The smart meter installer arrived, assessed the task, deemed it too complex, and disappeared without completing the job. @OctopusEnergy #smartmeter #smartmeters
@@stuartcraigon2003 I agree, that's how it should be, but in reality we have BT engineers, gas engineers, even guys that deliver and fit household appliances are called "engineers" 😉
I'm a building engineer. But more in the sense that Geordi LaForge is an engineer. I don't hold a degree but I have 20 years of experience doing trades work. I'd never claim to be anything other than a building engineer however because of the lack of degree.
I think the term 'engineer' is getting used too often when actually not appropriate . A more correct time would be 'fitter' or 'person with a sense of self importance coupled with delusions of adequacy'
I'm a qualified spark but I work mostly on fire alarms and I cringe when others refer to themselves as Fire Alarm Engineers". Technicians, we are technicians
Lots of US states have laws that prevent the frivolous use of the term "engineer." You must be a licensed professional engineer before calling yourself such.
@geoffh1 I don't have a PE but do have a degree and my job title is electrical engineer. That being said, my feelings of inadequacy make me hesitant to call myself such. 😂 I have heard that though. I think it's probably most important in civil. I even sign prints or I'd say that would be the one thing you can't do without a PE.
Back in the old days when we had electricity boards Meters were fitted by meter inspectors. These guys were all time served electricians and were very strict on what they connected. Oh, how we have advanced 😂
'Time served' is a much miss-used term these days. It used to mean that a recognised indentured apprenticeship had been completed, leading to qualification. Now, it mostly means 'I've been doing this job for ages, Mate.'
I'm a meter fitter. The standard of work even 10 years ago was horrific. The installs I pull out from the pre 2000s are always a mess with exposed lives etc.
@Priza25 it all started after the regional boards were privatised. Late 80s early 90s As an Electrical Inspector I've generally found the standard dropped considerably from 1995 to 2010. There's many different reasons for this sadly. Lack of proper apprenticeships and profit being certainly major driving forces for this
My mate worked for british gas for years doing insualtion. He got a promotion, put on a 2 week residential course at BGs training centre, and was out working as a dual fuel meter fitter the week after... I personally have had first hand experience at work of a smart meter fitter disconnecting 6 earth clamps for the gas bond and just left them hanging in the external meter box. I was pissed as i had just completed all the remedial work following the eicr. Now im not proud of this, but I grassed on him and called up his company to let them know he had left the whole block without main gas bonding. Sorry meter lad but if you are not aware of your mistakes, how can you learn from them 🤣
Safe isolation would be done at the cutout anyway. Remove the fuses, test lamp on the live side to prove test lamp. Test on the load side for isolation. Retest test lamp on live side. Safe isolation proved. The meter cover should not be removed until safe isolation proved. Is it that hard, he was scared of 3 phase 😂
It's not about being scared of 3 phase I bet he wasn't 3 phased trained and just thought it was a multi rate meter which can look identical and didn't realise until he was too far in unfortunately the supplier's information is often lacking and rather than miss an appointment or call the customer they will send an engineer who can't work on the job but gather info and rebook the job, but to cut the seals before working out if you can start the job and then to leave it unsealed is poor
@@gavin1834 It does say "Polyphase Energy Meter" right on the top. And there's L1, L2, L3 lines. I'm not an electrician at all but I could tell you it's 3-phase. It says "3 x 230 / 400V" by the CE mark toward the bottom too. Three dead giveaways, if I didn't know how to wire 3-phase (and I don't, not being an electrician) I'd walk away without touching it, at least I wouldn't have done any harm.
Absolute nonsense the meter engineer was completely correct, there is no way to isolate the board which meant he would likely pull and install all three fuses on load , dangerous to him and all the appliances etc fed from the board, only issue is he should have resealed the meter and cutout. I am a Mocopa Instructor.
It's 3 phase and it's also a black cut-out. It would be a bit different if it was single phase because less power means less risk. Pulling fuses is a risk within itself especially that amount of power without safe isolation
we had an electric shower installed and so needed an RCD fitting to the circuit (rather than removing the whole consumer unit). a year later someone came from the supplier to install a smartmeter, unfortunately our shower developed a fault a few months down the line and so we called an electrician.. apparently because supplier engineer couldnt fit in the necessary parts for the smart meter so they just bypassed the RCD and never told us, it wasnt until the next electrician came along he pointed out how dangerous this was. good job it didnt fail with someone in it.
