Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming
to?

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart versions. As I
don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I thought it would be a good time
to have one fitted, so enquired if that could be done at the same time if I supplied and
mounted a suitable isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only trained to swap the
meters, they are not qualified to do anything else. Swapping meters is likely the most
dangerous job on a domestic installation, with some very serious safety implications if
they do get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer' to do it, at a
cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

IMO its more likely its the call-centre staff who are bit confused.

The job is probably timed and costed at a fixed price for just the
meter swaps. And appointments are scheduled on that basis.

Despite the meter installers being fully qualified for any
additional work as might be required, (something the call
centre staff can't necessarily be expected to know) the schedule
only allows them a fixed time to do each job; so an additional
fitter/appointment will need to be booked.


michael adams

....

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield writes:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming
to?

£70 sounds quite low to me.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/16 18:06, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.

The guy that swapped my gas meter left us with a leak, after he had gone
away after relighting the boiler. It was a swap that left the new meter
hanging on the pipes, no secure wall/floor contact or screws.

We called Transco out for the emergency, they tightened the nuts which
fixed the leak, still left the meter floating in air, refused to relight
the boiler (for being a bit unserviced) and stuck a prohibition notice
on it.

We then called a gas engineer. He cleaned out the boiler jets,
pronounced that there was not enough air in the cupboard - could he
quote to fix that? (cupboard is far end from drafty garage door)

I ran down to B&Q, bought the cheapest no-name SDS drill there and
installed an airbrick (next to the drafty garage door) for a fraction of
the quote.

A while later, I got the meter installed properly to the wall.

Moral. None. But beware of complications ...


--
Adrian C

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do
they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like
this?

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

michael adams a écrit :
Despite the meter installers being fully qualified for any
additional work as might be required, (something the call
centre staff can't necessarily be expected to know) the schedule
only allows them a fixed time to do each job; so an additional
fitter/appointment will need to be booked.

No, the call centre staff made it clear that the guys they send out
were only trained and qualified for that one task of changing the
meter.

I seems I shall have to do my own tests for leaks and check terminal
screws are properly tightened.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Competance????

Of people posting to UK.D-I-Y?

I was watching an old bit of telly and was appalled to see the caption
come up:

'Malay Peninsular'.

People simply can't spell any more.


--
Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper
name. They must face the full meaning of that which they are advocating
or condoning; the full, exact, specific meaning of collectivism, of its
logical implications, of the principles upon which it is based, and of
the ultimate consequences to which these principles will lead. They must
face it, then decide whether this is what they want or not.

Ayn Rand.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Harry Bloomfield a écrit :
Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do they
justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like this?

I am very sceptical and untrusting of many supposedly qualified people.

Around 3 years ago we had the boiler replaced with one of less Kw
output than the existing one. The guy who surveyed the job tried to
insist it would require a new higher capacity pipe which would need to
be run outside on the surface of the house, from the meter to the
boiler. I told him to recalulate the load on the pipework and if it
involved any new pipe, they could cancel the entire job.

New boiler fitted, no need for any additional pipework.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only trained
to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else. Swapping
meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic installation, with
some very serious safety implications if they do get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer' to
do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to
change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Simo a écrit :
IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine
until something goes wrong.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
Simo a écrit :
IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to
change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine until
something goes wrong.

Still makes much more sense to have a much smaller crew
of fully qualified people who the meter changers can call
on when something goes wrong than to train all the meter
changers so they can do everything that might ever happen.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

dennis@home a écrit :
On 04/05/2016 20:14, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Simo a écrit :
IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to
change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine until
something goes wrong.

All they do is pull the fuse, swap the meter, put the fuse back and crimp on
some new tags.

Yes, but I have known proper qualified engineers not manage to even do
that simple task correctly.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/16 20:05, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Harry Bloomfield a écrit :
Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do
they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like
this?

I am very sceptical and untrusting of many supposedly qualified people.

Around 3 years ago we had the boiler replaced with one of less Kw output
than the existing one. The guy who surveyed the job tried to insist it
would require a new higher capacity pipe which would need to be run
outside on the surface of the house, from the meter to the boiler. I
told him to recalulate the load on the pipework and if it involved any
new pipe, they could cancel the entire job.

New boiler fitted, no need for any additional pipework.

Been told that boiler manufacturers can decline some warranty claims if
their boiler is found starved of gas, and fitters don't want to risk that.

(Allegedly)

--
Adrian C

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/2016 20:07, Simo wrote:


"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if
that could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a
suitable isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything
else. Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do
get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised
engineer' to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the
world coming to?

IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to
change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.
Its called de-skilling and has occurred in many service industries.
Take a well defined routine job away from a generically trained
professional/technician/engineer and train someone with much lower
qualifications to just do the one job - much cheaper and can result in a
better job being done. You then need far fewer expensive generically
qualified people .
In the NHS taking routine blood samples used to be done by doctors even
consultants and is now done very efficiently by phlebotomists a "
clinical support worker" who does nothing else.
Those who have been Blood Donors for a long time have seen a similar
de-skilling of the staff involved and IMHO they do a much better job.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.



Seems reasonable to me. If it is not routine then don't do it will be their
training.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Harry Bloomfield wrote in
:

dennis@home a écrit :
On 04/05/2016 20:14, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Simo a écrit :
IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them
to change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the
rest.

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine
until something goes wrong.

All they do is pull the fuse, swap the meter, put the fuse back and
crimp on some new tags.

Yes, but I have known proper qualified engineers not manage to even do
that simple task correctly.


IMHO "Skilled" people often do things that are beyond their level of
competence.
Corporate Responsibility requires personnel to be trained to undertake
tasks. Because someone did an apprenticeship 15 years ago is no longer
sufficient if an injury case comes to court.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Adrian Caspersz a écrit :
Been told that boiler manufacturers can decline some warranty claims if their
boiler is found starved of gas, and fitters don't want to risk that.

It is not, would not have been starved of gas - the existing pipework
was properly specified for the older boiler of 1.5x the output already.
I also checked the pipe size calculations myself.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news:ngdfm9
:

Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do
they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like
this?

They are well trained to do what is expected of them. If it is outside a
spec then they will back off and get someone else. (Anyway - there might be
a "ping - **** it" in the Isolator you provided!!)

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/2016 19:43, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do they
justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like this?

They're trained to do a specific job - and nothing else.

Happens in other industries. For example, you can be trained just to
take blood samples from patients - without requiring any medical
qualifications! I don't which is the more scary.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/2016 20:14, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Simo a écrit :
IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to
change
meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine until
something goes wrong.

All they do is pull the fuse, swap the meter, put the fuse back and
crimp on some new tags.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 5/4/2016 6:06 PM, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

Nothing dangerous about swapping meters. They will pull the supplier
fuse, swap the meter, and replace the security crimp on the fuse. The
most "skilled" part is doing the screws up correctly.

But I am not surprised they would want to charge for adding a supplied
isolator, this more or less doubles the work.

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
On 04/05/2016 19:43, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Andrew Gabriel a écrit :
The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do they
justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like this?

They're trained to do a specific job - and nothing else.

Happens in other industries. For example, you can be trained just to take
blood samples from patients - without requiring any medical
qualifications! I don't which is the more scary.

Nothing scary about being trained to just take blood samples,
particularly when someone who is fully medically qualified has
ordered the blood test that is the reason for the blood sample.

Nothing scary about someone being trained to just change an
electricity meter which is hardly rocket science.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On Wed, 04 May 2016 19:43:40 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they
aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough
of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do
they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like
this?

The electricity meter swap is a POP, pull fuse, remove cover from
meter terminals, release the tails, remove meter from board, position
and fix new meter to board, fix tails into terminals, replace cover,
replace fuse and apply seal. The terminal layout is standard and the
spacing only minimally different.

I think the spacing of the in/out pipes on a gas meter is standard
but not the height of that fixing from the base of the meter. So a
shorter meter ends up hanging on the pipes unless the shelf/bracket
is moved.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

maybe they are the ones with the rubber gloves and mesh suits that change
the meters, and not some demented fetishists after all!

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only trained
to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else. Swapping
meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic installation, with
some very serious safety implications if they do get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer' to
do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"newshound" wrote in message
...
On 5/4/2016 6:06 PM, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

Nothing dangerous about swapping meters. They will pull the supplier fuse,
swap the meter, and replace the security crimp on the fuse. The most
"skilled" part is doing the screws up correctly.

But I am not surprised they would want to charge for adding a supplied
isolator, this more or less doubles the work.

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.

Unlikely that it would still be like that after the meter swap.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only trained
to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else. Swapping
meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic installation, with
some very serious safety implications if they do get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer' to
do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?



Why not just fit your own isolator and not tell them?

--
Adam

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"newshound" wrote in message
...
On 5/4/2016 6:06 PM, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming
to?

Nothing dangerous about swapping meters. They will pull the supplier
fuse, swap the meter, and replace the security crimp on the fuse. The
most "skilled" part is doing the screws up correctly.

But I am not surprised they would want to charge for adding a supplied
isolator, this more or less doubles the work.

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.

Unlikely that it would still be like that after the meter swap.


So? Just cut it again.
--
Adam

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"ARW" wrote in message
...
"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"newshound" wrote in message
...
On 5/4/2016 6:06 PM, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming
to?

Nothing dangerous about swapping meters. They will pull the supplier
fuse, swap the meter, and replace the security crimp on the fuse. The
most "skilled" part is doing the screws up correctly.

