Electricity meter change

[Another John]

Just had a letter from EoN saying they need to change my electricity
meter (which, granted, is probably over 50 years old).[1]

Given that the Big Boys who run our entire society these days are often
guilty of
(a) sleight of hand which the lowest form of barrow-boy would be proud
of
and
(b) frequent incompetence ... is there anything I need to be aware of?


Sorry if the above appears to be unduly sceptical, but -- shrug --
y'know ...

TIA
John

[1] It's actually from their contractor, but it's on EoN headed paper.
And for the record I've been pretty happy with EoN in the several years
we've been with them.

[Andy Burns]

Another John wrote:

> Just had a letter from EoN saying they need to change my electricity

> meter ... is there anything I need to be aware of?

You may wish to find whether they intend to fit a smartmeter. It
depends on your point of view whether you would welcome this (lack of
having to deal with 'you were out' cards, in-house display and online
history) or try to dissuade them (remote disconnect, potential for
getting hacked, potential for snooping on usage patterns).

[Lee]

Just a practical point, photograph the meter showing the reading
immediately prior to removal and the same for the new one on
installation if its not zero.

You know, like just in case ;)

[harry]

Make sure you know the meter reading before they take the old one
away. Also note the date. (There may be a change in the price of
electricity.)

And also the new one, (which may not be zero).

[Another Dave]

On 23/02/2013 15:48, Another John wrote:
> Just had a letter from EoN saying they need to change my electricity
> meter (which, granted, is probably over 50 years old).[1]
>

I had smart meters fitted by EoN last year. Works well. The only problem
was that the gas fitter found a fault in the installation dating back
years (the on/off valve lever could fall to the ON position). He called
in the gas distribution people who fixed it for free. I was without gas
for 8 hours.

I don't know if you're dual fuel but if your gas meter is as old as your
electricity meter I'd wait for warmer weather.

Another Dave

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article <2rSdnZ9T59JLerXM...@brightview.co.uk>,

EoN changed my electricity meter last year.
The new one is not a smart meter, just a plain electronic meter.
The installer said he hadn't seen any smart meters yet.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[dennis@home]

On 23/02/2013 17:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:


> EoN changed my electricity meter last year.
> The new one is not a smart meter, just a plain electronic meter.
> The installer said he hadn't seen any smart meters yet.
>

that would be because they have smart meter installers who do all the
smart meters.

My smart energy display has died so they are coming to fit a new one.
Why they can't just send me a new power brick is a good question that
they can't answer.

[Andy Burns]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

> EoN changed my electricity meter last year.
> The new one is not a smart meter, just a plain electronic meter.
> The installer said he hadn't seen any smart meters yet.

Must be a sub-regional thing then, my smartmeters were fitted by E.on

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:11:35 -0800 (PST), harry wrote:

> Make sure you know the meter reading before they take the old one
> away. Also note the date.

Yes, I like the photo idea of the old in situe and the new in situe both
with a burnt in time and date. Make sure the camera's clock is set
correctly. B-)

> (There may be a change in the price of electricity.)

A meter change shouldn't trigger that but close examination of the bill
covering the meter change is a good idea. If anything is likely to go
wrong it will be the entering of the meter readings (and meter numbers)
into the billing system. Check that your supply number, meter numbers,
meter readings and the tarrif are all correct.

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:48:55 +0000, Another John wrote:

> Just had a letter from EoN saying they need to change my electricity
> meter (which, granted, is probably over 50 years old).[1]

IIRC the RECs have a legal obligation to change the meter every ten
years, though in practice this may not happen. It may look 50 years old
but I doubt it's been continuous service all that time. The ones they
take out used to go back be refurbished, recalibrated then reinstalled
elsewhere. This days I suspect they just get junked partly 'cause it'll
cost too much to employ the skilled refurbishment/calibration people and
the move to electronic "smart meters". Weren't we supposed to all have
smart meters by now?

--
Cheers
Dave.

[polygonum]

Not so much "may" as absolutely "does not".

--
Rod

[Davey]

"It absolutely does not look 50 years old"? <g>
--
Davey.

[ARW]

Just be prepared to wait in all day and expect them to fail to turn up.

--
Adam

[Part Timer]

On 23/02/2013 18:59, ARW wrote:

> Just be prepared to wait in all day and expect them to fail to turn up.

Our electricity meter got changed in '04 from the old Met-Vickers
spinning disc one which made this one look modern!
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/RDCRED60.html They arrived when
they said they would. Gas meter they sent a letter (2003?) quoting
"regulator says we have to do this" but never turned up and have heard
nothing since. We were in all day anyway and it was the summer. Strange
thing was the gas meter is newer (1986 maybe - when we got a plastic
pipe installed through the garden).

