Please help! Eletric meter moving costs. sob.

[showmethemummy]

we have just been quoted £3K to move our electricity meter about 1.5m ( if that) from where it currently sits.

apparently it's only the 'DNO' who can do this??? is this really true?

we live in tower hamlets in london.

yes.

It can be fairly dangerous work as the incoming supply cable upstream of your meter incomer is effectively unfused, and in the event of damage or bad handling, the damaged section will burn away and be quite spectacular.

So it has to be done with proper care, skill and protective equipment. The older your installation is, the worse. Old cables may contain bitumen, lead, waxed paper insulation, perished rubber, rusty steel armour and can't be bent or stretched, even though they may be perfectly safe if left where they are. Modern cables are much easier but it might be that your DNO has a flat rate. In some cases the cable has to be dug up and jointed.

Sometimes, if your meter is inside the house, the supplier will be more co-operative if you want it moved to a cabinet outside, where the meter reader can get at it more easily.

Ask your electrician if the main earth connection should be upgraded at the same time. It will be much more convenient than doing it separately.

thank you... we expected something around £2K because our new next door neighbour had virtually the same work done about 6 months ago.

thanks for posting.

OOI, how old do you you think the incoming mains cable is? Does it look like shiny black plastic, or is it wrapped in tarry metal spiral? Is it as fat as your finger, and covered in grey lead, or as fat as a sausage?

We paid £1500 two years ago, though we did get £500 of that back because they cocked up. And it took them less than 2 hours to do the job.
There was a month long waiting list here so bear that in mind.

We paid £400 for the electric meter - to be moved onto the outside of the house directly over the incoming cable
and £800 for the gas - ditto
between the two an hours work.

The work is often broken down into 2 areas, the groundworks to lay the trench for new cabling and then the meter move cost. I found the electrical guys were very difficult, jobsworth and totally uncooperative. We had a separate supplier to do the groundworks which was cheaper.

You have my sympathy..It's feels like a rip off and I suspect the profit margins on this work are very high.

In contrast I found the gas suppliers much more reasonable and accomodating.

£400
Yy to the jobsworths.
Inspector type takes pictures of the site and says ok to go ahead.
Engineer comes to do the job but refuses because there was scaffolding above him. Builder offered to take it down, still wouldn't do it.
Inspector comes again and oks the job after scaffolding was removed.
Engineer booked to come and do the job and doesn't turn up but says that he came and there was no one on site, even though there was a plumber and two builders here an I was working at home in the front bedroom with full view of the driveway at all times

Bear in mind that there was at least 2 weeks between each event above meanwhile ive got plumbers and builders waiting arfor the move. I got £500 back as compensation for all the messing around.

My electrician did it for me recently - he just turned off the head fuse (is that correct name?). He said he shouldn't but he couldn't bear to be arsed around by the electricity board.

We paid to have it moved in my first house and dug out a channel in the wall for the engineer to run the new cable up. We went out for some reason while he was doing it and when we got back found that he run the cable up the wall parallel to the channel agreed with his supervisor. My (rather excitable) dad was with me and got so shouty that the man ran to his van and refused to come back because he was "frightened about his health and safety". Eventually the electricity board sent round someone else who put it where it should be and even gave us some of their ludicrously over-inflated fee back.

sorry everyone i thought i'd exhausted all the replies - thank you very much for kindly replying though.

i have no idea what the cabling looks like unfortunately... but

today i had confirmation that we will be charged £2847. my neighbour next door had the same work done less than a year ago (we're even using the same builders and architect/design company) and theirs cost.... £1984. WTH

We were quoted in the region of £1500-£2000 to move our metre approx 1m, we wanted to move it as its really fugly. In the end we got a lovely carpenter to design a cabinet to cover it, not ideal but it will look a lot better. This may not help if you need to move it for reasons other than aesthetics of course!