I always remember when I was doing my solar course years back at maybe the biggest training company in Devon/Cornwall, seeing a group of people in the next classroom start on the Monday and then on the Friday given tool box, uniforms and a bright yellow van (EDF) and sent on there way to install smart meters across the south west! Terrifying really and definitely not engineers!
@@bmurdoch85 not a story, this was in 2018 so might be different now. You’re obviously a meter installer and you might have done it differently. But I know what I saw and even asked the lecturer at the college soooo 🤪
@@Beariam24 my point is you made out people arrived on a Monday and by a Friday were qualified to fit meters. Unless they were qualified already and that was their induction it’s not physically possibly. The ACS for gas safe alone takes a week..
About 2 years ago, my neighbour got a smart meter. I'd a look after it was fitted. About 40 years previously, he'd built a shed at the end of his garden and run a 2.5 t+e from the old meter to a fuse unit in the shed. The smart meter installer put a switch disconnect in his meter cabinet and connected both the 10mm house tails and 2.5 t+e into it....presumably backed up by an 80 amp supply fuse.
It’s perfectly legal to connect a 2.5mm directly to the incomer provided it is adequately protected before any loads are connected, absolutely not the way I would do it but its in accordance with the regs, well maybe not at this distance but over a short distance it is.
Energy suppliers are not responsible for DIYers electrics. The 2.5mm was there before the smart meter installer turned up and therefore he left it safer by installing a double pole isolator.
@@T_Perkins yeah they're basically garbage. Plastic junk you can't torque with a screw clamp with the brass barrel. plastic connectors would never work in America UL standards
Quick, pull the fuses and put a proper isolator in. It's a bit odd as isolation switches was an issue as they are not common on older installs. Obviously an inexperienced installer. The installer who did our smart meters had no issue on ours apart from a gas leak on the old gas meter which I couldn't smell after having COVID. He didn't bat an eyelid that our install has a front end 100mA Time Delay Type A RCD and not an isolation switch. I did double check after he left for loose cables which I have run into on site following a meter upgrade.
Yep. It's like all the "Another shop...." stories on mechanic/auto related channels. Evidently no mechanic anywhere ever has forgotten something as simple as an oil drain plug or otherwise botched a job due to negligence, oversight, or basic incompetence lol. Clearly it has to be the owner who screwed up and doesn't want to fess up. Clearly.
A lot of the big companies use contractors with varying levels of skill. Doesn’t fill you with much confidence knowing that your smart meter install _might_ be bodged.
@@joshuatk59 Using less skilled people to mount meters can be dangerous. If they do not tighten the terminals screw enough, the meter can catch fire. Certainly with the 1 phase installations that are still common in the Anglosaxon world. Some meters come with a sticker that "screws must be tightened to xx nM."
Dig deeper, Octopus Group are actively involved with the backdoor privatisation of the NHS and even have a lord on their board actively advising them how to go about it. NOT a good company!
As a genuine, worked my balls of a Tech College, Technician I find the misuse of the title Technician about as annoying as Engineers who suffer the same ignomy when hearing about washing machine 'engineers'.
@@mikelucinder3284 line and neutral reversal. In the UK the neutral is often tied to the circuit protective conductor so, whilst the electrical load won't see any difference there are safety implications especially when you consider single pole switching. UK/EU regs regard both legs, line and neutral, as 'hot' and refer to them as phase conductors.
Two meter fixes by two different meter fixers and each made a mistake, one connected reverse polarity which I witnessed , the second left me with two electric and gas meters on my account...Octopus
The left had cable protection is not adequate. Unless L1 L2 and L3 Including the Neutral are double isulated. The copex gland should be connected to a adaptable box which would protect the tails to the final connection.
@@conorlanders8401 I would still have the gland made off into a structure rather than have the gland hanging like they have done. Also i still would enclose as much of the exposed tails as possible. It would look better, more professional.
Big problem in the metering industry of cross training. Both gas and electric are now carried out by the same person. This ends up with one side or the other suffering from lack of experience and skills
I’ve been out to investigate issues in the industry and find there’s a huge lack of skills in the gas industry. Gaining your ticket these days is a pay your fee and get your ticket. I’ve seen some terrible things over the past few years and there only getting worse. The metering roll out has only made this worse. Some engineers can’t even carry out basic checks. How they passed in a training centre. I will never know.
Yeah I bet. He was probably a bit nervous turning up at a job like that. Then not being used to three phase. Oh dear. If my mental health hadn't been ruined by my last career, I wouldn't mind training as an electrician.
