WILL MY OUTSIDE ELECTRIC METER CUPBOARD NEED MOVING?

[whitehaven]

Hi, I have a recessed outside electric meter cupboard on the side of my wall but just inside a drive thru archway which has a storey above.
This archway is only 7.5 ft wide but 24 ft long which i intend to brick up & split into 2 rooms (it was once the kitchen years ago).
Its only purpose these days is as a drive thru to the garage at the rear which is a tight squeeze due to the width.

If I brick up the front & back & turn the front half into a downstairs bathroom do I need to have the meter & cupboard moved to the front of the house?
From a moisture point of view i cannot see it as a problem for the very reason that electric meter cupboards are sited on outside walls exposed to the elements.
I could understand if i was talking about the consumer unit or something. Furthermore as previously mentioned it used to be a Kitchen so hopefully the man from Building regs will not insist on me having it moved before approval for the archway to be converted once more back to a room.

Incidentally having checked costs of shortening the electric underground feed by 1 metre onto the front wall the minimum fee is £533, that's once i've dug the new & existing trench,laid ducting/draw rope & electric warning tape & fitted a new recessed box to the front myself. For the £533 they just disconnect from the existing meter & reterminate at the new!

Thanks in Advance

 

[Click-Sure]

My electricity AND gas meters used to be on the external right hand wall of my house. Now they're on the internal left hand wall of my garage.

Building inspector didn't bat an eyelid, having to move meters in that situation is a myth! Meter readers hate it (I don't like meter readers, and they don't like me but thats another story!)

 

[SeanT]

However, I can't work out whether the room that the meters reside in is actually going to become a bathroom or not from the op's post....

 

[whitehaven]

Yes the archway I am converting back to a room is going to be a bathroom, hence I am trying to avoid the cost of moving the meter cupboard if I don't have to. What do you think?

 

[Taylortwocities]

So, the meter cupboard will be in the bathroom if you leave it where it is?

Thats not a good idea

 

[whitehaven]

Agree not a good idea but really minimum of £533 just to disconnect & reconnect an electric cable after I do all the real work (see my first thread)..
Question is still, does it have to be moved.
I plan to put a tall freestanding cupboard (for towels & such) where it presently is which will be at the foot of the bath in the corner so won't be visible. Then when the meter man comes I just slide the unit out.
Money is v.tight which I could use on a holiday this year.

 

[SeanT]

Provided, of course, that you are not dead....

 

[whitehaven]

Sean, don't take this the wrong way. If i was talking about bare electric wires or the consumer unit I could understand your comments.

But we are talking about a plastic meter cupboard which sits on the outside wall of most houses up & down this fine country with exposed to the elements with driving rain, snow, frost etc...
Surely if they are not to be exposed to any kind of moisture, even though they are in ah locked plastic housing then surely they would all be mounted internally?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You won't get wind & rain etc in your bathroom.

But outside whilst you might get dampness in the air, you won't get clouds of steam. Just something to consider.

 

[SeanT]

Seals go or god forbid someone leaves it open on a meter cupboard out on the side of the house (or in a garage), gets rained on, no serious moisture ingress, not really anybody in direct contact with the water (unless they are working on the thing in the rain....)
Same situation in a bathroom with v. high humidity and lots of moisture ingress (even if the seals go at the bottom) - someones gonna be in the same room as this, naked, covered in water.
Curious, is there an IP rating on electric board meter cupboards?

Upshot is, at least the supplementary bonding will be easy

 

[Taylortwocities]

Lets assume this work is being done under 17th edition.

All circuits in the bathroom have to be protected by 30mA RCD(s).

You arent even allowed a socket outlet within 3 meters of the bath!

Now we have a raw 230V single phase supply coming into a Special Location with no fault protection.

I suppose that you could ask the DNO to supply an RCD at the substation.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Lets assume this work is being done under 17th edition.

Which does not apply to the DNO wiring or equipment...

 

[Taylortwocities]

Yes, true for the meter itself. The rest of the bathroom has to comply.

I was trying to put it into context.

 

[whitehaven]

So whilst i wait for building regs to nip out & confirm at the momentt it looks like I am gonna have to pay a stupid amount for a discon recon potentially

 

[Adam_151]

Perhaps ask the question to the DNO, they are afterall the ones who are responsible for the safety of the equipment.

They generally don't like service cables to run through buildings, normally a meter box on the outside, or straight through the wall and onto a board

Not to mention you are probably going to build foundations over where the cable is buried...