Moving meter and LABC

[ban-all-sheds]

So if you do the sums, what's the resistance of the supply cable if it's going to deliver 25000A?

 

[ColJack]

given the average supply voltage I've read at my house of about 250V.. then it's 0.01ohms...

does that sound do-able if you live 3 doors down from the sub and are fed in 25mm?

it's generally in the DNO's best interest to fit an isolator if you tell them you are having work done since it's cheaper to send a guy once for 20 mins and fit an isolator than to send him out twice to your place to cut and re-seal the cutout..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

does that sound do-able if you live 3 doors down from the sub and are fed in 25mm?

If 3 doors down gives you a total cable run of less than 6.5m, yes...

 

[ColJack]

are you basing your calculations on a radial or a ring?..

aren't most estates run on a ring and tapped off to each location?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm assuming that if you live 3 doors down from the substation, the rest of the ring main serving the estate, if that's how it's wired, would make very little difference to how close you needed to be to the substation, particularly as it could easily be the case that half or more of that 6.5m would be the single cable tapped off the ring main to your cutout..

 

[djrichie_t]

many dnos connect subs together to ensure security of supply and a property may be supplied there fore by 2 or 3 subs with fuse ratings 400a -800A EACH

Sorry to say but thats not true, Subs are only connected together in parallel for maintenance purposes. Thats where you see link boxes in the pavement (or sometimes feeder pillars) to enable links to be made. Then this allows backfeeding into the feeder pillar thats connected to the transformer under maintenance.

Its always a radial feed, with many 'open points' to other radial feeds. Thats the same all the way up the network to 132kV.

 

[Stoday]

many dnos connect subs together to ensure security of supply and a property may be supplied there fore by 2 or 3 subs with fuse ratings 400a -800A EACH

Sorry to say but thats not true, Subs are only connected together in parallel for maintenance purposes.

Not so. Subs are connected as qwilpen saya in the London area but not elsewhere in the UK.

 

[Stoday]

If somebody did move a meter themselves, and didn't ****-up, what offence would they be charged with?

Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 2665
The Electrical safety, quality and continuity regulations 2002
Clause 25 paragraph (1)
No person shall make or alter a connection from a distributor's network to a consumer's installation, a street electrical fixture or to another distributor's network without that distributor's consent, unless such consent has been unreasonably withheld.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, I'm aware of that, but the only problem is that those regulations also say (with my emphasis):

1. (5) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires -

"consumer's installation" means the electric lines situated upon the consumer's side of the supply terminals together with any equipment permanently connected or intended to be permanently connected thereto on that side;

"supply terminals" means the ends of the electric lines at which the supply is delivered to a consumer's installation;

so I'm not convinced that the meter, even though not the property of the consumer, is not on his side of the supply terminals, so there is no making or altering of a connection to the consumer's installation if components within it are moved around....

 

[djrichie_t]

many dnos connect subs together to ensure security of supply and a property may be supplied there fore by 2 or 3 subs with fuse ratings 400a -800A EACH

Sorry to say but thats not true, Subs are only connected together in parallel for maintenance purposes.

Not so. Subs are connected as qwilpen saya in the London area but not elsewhere in the UK.

It is very dangerous to parallel subs. I would love to have a chat with the engineers who authorised that to happen!

 

[Stoday]

so I'm not convinced that the meter, even though not the property of the consumer, is not on his side of the supply terminals, so there is no making or altering of a connection to the consumer's installation if components within it are moved around....

The document you sign for a supply includes a standard statement that the point of supply is "at the outgoing terminals of the metering equipment".

 

[Stoday]

It is very dangerous to parallel subs. I would love to have a chat with the engineers who authorised that to happen!

You've not heard the expression "London's streets are paved with copper", a joke among distribution engineers.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

so I'm not convinced that the meter, even though not the property of the consumer, is not on his side of the supply terminals, so there is no making or altering of a connection to the consumer's installation if components within it are moved around....

The document you sign for a supply includes a standard statement that the point of supply is "at the outgoing terminals of the metering equipment".

Well it's been over 20 years since I would have signed an agreement.

Does moving a meter count as "making or altering" a connection? I can't help thinking that Regulation 25 wasn't meant to cover moving of meters, but it looks as though it could do. The lawyers would enjoy themselves.

And this is the link from regulations in the SI to an actual Act which specifies that contravening them is an offence, (I think - 29(3) might be saying that the Regulations have to make contraventions an offence??)

But on balance it looks as though if you move a meter (or cut a fuse seal) you could be charged with an offence under the Electricity Act.

I wonder how many people have been....

 

[Stoday]

I wonder how many people have been....

Caught? Probably none. Bit like part P really. DIY and you get away with it. Do it for a mate & you get away with it unless it goes t**s up.

 

[Roo]

I went to a job just before christmas where the customers spark had removed the off peak meter.

I was asked to bag the meter up and send it to our revenue protection unit as the customer would be charged with interference with our equipment.

AFAIK if you interfere with our equipment in anyway (cutting seals included) we can refuse to supply you with electric and we would send some fella's round to disconnect the supply.

As for the question.........

Moving the meter is usually free, moving the cutout would probably be chargeable, depending on which supplier you are with.

You must contact your supplier to have anything done.
This is because your supplier may not use your DNO to do the work as METER OPERATORS are now moving out of area your supplier may have it's own staff in your area to do the work.

Post a pic of your setup, we like pics