consumer unit

[andyd]

i am currently changing my consumer unit, after reading previous messages about final connection i phoned my electricity supplier to arrange to have the meter tails connected. The earliest date they could give me was 27/04 i explained this wasn't convenient the girl said that the electrician could make a 'temporary' connection and that they would 'come out on the 27th and re-seal it'. Is this temporary connection actually permanent or is there a a temporary method of connecting a consumer unit in general use

thanks

andyd

[Lurch]

On 5 Apr 2004 06:43:09 -0700, in uk.d-i-y [e-mail] (andyd) strung together this:

I think she was meaning that you could connect the new tails to the old tails with a henley block and then on the 27th the leccy board will come and remove the tails from the henley block and insert them in the meter and reseal it.

[Christian McArdle]

She was telling you to connect it up yourself. Then on the 27th, they'll fail to come out to seal it because they can't be bothered.

You connect it up in the normal way. Remove the main service fuse for safety whilst you do this. DO NOT WORK LIVE! You may need to break seals on the service fuse and the meter terminal cover. DO NOT break the main meter seal. A normal installation would use 25mm tails of less than 2m length. The tails are singles, grey sheathed, with red or black insulation underneath. If there is any weirdness in the design, you may need something different.

Christian.

[Harry Bloomfield]

andyd pretended :

The 're-seal' is indicating that they will not object if the seals are broken and the connections made by a qualified person, after which they will pop along at their leisure and reseal them. Only break the meter terminal seals and perhaps the one on the fuse to remove this, if your electrician doesn't feel safe working live.

[Arthur]

I hired a spark to connect up a ring circuit and install a new consumer unit. He broke the seal and taped his invoice over the unit for the meter reader to see.

The meter reader hasn't been around yet but I don't anticipate any problems.

Arthur.

[Steven Briggs]

In message , Christian McArdle writes

Whatever you do DO NOT tell the call centre staff YOU pulled the fuse. They don't like it and may try to charge you for the resealing.

Just mention you happened to notice the fuse seal were missing, would they like to come and seal it up sometime.....

(or get them to officially pull the fuse in the first place, but I doubt many people bother....)

[Christian McArdle]

It sounds to me like the call centre told him to break the seal. After all, that would be the only safe way to hook up the temporary connection that they advised, and they (and their insurers) would probably prefer you pulled the fuse rather than attempted to connect up a consumer unit live.

Christian.