Here in the US our meters no wires are directly attached to them but are snapped and screwed into place. The power company connects their wires to one side while the electrian does the other side.
I went to replace a cu that has been poorly 'professionally installed' and found the latest smart meter install not even screwed to back board. Tails flapping etc. pulled fuse, installed meter correctly, tested and video to ensure I indemnify myself as smart meters auto register cover removed
Totally agree with some of the comments here. However, a fully trained electrician with the correct PPE and a 1 day course with the DNO or a potentially accredited training provider would allow many more far more dangerous installations to be brought up to a satisfactory standard in a shorter timescale, whereas a so called dual fuel energy fitter can do so! With their approval.
Crazy man . Anyway About time The DNO or meter provider fitted an isolation device where possible automatically . On that note I was Just wondering why you would fit Wago connectors and not a four pole isolation switch anyway. Iimagine it would have cost less anyway???also no fixings on the tails?
I had a consumer unit replacement done a while ago due to a fire (apparently in the 80's it was ok to frame them in wood...) took one look in the meter cab cleaned it up and fitted an iso for no charge stating he'd send the bill for that to british gas (my supplier at the time) as he was a sub contractor for them and they'd save money not having to send out another person to bring it to code.
Everything from the cut out to the meter is not your property and is illegal for you to touch. What you have done on your side is terrible work and he was right.
I’m a meter fitter, not 3phase trained tho, to my understanding as long as we could power down @ the main cu the job would go ahead, bit of a strange install tho, could remove the wago and connect the tails directly into the meter, but we aren’t allowed into anything besides a isolator, which that is not, probably why he shit himself On a side note the whole mains head is the cutout and the 3 are fuse carriers And I do believe he is right in sayin whoever installed that wago is a numpty (doesn’t make up for his own shoddy work and laziness), because it’s just 1 more thing going on which isn’t required, get the earth into a block and rip it out
@@jackwayne2547meter fitters aren’t allowed into wagos because we’re not sparks, but considering he cut the seals and fucked off im surprised he didn’t just swap it for a iso, would’ve been a easy job
If it's anything like my place you need photos before and after. I reckon he was probably concerned that he couldn't check for tightness after manipulating the outgoing tails.
Few of the meter installers are restrained meter readers, like caliber had come round "better not leave the scanner on the roof again or I'll get sacked, I've done it twice herr herr 🤪" needless to say he put wrong readings in 🙄
British Gas, years back my dad, a tool room trained grad engineer had them fit a gas socket for his free standing cooker. The installer wound the black iron up so hard he split the fitting. Then announced the inspector had to check his work before the gas could be turned on. The inspector said he wasn’t qualified to replace the split fitting. Dad threw them out and fitted a new elbow.
If he pulls the fuses everything load side is definitely dead. Test with Voltage indicators 0V Line to Line, Line to Earth Test Voltage Indicators on a proving unit. Job done , fool proof DNO have no influence load side
Are the singles exiting the conduit and going to the terminal box double insulated? I can’t quite tell from the pic. Anyway, these days they are required to be. As I found out when a premise I work in got upgraded from single to three phase.
I'm an experienced mech technician. I had to teach a newbie who had a degree in mechanical engineering that you put the short side of an allen key in the bolt to use the long side for leverage....true.
I asked Octopus for an isolator to be added to ours. The engineer came, looked inside, told me he is not 3-phase qualified and left. That was a month ago and I have chased them multiple times.
Octopus energy left us with a faulty gas meter since February 2023, its diaphragm is knackered, is misreading, I opened a complaint after they continually failed to get a standard meter installed, they claimed they aren't made anymore...every builders merchant in the uk states otherwise, complaint got escalated in october, they closed the complaint with no response except a £200 "customer courtesy payment, we're now going to get our own meter installed, because they certainly can't do a simple task.
What is that black box? I heard him saying that it's cutouts. But I want to know what it's actually and it's from which company. I hope some experts out there can help me.
The guy who came to fit my meters took one look at my gas meter which is admittedly is installed in a stupid place by British gas and just said it couldn’t be done!
I had an emergency call out for a regular customer because the metre installer had said there was a dangerous situation with the meter tails. I got there, and the dangerous situation was he didn't know which conductor was which to prove dead because the tails weren't colour coded 🤦. He looked baffled when I showed him the line was simply the one with voltage to earth when energised and the even bigger clue is the one that runs through the fuse when you trace it back to the source. I'm not s a jobsworth or a grass and try to help people and teach them when possible, but someone who doesn't even know the basics of Safe Isoliton shouldn't be working on main cutouts. He left the best until last as I had to stay and babysit the 'competent' engineer whose version of a polarity test was to plug in a martindale socket tester 😂.
