Moving meters...again

[danw]

We are planning to knock down our garage and build a two storey extension in it's place.

Annoyingly, both our gas and electric meters are inside the garage. When the garage goes I would like the meters to be moved on to the front of the new extension.

How do we plan/cost this?

I understand that moving the meters alone is expensive. So I assume that it will be more expensive/complicated if we have to knock down the wall they are attached to before we build the wall they will move to? How do we and/or the utility companies deal with this?

Any ballpark figures for costs? Or numbers to call?

Thanks, Dan

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ask.

There are fees.

Usually by building a temporary location for them first and moving them there and then building around that in due course.

[Brian Gaff]

Someone I know was talked into moving them just once to a different location in the end, so I suspect they don't really want to move them twice! Brian

[djornsk]

My daughter recently had the gas meter moved to the outside of the property and it cost =A3800 including reconnecting inside the house.

I believe it was her supplier who put her in touch with the regional contractor who carried out the work which included replacing several metres of underground iron piping with the new polly pipe. Interestingly a good length of the polly pipe was stuffed inside the remaining street side iron piping to enable easy connection when the main street pipe is upgraded.

The piping from the meter was done by someone who worked for a separate company and he wore a gas safe badge bearing an extra endorsement for meter work.

I believe with electricity supply relocations that the first port of call is also the supply co.

J

[Tim Watts]

If the main supply cable has to be moved (I assume so) and your supplier are bastards, it would be wise to budget upto 1000 quid (yes, I had an estimate from EDF). No idea about gas.

Is your CU in the garage too?

It would certainly be expediant to try to move it once to a location on the existing house.

[Dave Liquorice]

Define "supply co.".

The company you pay for electricty they look after the meter(s) and connection to the main cut out.

The main cut out and supply cable is the responsibilty of the Distribution Network Operator (DNO).

These may or may not be the same company. Personally I'd try to involve these people only once. Partly from cost and partly because if your DNO is anything like ours (Electricity North West) they are a right pain to deal with. ENW won't send someone to look and advise until you have submitted full plans for what you want to do. But how do you draw up plans for a non-standard situation when the rules indicate that even the current installation is breaking them and changes just shift the rules you are breaking...

[js.b1]

Moving supply is costly.

Gas. Move 3m you can not use the DNO fuse to protect your meter tails, you must buy a switch fuse of 80-100A capacity which consists of a double pole isolator & BS1362 fuse holder (& fuse!). Then run say 25mm SWA 3-core to the new consumer unit location. Note some DNO will not let you use their board to house your switch-fuse, somewhat ridiculous considering some are huge and modern cutout & meters are tiny. A solution is to buy a waterproof external enclosure or another meter cabinet. If you have Economy 7 you either need another switchfuse for the E7 supply (using the DNO teleswitch timer & contactor) or use a single switchfuse and separate timer & contactor you provide & fit elsewhere.

A temporary location may be a separately chargeable job, unless the move is some distance in which case it may be priced into their survey.

The job will be done as "grid-side" and "post-grid" re two different people turning up, the days of =A3250 in the hand are gone in most places and they do keep records of locations (not re meter people, but if something goes wrong re a street problem and they need to access your meter - particularly gas).

Sewers etc. I assume there are no public sewers or 24" railway drains etc in the location. In which case they have their own requirements which can extend as far as paying to have them moved or using lintels to span over them so no load re subsidence parks on top of their drain.

Other factors likely to change the cost: If anyone elderly living there they must be able to access the ECV - Emergency Control Valve - for gas. This can mean you get a free meter move typically from an inside inaccessible cupboard re height to outside so at least someone can access it. That can save about =A31000 in the worst case scenario (elderly aren't good at digging trenches :-)

I have no idea what they do where the electric supply is a loop-in supply, that is to say where you receive a supply cable and the DNO runs another supply cable from your cutout to the neighbour. This "save a bit of copper" technique is no longer permitted, nor joints under driveways (and some take that to mean anywhere in the most extreme). I suspect they have to run a new cable to the street for the neighbour if you want to move the cable - not sure how that is charged.

So it is not cheap. Timeline is also a bit long, so plan accordingly.

[ARWadsworth]

Their board?

[js.b1]

heh heh. Some DNO did provide their own board and it was considered a favour if they let you put anything on Their Property.

Today you buy them a piece of chipboard, or something more akin to the old varnished plywood boards from CEF. The DNO then sticks their equipment on it - some (EDF? Manweb?) then refuse to allow you to fit your isolator "in our cupboard". Manweb used to specify the biggest barn board they could find, think they still do - 60x50cm wasn't it? I think the they assume ownership of the board, but that may have changed so when it is held on by less than the permitted 3 screws it becomes a chargeable job to repair it. Pass.

Most will let you stick an isolator, but not a large (commercial) switchfuse because it might deny them space for monitoring equipment. A bit odd considering the size of monitoring equipment & smart meters are not exactly Westinghouse sized art deco cast iron.

Colleague was refused permission to fit an isolator "to their board in their cupboard". Some time later the board was found to be slightly smaller with a separate board next to it, all re-mounted on standoffs, with an isolator on the separate board. The sod even spread the cutout, metering & cable around the board to prevent space. Forgetting the L1 & N labels in so doing. Not surprised people get bolshi.

[djornsk]

By supply co I meant the company with whom you have the contract to supply which in my daughters case was EON and all they did was to give us the details of the the company which does the street - side work and I can't remember whether it was national grid or central networks.

Plans were not an issue because she described what she wanted and a chap came out and just glanced inside the window when she was at work to get a rough idea and confirm that the work was within the 3 or so metre pricing bracket.

j