My smart meter couldn't be installed because of an earth cable - Why?

Well done for persistence @mikeb :)

I realise that the helpful member of OVO staff in Customer Services is going to "feed this back", but it would probably be more helpful if the relevant Dept could have their attention drawn to this Forum Topic.

After all... this is a safety issue!

... and you've helpfully quoted from the relevant regulations.

The Moderators would know who to notify about the issues raised here. @Nancy_OVO are you able to send an internal message to a relevant person, please?

Hi @Transparent and @mikeb,

I'm not an expert in industry regulations, so I've asked our Legal team for more information about this and I'll update everyone once they've responded.

Nancy

Thanks @Nancy_OVO,

Coincidentally, I had a visitor here yesterday who writes British Engineering Standards Documents! I was able to show him this Thread and his opinion was that there was an unspecified area between the tasks expected of a Meter Installer and an electrician.

However, as it's a matter of public safety, it is vital that this is resolved urgently. There are probably already several hundreds of Smart Meter Installations where the earth-bonding to the gas pipe has been compromised but the householder is unaware of this.

My view is that Ofgem should be alerted and ask for guidance. After all, they're the industry Regulator. It's their role to regulate!

Hello again @Transparent, @PeterR1947, @mikeb and @Geo!

I've contacted our Compliance & Regulations team and our Engineering Operations Managers to get some more information on this and I've been advised the following:

Engineers are not permitted to re-position, alter or extend bonding without the required qualification - Equipotential Bonding (PEB1). The reason being, they're unable to test the bonding is in working order once the circuit has been broken.

I've also been advised that we have been looking into the possbility of providing this training, but we need to weigh up the benefit (being able to complete more jobs) against the cost of retraining all our engineers. Our figures show that we don't abort many jobs due to Earth Bonding posing a problem, so it may not be the right thing to do commercially.

Compliance & Regulations pointed out a section of our Terms and Conditions regarding meter maintenance:

"6.2 You are responsible for ensuring your property has an appropriate credit meter or prepayment meter installed that meets all the following requirements:
(a) it is capable of measuring the energy supplied to your property;
(b) maintenance and legal compliance checks are carried out for all pipes, equipment, wires and other fittings; and
(c) it is suitable and meets industry standards for safety and accuracy

6.3 You are responsible for ensuring that your metering equipment is not lost, stolen or damaged. In this contract metering equipment means the meter itself and all equipment required to operate your credit meter or prepayment meter."

Hope this helps clear things up,
Nancy

Thanks very much for pursuing this @Nancy_OVO. I appreciate what you've written and the time put into this by other OVO staff.

For the sake of clarity for others trying to follow this:-

I think it's important to realise that simply replacing the earth bonding onto a gas pipe doesn't mean that it's effective. The Installer would also need to test that the other end of the earth wire is correctly connected to the same earthing point used by the Consumer Unit, and that this had a properly installed route to earth, either via an earth stake or through the neutral of the incomer (PME supplies).

If an Installer simply replaced an earth bond which was there when he arrived, it would give the home-owner an assurance that all was safe, when in fact it might not be so.

So I understand why OVO's Engineers and legal bods are taking the stance they are.

Nevertheless, I still think that there should be Written Notification of the need to have earth-bonding tested on three occasions:

• Online when a customer books a Smart Meter installation
• By email or post once the booking is confirmed
• By hand from the Installer when he attends on-site

That would bring a fair balance to the interests of OVO in not being held liable for the status of the Earth Bond, and the responsibility of the Owner/Occupier to maintain a safe installation within their home.

I really don't think customers are going to be looking up Sections 6.2 & 6.3 of OVO's T&C's when requesting a Smart Meter installation!

I have to confess I've given up - I've spoken to electrician and gas business owners through my networking contacts - these are professional friends who all think this is a complete comedy that your employees or outsourced contractors are completely hamstrung by your own internal politics.

Whilst they are friends I won't ask them to work for free to fix an issue which your installers should be undertaking anyway. Frankly if you (OVO) have a smart meter which is bigger than any other suppliers meter (and it should be a standardised size anyway!!) then its your problem not mine. I'm over half way through my contract and frankly I'm not paying any more money for stuff to be done to fix a non-existent issue in my eyes. I'll simply just move to a different supplier to get a smart gas meter again.