But I am not surprised they would want to charge for adding a supplied
isolator, this more or less doubles the work.

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.

Unlikely that it would still be like that after the meter swap.


So? Just cut it again.

I meant that they aren't going to buy the story
that its always been cut after a meter change.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"newshound" wrote in message
...
Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.
How odd, mine is just the same.
*ahem*



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On Wed, 4 May 2016 17:54:34 -0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield writes:
I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart
versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I
thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that
could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable
isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only
trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else.
Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic
installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get
it wrong.

The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer'
to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming
to?

£70 sounds quite low to me.

Wouldn't you need to be Gas Safe certified to change somebody's gas
meter?


--

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On Wed, 4 May 2016 19:37:41 +0100, Adrian Caspersz
wrote:

snip

We then called a gas engineer. He cleaned out the boiler jets,
pronounced that there was not enough air in the cupboard - could he
quote to fix that? (cupboard is far end from drafty garage door)

I ran down to B&Q, bought the cheapest no-name SDS drill there and
installed an airbrick (next to the drafty garage door) for a fraction of
the quote.

snip

I guess the idea might be that there should be 'fixed' ventilation as
you might seal the garage door up at some point?

Not that you couldn't cover some draughty airbrick as well ...

A bit like replacing draughty windows with hermitically sealed uPVC
and then having to fit a draughty airbrick or fixed open trickle vents
because you have an open / gas fire.

Cheers, T i m

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

En el artículo ,
newshound escribió:

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on the main
fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that, officer.

What security wire? It's never had one (nor the meter) and nary a peep
out of meter reader man in years.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Windows 10: less of an OS, more of a drive-by mugging.
(")_(") -- "Esme" on el Reg

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On Wed, 4 May 2016 22:54:09 +0100, ARW wrote:

Personally, I manage without an isolator. The security wire on
the
main fuse seems to have broken. It's always been like that,
officer.

Unlikely that it would still be like that after the meter swap.

So? Just cut it again.

And if worried about the broken/missing wire/seal just buy some from
eBay.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On Thu, 05 May 2016 01:10:54 +0100, Graham. wrote:

Wouldn't you need to be Gas Safe certified to change somebody's gas
meter?

Yes, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a class that only
allows the holder to change meters. Gas Safe is not just a bit of
paper allowing you to work on gas but lots of bits of paper each one
allowing you to work on different aspects of gas, domestic,
commercial, industrial, etc

--
Cheers
Dave.

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

ARW a écrit :
Why not just fit your own isolator and not tell them?

Done, yesterday lol

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

In message l.net,
Dave Liquorice writes
On Wed, 04 May 2016 19:43:40 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they
aren't
electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough
of
them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do
they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like
this?

The electricity meter swap is a POP, pull fuse, remove cover from
meter terminals, release the tails, remove meter from board, position
and fix new meter to board, fix tails into terminals, replace cover,
replace fuse and apply seal. The terminal layout is standard and the
spacing only minimally different.

Yes. A turbaned gentleman has just replaced one for me. This was not a
smart meter installation as SSE were determined to replace due to age
and I was concerned that their new technology might not suit our group
buying scheme.

I think the spacing of the in/out pipes on a gas meter is standard
but not the height of that fixing from the base of the meter. So a
shorter meter ends up hanging on the pipes unless the shelf/bracket
is moved.

There is an issue here in that the farm supply is from a medium pressure
main installed by Transco. BG were anxious to replace the meter (battery
life) but their terminations were not suitable. Two site meetings later
and they changed the battery!


--
Tim Lamb

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 04/05/16 21:08, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Adrian Caspersz a écrit :
Been told that boiler manufacturers can decline some warranty claims
if their boiler is found starved of gas, and fitters don't want to
risk that.

It is not, would not have been starved of gas - the existing pipework
was properly specified for the older boiler of 1.5x the output already.
I also checked the pipe size calculations myself.

I know less about the subject than you. How is the size calculated?

--
Adrian C

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 05/05/2016 08:28, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
ARW a écrit :
Why not just fit your own isolator and not tell them?

Done, yesterday lol

Did you fit a changeover switch so you can plug in a generator instead
of a plain isolator?

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

On 05/05/16 10:46, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
On 04/05/16 21:08, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Adrian Caspersz a écrit :
Been told that boiler manufacturers can decline some warranty claims
if their boiler is found starved of gas, and fitters don't want to
risk that.

It is not, would not have been starved of gas - the existing pipework
was properly specified for the older boiler of 1.5x the output already.
I also checked the pipe size calculations myself.

I know less about the subject than you. How is the size calculated?


Ignore, just found John's post.

message-id

--
Adrian C

Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters
 

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
ARW a écrit :
Why not just fit your own isolator and not tell them?

Done, yesterday lol


And no-one will notice or care.

--
Adam