Electrician help required ASAP!

[Hjb2410]

After some urgent help.

We have just moved into a property and E ON our gas and electricity supplier have come out to install smart meters.

Electricity was turned off however can get everything back on except the sockets and now the boiler has stopped working.

The electrician said it's a fault on the line and not their fault so our responsibility to resolve.

Is it our responsibility or not? As if they hadn't come everything would still be working!

The guy is sill here so would appreciate some help/ advice as soon as possible! It would be appreciated

[bobs123]

If it happened just after fitting the smart meters they should fix it

[dementedpixie]

Did you ask for the smart meters? I certainly wouldn't get them yet as this generation of smart meters revert to dumb ones if you change supplier.

[Hjb2410]

@bobs123
Thanks that's what I thought!

He's tried putting the original meter back on to see if that works but even that won't work; so in that case it definitely should be their responsibility to resolve and not ours right?

[bobs123]

Or tell them to reinstall the old ones. Are they next generation meters anyway that will allow all companies to read if you change?

[bobs123]

Whoops cross post. Don’t know what to suggest then

[bobs123]

Fuse board problem?

[Hjb2410]

He's now saying 'I can't see anything I've done that causes this to be faulty'

Argh absolute disaster! So annoyed!

[PigletJohn]

Please post some photos of the consumer unit (with the lid open) and the meter, and all the cables around and between them, and any other items nearby.

How old is the house and wiring?

[Hjb2410]

@PigletJohn I think this is what you asked for? Let me know if not.
We now have no boiler working either so no hot water or heating :(

[Hjb2410]

@pigletjohn House was built 1970s ish so wiring I'm presuming is around then too

[PigletJohn]

the consumer unit is newer than that.

Are the lights working?

I see you have two RCDs. Each will control the five MCBs to its left. Are either of these sets of 5 working?

Try pressing the yellow "test" button on each RCD. It should click off. Then push the lever fully down to off, them fully up to on, see if that does anything.

I think you are pretty sure going to need an electrician. Unless you already know a good one, look at the labels stuck to the CU in case one shows the installer, or look on www.niceic.com/ or one of the other Certification bodies.

Please take more photos showing the meter, and the cables between and around the meter and the consumer unit, and any other connected items.

[PigletJohn]

have you got any sockets working? For example one on a cooker switch?

Is your boiler plugged into a socket, or hard-wired to a connection unit?

[PigletJohn]

p.s.

presumably you know that the second MCB from the right, with its lever down, is switched to the "off" position?

[johnd2]

Firstly he should be able to test his part to know whether his work has any issue.
Secondly if his work had a problem nothing would work, so if it's just the sockets it's an issue downstream of the main switch.
My guess is either there's a loose connection in the socket circuit that has been disturbed by the meter exchange, or that tripped MCB that piglet john has found is the sockets one and just needs switching on. But I'd have thought the meter operatve would have at least had that level of knowledge, even if they're not allowed to touch the customer's equipment.

[PigletJohn]

well that's funny

I can see three more pictures that I couldn't see before.

As expected, and as john says, the meter and isolator look very simple, either they'll work (for everything) or they won't. They don't divide up into socket circuits and others, all that is in your CU.

Unless perhaps you had a high-resistance connection, when it might work OK for lighting, but drop down (perhaps with a fizzing noise) if the load increased when you turned on, say, a cooker or an electric heater. Such a fault is most improbable in the electricity supplier's 25mm meter tails and their clamp terminals, which are very large. It's much more likely to be in your CU or house wiring. If all the sockets have stopped working, more likely to be in the CU than in the wiring because of UK design practice.

My question about the boiler was because, if the sockets circuit is out of action, it may be possible to run the boiler off some other circuit (the load is very low, 3Amps or less), sometimes by running an extension lead. The electrician will understand this, if you mention it.

If, as seems likely, you have a CU fault, then an electrician is by far the best bet, as there is a danger of shock.

[johnd2]

"can see three more pictures that I couldn't see before."
Me too, must have been down before.

My comment on those would be that's not a smart meter is it? Looks like a bog standard basic one. Did they change it to a brand new basic meter in the end?

[wowfudge]

This is a weird one because those first three photos definitely weren't showing when the OP started the thread. The MCB which is off is labelled 'sockets' by the look of things.

[Hjb2410]

Sorry for my delayed response in this.

We got a private electrician out and he checked everything and said that there is multiple faults in the circuit potentially due to corners being cut. During his visit he managed to get some of our sockets working but not all of them, so is due to come out again.

He said if we had had a power cut exactly the same would have happened it's just coincidence that it was when e-on attempted to fit the smart meters.

So frustrating as an electrician owned this property beforehand!

In the end e on reverted back to a big standard meter and I don't think I will be bothering with smart meters....