From all this discussion there are three key learning points for you:

You need to (a) train your engineers to do the basics (b) insure them to do so and (c) change the meter so that its smaller so you match other suppliers sizes which will save you 80% of the aggro of having a larger meter when it comes to install time.

Firstly @Geo I'd like to thank you for raising this Topic on the Forum in the first place.

I am continuing to have discussions with gas-fitters and electricians about the secondary issue of Equipotential Bonding. In my area of rural Devon, it seems that very few houses have installations that have been checked and certified for compliance.

I have yet to find anyone local to me who has had a Smart Meter installed, where the earth bonding was even raised as a issue. It wouldn't surprise me if more than half of these installations have been completed despite the earth-bonding regulations having not been complied with.

And yet, you would have expected the opposite... that the Smart Meter installation would be an opportunity to bring domestic properties up to the basic safety standards!

Returning to your primary point about the physical size of a meter:

I have never seen a gas meter as small as the one you showed in the photo at the start of this Topic.

There may well actually be a standard for a maximum size. I need to check this.

But if a previous installer has fitted a smaller than average meter, then of course this can create a problem when that meter needs to be changed at a later date.

What's required is a standard "envelope" of 3D space which should be left around a meter such that any exchange can be done effectively. This envelope would also incorporate the designated positions for the support bracket and connections of course.

Such a standard does already exist for the manufacture of external wall mounted meter-boxes (both flush- and surface-mounted designs).

This isn't just an OVO problem. It's industry-wide.

@Transparent The existing smart meter is a British Gas one.

The space around my meter is actually quite substantial despite the carpet needing a trim in the photos, which I've now done. The OVO meter is so large though that even in what I would call a moderate environment it can't be fitted apparently.

I understand the idea of regulations and the principal behind the earth bond but I fail to see why the engineers can't just move it, its just a simple wire with a fastening buckle, its not hugely substantial a task - they are qualified to install what is an electrical item to the gas mains so moving them them should form part of basic training and ergo the insurance if that's the real problem.

I'd have more sympathy if my issue involved re-piping the gas meter and soldering new parts to it - that's above and beyond a smart meter install but a five minute job moving a wire is frankly what I'd expect any self respecting engineer to be able to do. (and actually what my networking professional contacts say should have been done - they are all time served gas/electric engineers and work on large and small domestic and commercial properties I'm not kidding when I say they were extremely bemused by this thread.)

This seems to be a handy excuse for OVO not meeting the government target for installing smart meters.

"Sorry, Guv the homes were not built properly".

Also, knowing these additional costs it is wrong for the smart meters to be advertised as "free".

A choice was made to not train or insure the smart meter installers to do all the electrical and gas work necessary to install the smart meters.

Have all the energy companies made this decision in this way or just OVO?

At the very least OVO should be issuing a spec or dwg for its customers to issue to their electrician so we are sure of fulfilling OVO self-imposed requirements.

Thanks for raising this again @Solarpayz

As I now understand it, the issue isn't primarily about the state of the earth bonding connection adjacent to the gas meter. Rather, it is the unknown state of the rest of the earth bonding within the rest of the house.

The Meter Installer isn't qualified or authorised to check that the earth bonding system is adequately connected to the appropriate earth point. In fact, the Installer doesn't even carry the equipment required to perform such checks.

The earth bonding used in UK houses isn't uniform. Some houses must have their own earth stake, whilst those fed from a sub-station designed for PME should not have their own stake unless the DNO identifies that one is required.

Failure to implement the correct system can have serious consequences. If a stake is added to a PME installation, then a fault in the neutral feed can leave houses beyond that point with their own "earth" floating at 80v or above. This would cause electric shocks, and possibly fire.

I have visited a site where an Energy Supplier had subcontracted a Smart Meter installation to a company which had not instructed its engineers on this issue. He had installed a fresh earth wire to a new copper-clad stake outside the front door, which also lacked the required test-point at the top. In fact the reason there appeared to be insufficient earthing to the property was because of corrosion on the decades-old feed entering the property.

Local electricians working in an area know about these matters and have the right test-gear. They are also aware of when they need to notify the DNO for that region and request that they attend on-site to make good damaged feeds.

Where I do agree with you is that there should be an OVO-issued Notice at the time when a customer books a Smart Meter installation. This would provide adequate warning of the possible problem, and allow the householder time to get an electrician to do an earth-test. If, at that time, the inspection finds that the equipotential bond is not within the correct distance of the gas meter, then it can be moved.