[newshound]

On 23/02/2013 15:48, Another John wrote:

I had one of these from EON, I duly made an appointment agreeing to be
in all day; they didn't show, and didn't contact me.

Next time I had the standard letter I wrote to them, said in view of
their past performance I would not make any more appointments, gave them
my mobile and said when they were in the area they could give me a ring
in the day and I would commit to stay in if practicable (the house is
occupied 80% of the time).

I had no reply to this, but later got another standard letter. I replied
to that with a copy of the first one. I had no reply to that, but have
had about three more standard letters at intervals of a couple of
months, all of which I have ignored.

I've now changed suppliers and await developments!

[D.M.Chapman]

In article <nyyfbegfubjuvyypb...@srv1.howhill.co.uk>,

Dave Liquorice <allsortsn...@howhill.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:11:35 -0800 (PST), harry wrote:
>
>> Make sure you know the meter reading before they take the old one
>> away. Also note the date.
>
>Yes, I like the photo idea of the old in situe and the new in situe both
>with a burnt in time and date. Make sure the camera's clock is set
>correctly. B-)

I videod the the guys face and id badge then panned around to show the meter
reading using my phone.

Guy seemed perfectly happy with this, and said it was a good ideal and he'd
recommend it :-)

Darren

[Roger Mills]

Very necessary! When my meter was changed a few years ago, the bloke who
did it didn't have a clue how to read an analog meter, and recorded one
digit as being higher than it actually was. When I argued with him, he
reluctantly altered the card which he left with me but when I got the
next bill, I saw that his original figure had been entered into the
system. I did get the bill changed, but it was a lot of hassle.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

[m...@privacy.net]

On 23 Feb,

and...@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

> EoN changed my electricity meter last year.
> The new one is not a smart meter, just a plain electronic meter.
> The installer said he hadn't seen any smart meters yet.

Mine was changed about 15 years ago because it was too old (date code 1976)
the replacement had a date code of 1952 (but presumably recalibrated).

About 5 years later I changed suppliers. The new supplier had the meter
changed for one of the newer electronic types, but it only is a basic meter
and must be read locally.(it's in a cubicle).

The gas meter (locked away in the garage) was also changed around 15 years
ago. it replaced one that measured in Cu metres with one in Cu ft, but the
replacement does have a socket (network style) on it for remote metering,
which isn't used.

--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

[Stewith]

"Another John" <lal...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:lalaw44-50940A...@surfnet-nl.ipv4.ptr.145.109.x.invalid...

Things in the last year that I have come across after customers had a meter
change.


Tails not tightened correctly in new meter. (complaint was buzzing noize)

New meter set on an economy 10 tarriff not economy 7 (complaint heaters
are always hot and the last bill was huge)

Wrongly connected tails. (complaint was the power kept going off during the
night)


The later was a bit of a headscrather at first, but the monkey who had
changed the meter wired things up so that
only the neutral tail was going via an RCD to the storage heater consumer
unit. The meter was changed in March
and it wasn't until October that the problem became apparent when the
customer used the storage heaters for the
first time.

2 of the above meters where changed by Siemens on behalf of EDF.

[harry]

On Feb 23, 6:03 pm, "Dave Liquorice" <allsortsnotthis...@howhill.com>
wrote:

I was ten years, you are right, I changed many but that was in the
60s/ days of spinning disks. It was an accuracy issue.

Maybe the electronic ones don't need changing so often now.

[harry]

The supplier and the grid owner will not be the same company.

[Chris J Dixon]

Part Timer wrote:

>Our electricity meter got changed in '04 from the old Met-Vickers

>spinning disc one.... Gas meter they sent a letter (2003?) quoting

>"regulator says we have to do this" but never turned up and have heard
>nothing since. We were in all day anyway and it was the summer. Strange
>thing was the gas meter is newer (1986 maybe - when we got a plastic
>pipe installed through the garden).

Some years ago my gas meter was changed to an electronic one.
More recently, they changed again, and went back to the old
mechanical design.

Apparently, what with the changes in responsibilities for
metering, the new company didn't want the hassle of battery
replacement.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
ch...@cdixon.me.uk

Plant amazing Acers.

[Bill Taylor]

Our mechanical one was changed to electronic in 2008. At the beginning
of January it was replaced it with the same type, the man who changed
it said that they had problems with the LCD display becoming
unreadable.

FWIW that's the third time our meter has been changed since 1999;
every time they have arrived when they said they would and they have
been pleasant, competent and read the meters correctly.

[ARW]

I cannot remember if it was the gas or electricity meter that was supposed
to be swapped and they failed to turn up.When I called them the excuse was
"it's a new build and we cannot find the address". Odd that as my house is
over 60 years old and I had been paying the metered bill that the meter
readers took for the last 10 years.