Could someone advise if it is safe to take a power connection from an existing house socket to a new waterproofed fused spur with new armoured cable under path to install new power supply into a detached external garage. Electrical consultant told me it would need a new circuit and small Distribution board installed but this doesnt seem to align with actual electricians advice.
Same with EDF they couldn't get to locked fuse box they told to phone the council to unlock it. Absolutely ridiculous why don't you have a key your the electricia?
@@CommanderJ135 because councils now lock the intakes with their own locks (especially in London) you have to arrange for the maintenance team to come and unlock the doors and relock them after the works been carried out.
In Switzerland and in the Netherlands, the cut-out fuses are not sealed and can be removed by anyone. Replacing a meter must be done by the DNO, as the connection cover must be sealed and the new serial number entered in the meter reading system.
They choose some terrible people to do the domestic visits. That's Scottish gas and E on. Scottish gas threatened to cut off my electric for no reason. E on turned up UN announced to change the meter. Cut off the gas and the gas nextdoor. No trouble with Octopus as yet.
Not uncommon. Even in germany where 3-phase is standard, the feeds from the main busbars (where the Selective RCBO and Type1 SPD are sitting) to the meter and from the meter to the cutout or upper connection panel are usually single color with etched or labled on L1/2/3 identification. Even in the main distribution its usually black or brown for the three pases, since its all covered up anyway and only after the circtuit protective devices phase color matters. But a proper install always has L1/L2/L3 in the proper right field orientation on multigang devices. Any three phase circuit has to be tested for proper rotation, anyhow.
As someone with a degree in mechanical engineering this used to really p*ss me off 😂 It's UK specific. In Europe it's Doctor, Lawyers, Engineers. In the UK, the engineer is the person who comes round to fix things - and to be fair I couldnt fix a photocopier if you paid me, I might be able to understand the equations that make it work or calculate it's efficiency though, i.e. its a totally different thing
Octopus 🐙 are great, but they keep giving me hassle for a smart meter, and i don't want one. i have ocd and will be checking it all the time and then won't turn the heating on and freeze to death in the winter. Honestly, i don't want to know how much money i am using until the bill comes in. i can panic then and freeze to death.
My octopus engineer “left all connections loose” which started a fire. Cutout had to be replaced by the DNO, live. Thankfully he sealed it with his unique ID present on the seal. Mandate smart meter engineers and DNOs to use a calibrated torque wrench please.
Direct OES meter installers are issued torque drivers and have to take pictures to prove they’ve used them on every installation. T OE are one of the only energy companies to issue them to staff.
Lets take stock then. So 9t should have a tpn isolation hes now left you with a potentially dangerous supply. The bs 1361 fuses if pulled can cause access to live pins bus bar etc. Also cant tell if the output from the wagos is double sheathed or not from this vid..He should have re sealed them before leaving.
We just moved, and discovered firstly a solar boost water heater installed wrong, which then led to discovering the neutral from our smart meter hadn't been tightened down. It literally fell out.
So are you annoyed at all? 🧐. I can’t quite make it out from the video…… So as a non electrician if you turn everything off at the consumer unit. Pull the three fuses, one from each phase, how would the magic pixies jump across the gap to be non safe…..
@@AndyK.1They are trained to isolate consumer unit at main switch and ask about and isolate solar etc. Guy was obviously not clued up on 3 phase or summet and left 😂
Because that doesn't achieve isolation. You might argue that it proves isolation if the reading is zero volts but technically if he or anyone else has done nothing to perform isolation somewhere, then zero volts could be the DNO cutting the power somewhere else, and way out of sight, and they could turn it back on whilst the electrician is working on the installation. Or it could be an HV fault. We had that where I live a few months ago Ok, a small chance of that, but the safest action is for the electrician or someone to perform an action to isolate the supply and for that GS38 volt meter to be tested against the installation before and after that isolation action so the electrician can definitely see the power being removed from the installation.
Indeed... Can't possibly do something as simple as put together a day or 2 training course for already competent electricians to take and register for doing this work themselves. Only their own lazy window-licking muppets are fit to carry out the work!
@@BerlietGBC Yes, and they are not engineers either. They are technicians. It is quite common for technicians to refer to themselves as engineers, a bit of wishful thinking on their part. But I think electricians do tend to avoid it because they know there are engineers above them in the electrical profession.
