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Storeys?
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16 years ago
Part P - tell the truth
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16 years ago
If it's any of the greenie organisations, quite a lot, I imagine.....
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16 years ago
Especially as a "fifth" also means a bottle of spirits in Septicstan.
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16 years ago
This issue has been discussed here many times and the general view has always been to go ahead and break the seal and just plead ignorance in the unlikely event that it's ever pointed out... I'm not aware of a single instance where anyone's ever got into trouble over doing it - are you?!
David
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16 years ago
Quite so. The attitude, which can only be applauded, seems to be that they would far rather the fuse be pulled, if the work is going to be done anyway, than put life at risk.
Chris
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16 years ago
When I was doing the Part P consultative response, I asked my local supply network maintainer if I could talk with one of their engineers, and this came up in conversation. They are worried someone is going to get badly burned or killed as a result of not pulling the main fuse. When this happens, there is a thought that HSE will require retrospectively fitting isolators to all supplies, which would cost the industry a fortune. Consequently they generally seem to turn a blind eye, and in some areas they have been fitting isolators for free on request (sometimes you have to provide the isolator). He did say never ever touch the seals on the meter.
When I've pulled a main fuse, I've called up afterwards to ask for it to be resealed following CU change. There must be a check box against a customer account to say this needs doing, as when I called back a year later to remind them, they said it was already marked for the meter reader to do it. Nearly 10 years and many meter reader visits later, they have never resealed it.
On another case where the actual meter reading had drifted a long way from the estimates due to not having seen a meter reader for over 15 years, I decided not to break any seals as it might raise an unwarranted concern about fraud.
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16 years ago
Unlikely unless there are other signs of interference.
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16 years ago
Na, that's a carpet seller.
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16 years ago
Not really. Those who do this sort of thing to steal electricity always give themselves away by the dramatic drop between bills. Which is what sets off warning bells. ;-)
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16 years ago
The message from Lobster contains these words:
Trouble .........?
Not exactly TROUBLE but quite a number of years ago I was going to put in a ring main into our holiday cottage to replace the only power sockets in the house, with the exception of the socket on the cooker control -- a single radial circuit with two 13 amp sockets. I asked the friendly local engineer here (not the same area, but the same supply company) and he advised along the lines you've suggested, then tell them once the job was done, saying, if questioned, to tell them he'd said to do so. He reckoned that they might at some point in the future reseal it.
Telling them, I guess, was the mistake.
Did the job, checked it and all the other circuits out with the megger and phoned the local engineers who got me out of bed early the next morning and before they resealed the company fuse they did a full test of all the wiring in the house. It passed :-). However, since then the same house has acquired the extra company fuse in an inaccessible and none-too-obvious location.
Also had a tremendous altercation with a dimwitted Scottish & Southern "engineer" over an unsealed company fuse on commercial premises last year.
Obviously the ethos varies from place to place.
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16 years ago
The message from Chris J Dixon contains these words:
The attitude, if general, is laudable. However, it's not universal :-)
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16 years ago
The message from snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) contains these words:
But might nonetheless be a logical and appropriate provision. It wouldn't cost a fortune if it were done in conjunction with the change of meter when that became necessary.
Fair enough. Though that raises interesting questions about meter tails when the CU is changed.
Hmm .......... was the meter not outwith the validity of the calibration period?
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16 years ago
What interesting questions? If you're referring to the demarcation point between what's theirs and what's yours, that's quite clear: if the DNO or supplier provides an isolator then the supply terminals are at the outgoing side thereof, otherwise they are at the consumer's side of the meter.
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16 years ago
The message from Andy Wade contains these words:
It was the turning of a blind eye to the breaking of the seal on the company fuse, but not turning a blind eye to the breaking of the seals on the connection block on the meter that I was referring to.
When I changed the CU on a building during a power cut, I would preferred to replace the meter tails with modern ones. Reusing the existing ones poses no immediate hazard, but they are woefully short of modern spec. So when changing a CU, what use is it the supply company turning a blind eye to breaking the seal on the company fuse if it still doesn't allow the upgrading to modern meter tails because you can't break the seal on the meter terminals?
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16 years ago
Because breaking the seal on the compnay fuse is one thing. Breaking the seal on the meter terminals is a prerequisite to shorting the meter out so it doesn't register...
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16 years ago
Well, they're yours, but you can't necessarily get to them. Some newer meters apparently have a separate cover so you can get to them, but I haven't seen one.
They wouldn't reach in one case, so I ran them into a Henley block and extended with about 12" of new tails.
No one's read it other than me for 20 years now.
The gas meter has seemingly come up for routine replacement (which is also at least 20 years old). A couple of years ago, BG arranged to come and change it, but never showed up. They have tried to arrange a few more appointments but I'm not wasting another day waiting for them -- they have to wait until they can organise a date when I'm going to be at home for some other reason.
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16 years ago
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:57:57 GMT, a particular chimpanzee, Lobster randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
It has everything to do with it.
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16 years ago
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:55:32 -0800 (PST), a particular chimpanzee, al randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
Not 'Part P' as such; their Regulations are different in oh! so may ways, and I don't think they have 'Parts', just 'Standards'. AFAIK, electrical safety is one of those standards and has been for a lot longer than in England & Wales, but how or whether it's enforced by Building Control, I don't know.
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16 years ago
Or to fitting new tails when changing a CU...
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16 years ago
Er, yes, but that's not relevant to the question which related to why the electricity co. overlooks removing the fuse seal, but frowns on removing the meter seal.
Rumble