--
Adam

[Andy Burns]

m...@privacy.net wrote:

> The gas meter (locked away in the garage) was also changed around 15 years
> ago. it replaced one that measured in Cu metres with one in Cu ft, but the
> replacement does have a socket (network style) on it for remote metering,
> which isn't used.

My previous gas meter had an unused pulse output. but this was changed
for a smart gas meter (also with a pulse output) at the same time as my
smart electricity meter was fitted.

They are on opposite sides of the same wall, by rather than fit a 12"
cable between the two, the gas meter has a 10 year battery and transmits
its readings every 30 minutes to the electricity meter (powered from the
mains) which in turn transmits readings to the supplier by 2G mobile
phone network (at present, once a month) and by Wireless M-BUS to my
in-house display unit (every few seconds).

I'm half tempted to buy one of these to see what non-encrypted
information is flying about.

http://amber-wireless.de/406-1-AMB8465-M.html

But �55 is a bit steep for possibly nothing, my old CurrentCost box used
to spit out information in XML format to a serial port.

[Andy Burns]

Bill Taylor wrote:

> FWIW that's the third time our meter has been changed since 1999;

Since 1990, my electricity meter has been changed once, and my gas meter
twice.

[Another John]

OP here: thanks for all this feedback chaps: glad I asked! :-)

John

[Part Timer]

I have a friend who told me 4 years ago her meter was only recording
suspiciously low amounts (10s per quarter!) but she paid the bills on
time and no more was said. She owned the property and it had done this
since moving in. I'll have to ask if it's still there.

[John J Armstrong]

On Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:22:50 +0000, Bill Taylor <no...@invalid.com>
wrote:

>Our mechanical one was changed to electronic in 2008. At the beginning
>of January it was replaced it with the same type, the man who changed
>it said that they had problems with the LCD display becoming
>unreadable.
>
>FWIW that's the third time our meter has been changed since 1999;
>every time they have arrived when they said they would and they have
>been pleasant, competent and read the meters correctly.

I've been following this thread with interest. My daughter is in a
flat which is about six years old. The LCD display on her electric
meter recently became unreadable, constantly flashing "88888". She
got in touch with her supplier (EDF) who helpfully sent her a leaflet
explaining how to read the meter and telling her that a "flashing red
light on the meter was perfectly normal". After a lot of phone calls,
and emails over several weeks, she was told that someone would call to
fit a new meter last Thursday. On Wednesday evening she got a call
from EDF saying that as she was about to change supplier (quite true)
they would not be calling to change her meter, and she should take the
matter up with her new supplier.

They say they'll accept an estimated reading when she changes.

Any comments, please?

[ARW]

She should say that the flat has been empty since the last proper meter
reading.

--
Adam

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:30:29 -0800 (PST), harry wrote:

>> I've now changed suppliers and await developments!
>
> The supplier and the grid owner will not be the same company.

The "grid owner" only deals with the supply up to the cut out.

The company that you pay for your electricity is responsible from the cut
out to the CU tails, ie the meter and other associated connections. So
changing supplier (note supplier not supply) moves the responsiblity for
the meter etc from one company to another.

--
Cheers
Dave.

[ARW]

Huge wrote:

> What he said.

dennis will have a fit.


--
Adam

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article <6dcd6788-3a2e-4641...@g8g2000vbf.googlegroups.com>,

I worked on a remote meter reading project in late 1980s.
At that time, domestic meters were designed/specified with 40
year life. One of the reasons they couldn't use LEDs or LCDs
at that point was they didn't have a 40 year life. (It was the
first thing just about everyone who joined the project asked.)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[Terry Fields]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:56:36 +0000, Roger Mills wrote:

> On 23/02/2013 16:09, Lee wrote:
>> Just a practical point, photograph the meter showing the reading
>> immediately prior to removal and the same for the new one on
>> installation if its not zero.
>>
>> You know, like just in case ;)
>
> Very necessary! When my meter was changed a few years ago, the bloke who
> did it didn't have a clue how to read an analog meter, and recorded one
> digit as being higher than it actually was. When I argued with him, he
> reluctantly altered the card which he left with me but when I got the
> next bill, I saw that his original figure had been entered into the
> system. I did get the bill changed, but it was a lot of hassle.

I once had a meter with Normal and Low mileometer-type readouts.

One day the meter reader inserted the wrong values into his box, and I got billed for £6000.

It took *two years* to sort out, and then it was only because a nice young lady in the call centre spent an entire
afternoon chasing readings through the now-defunct system used at the time, these being incompatible with the
new system.

--
Terry Fields