

A bit of an update on this thread.

I emailed western power distribution with a diagram of what I wanted doing. They quoted me £191.00, which I had to pay up front before they would even come out to take a look.

They came to do the job today.

Before:

After:

I wasnt at home, but they refused to reconnect the tails to the consumer units, leaving the house with no electric. Apparently this is 'normal' procedure, so they cant be sued. I can understand if the electrics are some kind of deathtrap, but it was all connected up and working before their visit and there was even a periodic inspection certificate present.
So I have had to reconnect CU2 when I got home from work.

In addition to this, they have put in a switch with only a single outlet, so I cant connect up both consumer units. I will have to get a Henly block at the weekend to allow me to power up both consumer units.

I am glad that the pay as you go meter is gone, but am a bit annoyed that they didn't leave the installation capable of powering up both consumer units (as I'd asked). Seems a bit poor for £191.00.

AndyPRK · 24 Jul 2014

Did they leave both cu's disconnected?

westie101 · 24 Jul 2014

Basically the Point of Supply is now the outgoing terminals of the isolator, any connections and work after that point is the responsibility of the owner or their electrical contractor, not any part of the supply industry.

We are all under strict instruction not to carry out any work on customer's property so no they would not reconnect the supply

The isolator is pretty much an industry standard and as such there is not a two terminal design available to use.

As in paragraph 1 the supply & fit of Henley blocks again rests with the customer as they form part of their installation.

If anything, sorry to say, the company has acted absolutely correctly it is just you that didn't understand the responsibilities of both side

JohnW2 · 24 Jul 2014

AndyPRK said:
Did they leave both cu's disconnected?

Clearly they did! -there's only one pair of tails, and one can see that they go nowhere!

Kind Regards, John

m5kgk · 24 Jul 2014

I would have thought that there were 2 companies involved in that changeover.

WPD would have done the cutout, and another company (Haste normally around here) would have moved and reconnected the meter to the cut out, installed the isolator and reconnected the CU

A mate of mine works on UG supplied cut outs and he said WPD won't even breathe on a meter these days

JohnW2 · 24 Jul 2014

westie101 said:
Basically the Point of Supply is now the outgoing terminals of the isolator, any connections and work after that point is the responsibility of the owner or their electrical contractor, not any part of the supply industry. We are all under strict instruction not to carry out any work on customer's property so no they would not reconnect the supply

Given the 'demarcation' (and 'different regs'!) issues, I can sort-of understand that as far as a DNO and cutouts are concerned, but it doesn't seem reasonable in relation to whoever is responsible for (or takes responsibility for - e.g. by doing it!) moving the meter. As kgk86 has suggested, when meters are changed or moved, I've never heard of the person doing it to refuse to reconnect the CU!

Kind Regards, John

westie101 · 25 Jul 2014

As kgk86 has suggested, when meters are changed or moved, I've never heard of the person doing it to refuse to reconnect the CU!

If the POS had been the meter terminals it could have been reconnected but only one of the CUs as we cannot now connect two sets of tails to the meter.

As the cut-out was changed the work was probably done by a jointing team who are not authorised to connect customer tails (except to the meter)

RF Lighting · 25 Jul 2014

Perhaps you've got your wires crossed or misunderstood what the suppliers would do, but everything they've done is what I'd expect, and it's up to you to arrange an electrician to do whatever needs doing to combine your two installations onto the new single meter.

I can't advise you do this yourself. Incommers and tails etc is not really a DIY job.

JohnW2 · 25 Jul 2014

westie101 said:
If the POS had been the meter terminals it could have been reconnected but only one of the CUs as we cannot now connect two sets of tails to the meter.

I understand that, but I was responding to the comment/question about their having left the consumer with no electricity at all - I would have hoped that they would have connected the tails (which we know exist, since we've seen a photo the the ends in the OP's hand!) to one of the CU's, pending arrival of an electrician (or whoever) to sort out the splitting of the tails.

westie101 said:
As the cut-out was changed the work was probably done by a jointing team who are not authorised to connect customer tails (except to the meter)

You are the one who is usually critical about blind adherence to 'books'/'rules'. Someone obviously felt qualified to remove tails from CU, move the meter, connect the meter to an isolator and connect a pair of outgoing tails to the isolator. In terms of common sense, it would not seem to much of a step for the same person to have also reconnected those tails to one of the CUs from which (s)he had disconnected the supply.

I have to say that, in the course of my few dealings with DNO personnel, they have always been very reasonable, very sensible and almost obsessive in their wish to not leave a customer without at least some power, whatever that took. ... but maybe I've just been lucky!

[and, in passing, are they actually allowed to leaving dangling ends of tails, which would become live, and still dangling, if the isolator were switched on?]

Kind Regards, John

DaftPunk · 25 Jul 2014

You can see in the ops photo they've connected one set of tails to the isolator leaving some of the installation powered up, and the op has the other set of tails.

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Two meters down to one

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