Unfortunately engineer isnt a protected term, so anyone can call themselves an engineer. Personally since the industry role they work under is a meter operator, metering operative is a perfectly acceptable term. I generally dont like refering to anyone without a degree in an engineering field as an engineer.
@@branbroken It's crazy. In the UK the job title of solicitor is protected, so the concept does exist here. In France, engineer is protected. It shows how little regard the government (and successive governments over the years) have for engineers. Probably because most politicians are lawyers and don't really have a clue what engineering is about.
I have electrically inspected 1,000 + properties in the UK. Only 1 was ' beautiful '. Block of 6 flats wired in 1995 i inspected in 2015. Only 1 error (minor) in miles of cable. Have never seen a 'beautiful ' install made after mid/ late 1990's. Except in some, but only some, commercial properties. : /
Here i live, we do not have gas to house. So only electric. It is also not allowed to remove any meter seals without re seal them. for any reason. And ofc only certified electricians is allowed to do this. And even then, only if job require it. And have it specified in job description. Leave it open, would result in big problems for who ever company who did this. Home owner can just report it to Electricity Authority, and they take care of the rest.
Possibly he was only trained for 1ph meters, I had that on a Friday night meter swap. 1st guy was newly " trained" and couldn't do 3ph. Had to sit on my hands till a 3ph guy turned to make a right bollocks of it.
so I am just uphill from the Georgetown Steam Plant, 1906, designed by Frank Gilbreth, Time & Motion Expert Nothing I see or hear makes any sense -- but it is from the country that invented Ring Circuits with hair-diameter wiring, so... ;-)
Its simple, really. A single phase engineer turned up and was not qualified to touch a three phase install, therefore could not complete the job. Not sure why the seals were cut. Could have been cut and placed on the fuses not sealed correctly, as lets face it, most electricians do these days.
Wow, in the US we have none of these problems. Hell, the providers have left our tails cut, panel open and drove off without telling a soul they ever visited.
Octopus are freaking unreal!!! They took 8 months to book an “engineer” just too come out and verify what I have already told them: that my landlord has told me to read the wrong meter and I have paid someone else’s electricity for 7 months of tenancy. So, I ended up moving out and two months after that they started calling me to book an engineer. FU useless Octopus!
Problem is the energy companies are not prepared to give a decent wage yet make so much profit. I had to remove the fact I worked in partnership with the DNO on a project as the DNO gave me training as they are desperate to get people to replace meters for smart meters. No wonder they cannot hit targets on replacement. The energy companies need to have proper op pay as they will get the money back as not needing meter readers. On 4 occasions I have been called out to be present while meter upgrades 3 did not go ahead on the first visit so frustrating!!!!!! Two did have the old tar tails which was not good but DNO did not want to attend until the meter was changed. A joke here?
It's simply in place of Henley blocks. If you go straight into the meter you'd have to cut the DNOs seals. And you'd also have to phone them every time you wanted to isolate your supply.
As a meter fitter the octopus lad probably just couldn’t be bothered with the job, I’ve attended loads of jobs where the previous engineer decided to be slack and abort the job for no good reason
I've had a couple come and say there's "no room" for the new smart meter... which is smaller than the current one and there's slack on the tails so they could move it inside the box. Honestly I think it's because they didn't want to have to wire in the Solar cells and Charging port. I do however have some choice words for my solar fitter who put the Solar isolation breakers in the meter box rather than adding a box beside it.
You pull the fuse confirm polarity in the cut out shroud the live , confirm dead at the meter then change the meter. Anything downstream of the meter isn't the meter fitters business they are not electricians
It's a 3phase meter, there's a lot more to it than "just pulling" a fuse and checking for dead....phase rotation, phase voltage, line voltage, backfeed, dropped phases...these are but a few checks
As an electrical technogist (and yes, qualified such), UK domestic mains and metering cabling arrangements are amongst the worst in a first world nation. How such cabling can be allowed to be left so easily accessible to anyone and left loose fitted and unprotected like this, when other aspects of a UK electrical installation have such high standards, in this regard, boggles my mind.
to do my time i did a 4 year apprenticeship with one day a week at college before i could be called an 'engineer' lol, but it was in the 70's/80's, these days a few months and some vocational training seems to be enough - maybe we were just thicker back then hahaha.
It is all about cheap labour, these supply companies didn't want electricians, electricians were looked down on. We were working on the supply network. I worked for Scot Power for 39 years, Scottish power doesn't have electricians anymore. This is why they get such poor ratings for customer service now, but the couldn't care less.
