Electicity Meter Tails

[Jason Pearce]

Seven years ago I replaced my consumer unit myself. Man from LEB came round to do disconnect/reconnect. On the reconnect, he pointed out my meter tails to the consumer unit were only 16mm and so removed the 100A service fuse that was there and installed a 60A fuse.

I have decided its about time to change the meter tails to 25mm and ask for the service fuse to be changed back to 100A.

I have spoke to so many people, including my supplier several times and no-one seems to be able to help me.

One person I spoke to told me that I need my supplier to arrange the meter seal to be removed and to get a quote from McNicolas to change the fuse.

In the good old days, one man did two jobs !

Has anyone got any idea of how on earth I go about this (apart from being naughty and doing it myself by breaking the seal on the meter) ?

I live in the "old" LEB area if any has got any suggestions !

Cheers.....

[Ed Sirett]

Go on be a devil you know it makes sense. Google the subject & you'll see that current practice is a toital free for all with complete and utter chaos reigning.

[a]

good to hear - I did this at the weekend :o) I changed the CU and was just going to gonnect the new 25mm tails to the old 16mm with a henley block - but when I got to that part of the job just thought "sod it, rip the old ones out altogether" so broke the meter seals and did the job properly. As has been said previously, if you wanted to steal electricity you could do it just as easily by breaking the main fuse seals - so if you break them (and the elec companies dont seem to mind that) then breaking the meter seals isnt really any worse.

[John Armstrong]

Don't know if it is normal, but looking at my meter, it has seperate seals on the tails connection part and the numbers part so you could unseal the tails withou toughing the rest.

But for the other part of the OPs question, would a 100A main fuse be easy for the man in the street to get hold of?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, from any electrical wholesaler, although there's more than one type. However, you mustn't do this yourself. The supply needs to be checked for suitability, and your earthing and CU needs to be checked, and all the tail terminals will likely be retightened. The type of main fuse (typically BS1361 or BS88) will depend on the prospective short circuit current. The fact you had one there before is irrelvant.

[Steve Walker]

When I changed my consumer unit (working live with proper gloves), the meter reader noticed the change and the supply company came out to uprate the fuse (and fuseholder) free of charge, without me even contacting them (that was about 10 years ago though).

Steve W

[Peter]

25mm tails are bigger than the conductors in the mainss supply cable.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. The rather old one in my house appears to be the equivalent of around

16mm.

[TimD]

I just had the electricity board replace the cable between my main fuse and the meter, because the old earth was inadequate.

They put a new 100A fuse next to my meter and connected in the new tails that I had put in previously. Didn't seem to bother them at all about the seals on the meter being missing, although everything is sealed now. What is interesting though, is that they left the original

60 A fuse where the supply comes into the house. Hopefully I am never going to be drawing this much current unless there is a fault, so I cannot see this as an issue.

I would suggest that you fit an isolator between the meter and your consumer unit. This will then allow you to change the CU in the future.

[Jason Pearce]

25mm tails are those recommend in the OSG.

Jason