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Hello!

I am in the process of getting my THTC meters upgraded to a smart meter but have hit a brick wall of sorts. I’m waiting on advice from a private electrician, but figured there are some helpful people here who could confirm/deny my suspicions.


So after years of waiting, an engineer turned up to upgrade my meter, and I was quickly told it would not be possible, but was not really given any advice as to what to do. Later, Ovo has told me that there needs to be more room for the meter installation, so my plan as of now is to move the nearby consumer unit by about 5cm away from the meter, something a customer service advisor seemed to think might be enough. This might be costly but we’ll see.

 

The problem as I see it is that to do so, I assume the electrician will need to move the meters, and Ovo, to install a new meter, would need to move the consumer unit. i.e. neither side can touch the other’s equipment unless they’re both there at the same time? They are both on a probably plywood board (according to the last owner, although the Ovo installer thought it was plaster, and was very confused how a meter was installed on it), which is screwed into something but obviously I cannot unscrew it without messing with the meter/consumer unit. It is also on an interior wall, which the internet seems to suggest is already not allowed, but maybe was back in the early 2000s when these meters were installed.

 

It also seems to me that moving the meter to the right of the consumer units would probably solve any space issues, but I realise that is another large job that I’d have to pay Ovo for.

I’ve attached a picture of the wall with the meters and the consumer units. The top consumer unit is directly attached to the plaster wall, and the bottom one on the same probably plywood board as the meters.

I’m wondering if anybody can clarify what the issue might be as the new meter is not substantially larger than the current one?

 

 

 

Someone else might have more detail but as far as I’m aware, the meter swap will involve removing both current units and replacing with a single with multi outputs. 
As your set up is rather neat but much of the wiring hidden, it may be that the set up that you show has wiring hidden behind the backboard and the engineer will need to access both meter feeds 

(the cables below both meters), to be able to fit. 
Is there access behind at all? Although very neat, I’ve not seen anything like this before. 
There will have to access to the main fuse (incomer) which doesn’t appear in your photo .. might it be behind the boarding?

It looks like with both existing meters out of the way, there should be room for the new meter to fit but isolation (they don’t work live) and access to cables look to be the main issues

It looks to me like the upper CU may also need moving to the right?

At the moment the corner of it is directly above the meter where you would expect the new communications hub to go, or maybe not if the new meter can be positioned lower down..

Hey all, 

 

Just a note from me I made a small edit to the photo uploaded as it looked like it contained personal information. I added a little cover on it and re-uploaded it so there’s no confusion 😊

Ah. Sorry for the personal info in the photo. I should have checked.

 

There is a main fuse in a meter box outside by the front door. There's nothing else in it, and the engineer did quickly look in there during the visit.

Access to behind the meters is a relative mystery. I've never unscrewed the panel (the screws are painted over) and doing so would move the meters / put strain on the wiring unless I disconnected the meters from the wires coming from the main fuse, which presumably I'm not allowed to do.

Installing the meter in the DNO box outside would probably be the most elegant solution but I'm not sure how much space there is as I don't have a key, and that would be a meter move rather than a straight swap.

I suspect it's access to the cables coming in from the fuse that's the issue but that doesn't appear simple to remedy.

Ah. Sorry for the personal info in the photo. I should have checked.

 

There is a main fuse in a meter box outside by the front door. There's nothing else in it, and the engineer did quickly look in there during the visit.

Access to behind the meters is a relative mystery. I've never unscrewed the panel (the screws are painted over) and doing so would move the meters / put strain on the wiring unless I disconnected the meters from the wires coming from the main fuse, which presumably I'm not allowed to do.

Installing the meter in the DNO box outside would probably be the most elegant solution but I'm not sure how much space there is as I don't have a key, and that would be a meter move rather than a straight swap.

I suspect it's access to the cables coming in from the fuse that's the issue but that doesn't appear simple to remedy.

As you suggest, this isn’t going to be straightforward at all. 
As long as the engineer can isolate the supply (via the main fuse) then the rest can be worked on. Perhaps once isolated, someone can get access to the area behind the meters and see if the cabling can be adjusted to suit the new meter terminal configuration. 

I can imagine there will be coordination required between the DNO, OVO and an electrical engineer. Tricky

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