Hi All,
I’ve been told by another supplier (pre OVO) that I couldn’t have a smart meter because of the way the houses in my small terrace (4) were set up. I was told that the engineer would need access to all 4 houses at the same time!
Has anyone else heard of this. or could someone explain?
Cheers
Dome
Best answer by MGreenwood
Updated on 08/08/24 by Shads_OVO
It could be you have a looped neutral. See Q and A on this page: The Roll-out of Smart Meters: Smart Metering - The full story.
Relevant Q & A:
A looped neutral is sometimes used when you have two or more meters next to each other in a property. Instead of being wired up directly to a neutral block, the neutral is wired in series from meter to meter, so they all share the same neutral cable. This means that removing the neutral from one meter will potentially remove the neutral connection from others too.
Meter installers will not replace a meter which has a looped neutral because it will require every property on the looped neutral to be de-energised. Ideally the neutrals need rewiring, so each meter has its own independent connection to a neutral point. The industry needs to clarify who is responsible for this work.
Hi
We’ve had a similar topic but I think your situation is slightly different to the solution our engineer eluded to here:
Are the meters located in a shared room? Often this shared meter room is locked and the engineer would need access to it. Can you share a picture of the meter and the area around it and we can go from there?
Updated on 08/08/24 by Shads_OVO
It could be you have a looped neutral. See Q and A on this page: The Roll-out of Smart Meters: Smart Metering - The full story.
Relevant Q & A:
A looped neutral is sometimes used when you have two or more meters next to each other in a property. Instead of being wired up directly to a neutral block, the neutral is wired in series from meter to meter, so they all share the same neutral cable. This means that removing the neutral from one meter will potentially remove the neutral connection from others too.
Meter installers will not replace a meter which has a looped neutral because it will require every property on the looped neutral to be de-energised. Ideally the neutrals need rewiring, so each meter has its own independent connection to a neutral point. The industry needs to clarify who is responsible for this work.
+1That definitely sounds like a Looped Neutral to me. If you ask your DNO nicely, they can usually send an engineer around for free to double check for you.
Thanks all, Yes a looped neutral does explain it, and sounds similar to what the last engineer (it was a while ago) tried to explain.
I guess I'll have to wait and see as to who is responsible fir sorting it all out.
Cheers
Dome
The meter is in my house, not shared cupboard or anything like that. The looped neutral seems the most likely situation. Does this mean a smart meter isn't possible?
+1Getting one isn’t totally impossible forever, but you’ll need to resolve the looped neutral issue first. Once that’s done, you can get a smart meter upgrade without any further disruption to your neighbours.
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