Meter Engineer Complaining After Breaking Seals on Main Fuse Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[collectors]

Hi, a wile back we had an extension & some upgrades that needed a new/extra consumer unit. The very nice electrician had to break the seals on the main incoming fuse & the meter so he could fit new tails & a henley block for the new board. He did a great job & all is working fine.
We had someone around the other day to fit a new smart meter that didn't stop complaining about the seals been broken. If it wasn't for him leaving us without electric i would of thrown him out. Question is? what is the electrician meat to do in this situation & are there different rules in different areas??..

[Mr White]

No, same rule where ever you are.

You do NOT break the meter seals. You call the supply company and the will either do it for you (doubtful) or fit an isolator (probably)
If they wanted to they could prosecute the electrician, you or both.

[collectors]

[quote="Mr White"]No, same rule where ever you are.

You do NOT break the meter seals. You call the supply company and the will either do it for you (doubtful) or fit an isolator (probably)
If they wanted to they could prosecute the electrician, you or both.[/quote]
Thanks for getting back.
So you are saying every time an electrician rewires a house or changes a fuse board or replaces tails they have to call in the local electricity company to come in & fit an isolator switch because they are not allowed to break the seal on the main incoming fuse or the seal on the terminations at the bottom of the meter. Seems a bit of a faf for an NIC sparky to mess around with. Surely they would be better off supplying the electricians with some seals. Plus an extra box to tick on the test certificate.

[Mr White]

As I have said, that is how it should be done legally.

Some new meters have an internal isolation switch, just so you do NOT have to call them out.

What you have suggested at first sounds reasonable, but if you look outside of the box.
If electricians had access to meter seals, what would be the point of having meter seals, also it would be easy to get free electricity, which is why the supply companies can and do take people who tamper with the meter to court and win.

[ericmark]

What should be done and what is done are very different, The DNO should provide an isolator, but they rarely do, the electrician should not break seals, however the HSE state you should always isolate else where, so in theory before removing cover on the consumer unit it must be made dead, and in the main since there is no isolator that means breaking seals.

So in the real world electricians often break seals, and the normal is for house holder to then the DNO and say I have had an electrician in and I note seals are broken, do you want to replace them.

The point is you tell them and they think oh some thing happened and they have needed to remove power as an emergency we need to replace, however if you don't report they think oh has some one been stealing electric.

It does vary area to area, some DNO's just turn a blind eye, others are a bit nasty about it. Point is let him without sin throw the first stone.

[collectors]

[quote="ericmark"]What should be done and what is done are very different, The DNO should provide an isolator, but they rarely do, the electrician should not break seals, however the HSE state you should always isolate else where, so in theory before removing cover on the consumer unit it must be made dead, and in the main since there is no isolator that means breaking seals.

So in the real world electricians often break seals, and the normal is for house holder to then the DNO and say I have had an electrician in and I note seals are broken, do you want to replace them.

The point is you tell them and they think oh some thing happened and they have needed to remove power as an emergency we need to replace, however if you don't report they think oh has some one been stealing electric.

It does vary area to area, some DNO's just turn a blind eye, others are a bit nasty about it. Point is let him without sin throw the first stone.[/quote]

Good point. I will do as you say & inform my local supplier that my electrician pointed it out & must of been done in the past. Nod,Nod,wink. LOL

[KitchenGuy]

I am with Ericmark and others on this one. It used to be the norm for electricians to do this and a blind eye was just turned as it was easier for all concerned. I have noticed lately that that the suppliers have woken up to this being a good money spinner and offer a same day disconnect and reconnect service, for a price of course. Now it's in their own interest they are getting shirty about electricians doing it . We have Western Power distribution doing all supply work in our area and in fairness they are a good bunch of guys. When they call out they always seem happy to just fit an isolator for you. Easier for all concerned.

[brademylian]

How can I get in touch with you? One case happened to me like you had. Thanks

[ericmark]

This is a two year old post, there seems to have been a move to the house holder having an electrician fitting an isolator rather than the DNO fitting an isolator, so electrician fits the isolator the DNO swap supply from CU to isolator then the electrician connects consumer unit to isolator.

However as to who is in the wrong, the DNO for not fitting isolator or the electrician for drawing fuse would be for courts to decide, and I would think with court cases there is more involved than breaking seals, there is normally some thing which points to theft, be it a flash mark, or amount of power used, I don't know of a case where just the seal broken.

I know the seal was broken in my mothers house, I only noted it was broken when we came to sell it, and realised it must have been broken when we got it rewired, the meter must have been read some 5 or 6 times since broken, and it was never noted or fixed.

However I have noted readers do tend to take pictures so suppose they can look back to when first the seal was broken. And with smart meters it should send a report when power is lost, so they should even have the time when broken.

I think the DNO use common sense, and where there is a shining new CU fitted it is reasonable plain why the seal is broken, but if there is no work to be seen been done, then it would seem theft is likely.

[collectors]

At the end of the day, just request a re sealing of the meter. Anyone would be very unlucky if the local supplier wanted to take you to court. Is all they have to do is check the readings against past bills & assuming its within a certain percentage of previous readings they would be very unlikely to want to go down this route. But if there is a large difference in readings, then get prepared for some legal work.