replacing or reinforcing external gas & electric meter boxes

[Al 1953]

Hi, I've just bought a house where the external gas and electric meter boxes are vandalised, smashed and detached from the wall. As these two white plastic boxes are close to each other, I'm thinking of building a brick housing with a steel door and padlock. That way, I guess it will be (a) more or less vandal-proof, and (b) better, because a potential burglar won't be able to easily turn off the juice to my security system before burgling the place.

Can anyone see any problems with this? Will the electric board and gas board meter reading guys have any problem with having to ring my doorbell in order to get the meter-housing door unlocked?

The steel door seems like tricky part of this project. A job for the local blacksmith, perhaps?

Thanks,

Alan

[Allan Mac]

Hi any of these any use

[fred]

In article , Al 1953 writes

I don't think you really need a steel door, you can go a long way to getting the same strength by making a beefy wooden door and frame, and capping both in thin steel sheet/strip which could be folded over the edge if you want it to resist being screwdrivered/jemmied open.

You might want to have a central divider between the gas & elec side with 2 small doors meeting in the middle. A single cheapo BS standard 5 lever deadlock lock (12quid) could provide the secure locking mechanism for both doors. If you have a triangular cam lock fitted too then you could agree to leave the doors unlocked if the meter readers need access (but don't expect much in the way on ingenuity).

Loads more ideas on this, post back if you're interested.

[The Medway Handyman]

Sorry to hijack your thread, but last week I was working outside a house where a new boiler had obviously been located in the loft. A 22mm copper gas pipe went along the outside wall for a good 15' then went upwards.

This was the wall next to the drive, so a vehicle could easily have damaged it. Is this in accordance with the regs? Seems like an accident waiting to happen to me. Better if it went upwards first, then along - although that would have been harder to install.

[Lobster]

ISTR someone posting here about a related issue not long ago; the utility co were refusing to install an external meter cupboard behind a side gate or something, although it was the obvious location from a plumbing viewpoint, preferring instead to route gas pipes all round the propert in order to have the meter cupboard accessible from the street?

So obviously they don't like inaccessible cupboards, but I don't know if that extends to having the access restricted *after* the meter cupboard has been fitted?

David

[Al 1953]

fred wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@y.z:

Perhaps you are right that I could achieve a good level of security with a solid wooden door. It does seem important to make the housing tamper-proof, because switching off my power supply would also switch off my security system, and my security system is very important., i.e., I'm actually

*expecting* a burglary attempt sooner or later...

Trouble is, the meter is located in a secluded driveway. It seems Achilles heel, security-wise. Perhaps I'd be better off just getting the electric board to bove the meter inside the house. There seems to be enough of the armoured cable above the ground to make this possible without much difficulty. Anyone know what they'd charge for that job?

Alan

[Al 1953]

Allan Mac wrote in news: [e-mail]:

None of them look terribly secure to me. To me, they all look as though they might be jemmyable. Thanks, though.

Alan

[NT]

Why not ask the supplier anonymously. I suspect they'd object on both counts, moving it inside or securing it.

NT

[ARWadsworth]

I am still waiting for the girlfriend to knock the gas meter off her wall as it is sticks out onto her driveway.

Adam

[fred]

In article , Al 1953 writes

Your choice of course but I reckon I could build something like that that would take as much time to get into as the house itself. Also, anything critical that I do in that sort of line has layered security, outer shell and door(s) alarmed then more secure inside that so that it would be a significant time before that was overcome, all while a response is being called for. With layered and battery backed up security and diallers to alert the outside world I don't see how losing power eventually is that big a deal.

[YAPH]

If the meter box is locked, and with it the emergency control valve, then you will have to arrange a secondary one (presumably inside the house) which is readily accessible and properly labelled in case of, er, emergency.

As for meter readers couldn't you let a window into the door? Wire-reinforced or laminated glass or whatever. Meter readers usually have torches. Probably an idea to let them see enough of the meters that they can see they haven't been tampered with.

And make the door opening large enough for meter changers etc to work inside the space. (I don't mean climb into it of course: just don't leave only 10mm clearance round the meters, pipework etc.)

As for juice for your security system aren't you going to have battery back-up?

[Al 1953]

YAPH wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thanks for the good suggestions. Battery backup, yes, but not for the security lights; they need 240 volts.

Al