Fitting an isolator between meter and consumer unit.

We've recently changed providers to British Gas. They have said our current smart meters are due for replacement. I’m thinking of having my consumer unit replaced in the future so I’d like to fit an isolator between the meter and the consumer unit. I’ve seen on here some posts where people have provided an isolator and the meter installer has fitted that when the meter is being replaced.

Would this isolated be okay?

Looks good to me

I'm with British Gas and had smart meters fitted last year. When the meter fitter turned up I asked him if he could fit an isolator while he was changing the meter. No problem, he fetched an isolator from his van and fitted it. No cost to me.

It is a matter for the supplier of electricity so you must conform to their rules.

Ask them if they fit an isolator as standard in new supplies or if they fit one if requested and if they charge or include it in the price. Most of them probably charge if you request one on an existing supply . Some may charge or not charge if requested at the time of supply (or other such associated works) and you might or might not be successful if you ask the metering fitter at time of the meter being fitted.

Mottie said:

Would this isolated be okay

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Looks like a plastic enclosure. Is that allowed? I.e. does the rule about consumer units being metal for fire safety also apply to this? I guess it doesn't, right?

Suppliers rules mioght differ from ours - plastic consumer units are actually allowed, the rules (BS 7671) does not forbid plastic consumer units. therere are several options and yes one easy option is metal consumer units, unfortunately a lot of people seem to be ignoring the possible dangers of metal consumer units or mitigation against those problems.

Unfortunately some manufacturers did not act as they should have when making plastic consumer units, if they all had hsave complied with what they should have we might not have the potential problems we have today London Fire Brigade (probably quite correctly) voiced some concerns with the consumer units in circulation and the IET acted upon that (whether rightly or wrongly or best solution or not we could orobably argue both ways)

endecotp said:

Looks like a plastic enclosure. Is that allowed? I.e. does the rule about consumer units being metal for fire safety also apply to this?

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The one that BG fitted for me was plastic. It's an isolator, not a consumer unit. The meter is plastic, the wires are insulated with plastic, every other accessory on the system is plastic.

Mottie said:

Would this isolated be okay?

View attachment 418790

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Yes. Get one, then if the meter fitter supplies one, you can take it back.

Awwh nawty securespark but then yes I get what you saying too!
LOL.
Two ways of looking at this, thats the problem.

In this particular instance yes a good solution and some firms might have a policy of being happy to take non-faulty goods back and get a refund and everybody happy and it makes good sense all around.

The larger orginisations make "absorb" the costs of folk buying and returning (but there still is a cost and we all pay it as customers).
Smaller suppliers it makes the cost higher or their profits lower (but there still is a cost and we all pay it as customers).
It can make them less competitive.

Some people seem to believe that just becasuse the Mighty Big Firm Ltd XXX has such a helpful return policy that small firms such as Small Tiny Firm Ltd has a legal requirement to do the same.
I have witnessed heated arguements of some customers having the mindset of a universal legal right to buy then return anything they like to and poor old shopkeeper having a right problem with that.

Let me be the first to admit my guilt though.

As a consumer I am often attracted to such favourable returns policy.
As a trader I used a mix of suppliers both small and large, but I am prepared to pay more for the same item

Personally as a consumer I would like to have a world where customers can pick and choose from a range of large and small alike with neither group being particulary adavantaged nor disadvantaged either.
Unfortunately we live in the real world and the ideal world does not actually exist.
That is the way it goes in just about everything in life with each one of us, in fact as a young man with a young family I had to get the best prices I could for my weekly shopping so the supermarkets often won my custom and yet I would ideally prefer to keep the small shopkeepers going strong.

I used to have a giggle when folk exclaimed "Where are all of the small corner shops gone thesedays?" and I sometimes replied "You have driven them out of business by going to the supermarkets!".

LOL - sorrry to go off at a tangent Securespark but it just reminded me of that one.

ebee said:

Some people seem to believe that just becasuse the Mighty Big Firm Ltd XXX has such a helpful return policy that small firms such as Small Tiny Firm Ltd has a legal requirement to do the same.

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They do both have a legal requirement to do the same with regards to returns under the consumer contracts regulations don’t they?

Mottie said:

They do both have a legal requirement to do the same with regards to returns under the consumer contracts regulations don’t they?

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Yes thats true Mottie, I was talking in a general call into a shop to buy something sort of situation, whislst there are some very good reasons for online selling it can be used unfirly by some as a sort of buy and sell or buy and return phillosophy which I do not think it was actually intended.

It is not at all unusual that, for some, rules/laws with good intentions can sometimes suffer from "unintended consequencs too" any such rule or law can be used by some unfairly at times. Human behaviour can be made to beggar things up!

Mottie said:

They do both have a legal requirement to do the same with regards to returns under the consumer contracts regulations don’t they?

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There is no right to return a product that you’ve bought in person from a physical shop if you have simply changed your mind.

You do have a right to return products that you have bought from e.g. SF, TS using “click and collect” because you bought them at home without seeing them, i.e. “distance selling”, before collecting them from the store.

Mottie said:

I’m thinking of having my consumer unit replaced in the future so I’d like to fit an isolator between the meter and the consumer unit. I’ve seen on here some posts where people have provided an isolator and the meter installer has fitted that when the meter is being replaced.
Would this isolated be okay?

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Yep, that's the very product that most suppliers seem to use.

However, a couple of meter changes ack, I bought one of those and asked the meter changer if he could install it. He said that he would be happy to install an isolator free-of-charge, but that he "couldn't" ("wasn't allowed to") use the one I had bought - so he went out and got an identical isolator from his van and fitted it!

Not totally surprising now that he would have to supply the isolator

mikehammer69 said:

Not totally surprising now that he would have to supply the isolator

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I suppose so, but it was a bit silly - since the one I offered him (identical to the one he used) was brand new and still in its 'sealed-up box' (just as 'his' was)!