Can’t Get Gas Smart Meter Due to Location of Stop Valve

Hi All,

Tried to get Smart meters fitted a couple of times over the past few years, first when they were SMETS1 and now with SMETS2. Both times we have been told that they cannot fit the Gas one due to the pipes that connect to the meter being concealed within the cavity wall which apparently contravenes with the regs?

So we have the meter on the outside wall of the house and the stop valve inside a box inside the cupboard by the front door.

Can someone explain what the issue is here and what would be involved in correcting it/rough idea of costs?

We need pictures....

Ok will get them later. Do you need just the inside valve or one of the meter too?

The whole lot..

Also depends which side of the meter it is. Incoming side cannot be touched by anyone other than the Gas Supplier, if it's the outlet pipework into the property then it's your remit, and you'll need a Gas Safe Engineer to alter the pipework to suit.

From my experience though, if it's on the supplier side, getting anyone to do anything about it is a bliddy nightmare. E-on refused point blank to fit mine as there was some lead pipework present, and told me to ring National Grid. NG came out, and promptly denied any responsibility and said it was E-on's job to alter the pipework to suit. Back and forth I went, neither party would accept responsibility until someone at NG told me I needed to find out who the 'Meter Asset Manager' was, as it was their responsibility.

Turned out the Meter Asset Manager was National Grid. Ring a different dept in NG who agree to send someone out. Guy duly arrives on appointed date, takes one look at says it's not his job, it's down to E-on. At this point I hit the roof having taken a day off for NG to attend. In fairness the Guy was brilliant, calling his Boss who also agreed it wasn't their job but they would do the work as a gesture of goodwill. Lead removed, new 22mm copper and ECV fitted, meter correctly fitted, tidy job done.

E-on still useless, so kicked them out in favour of Engie, and never have had the meters changed.....

Ah but these are the benefits of a privetised market where 1000s of companies can each own a little part of the network and waste billions on incompetence. Madness.
It used to be so simple...and cheaper to maintain the network.

Gasguru said:

Ah but these are the benefits of a privetised market

Click to expand...

Was this down to Thatcher?

It's down to all the corrupt management consultants and racketeers that advise government and draught the contracts.
Our civil servants and MPs aren't very bright when it comes to looking out for the loopholes and scams in a contract.

Privatisation was the only solution to the dire public companies we had. I'm not sure anyone foresaw just how inept it would become.