I am planing a kitchen overhaul and it would be nice to get the washing
machine out of the kitchen. There is space in the utility room but this
would be adjacent to the electricity meters/CU.

Clearly there would be no water connections directly above any electrics
so I am struggling to see any major problem. Are there any regulations
that I might fall foul of?

Plan layout in this pic.

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?c...mtc15YzXHS6hlX


In case its not obvious the rear of the washer will be against the top
horizontal line. adjacent to the feed/supply as is normal.

One minor problem might be visibility of the meter but this could easily
be solved with smart a meter or a smart phone on a selfie stick. (or at
a real push move the washer out to read the meter). The washer would
not provide any obstruction to the CU.




--
Chris B (News)

On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 12:07:49 +0100, Chris B wrote:

snip

One minor problem might be visibility of the meter but this could easily
be solved with smart a meter or a smart phone on a selfie stick. (or at
a real push move the washer out to read the meter).

snip

Along the camera lines could be the use of a ESP32Cam module, set up
as a webcam and then accessed whenever you need to view (live stream)
or take a photo of the meter?

https://www.instructables.com/ESP-32...Fi-Getting-St/

The boards have a pretty bright LED to enable you to take a picture
(or view video) in otherwise total darkness and they are cheap enough.

It could be stuck onto the back of the WM with some double sided tape
and looking at the meter and only needs to be powered (5V, a few mA)
when required. Access from a PC or your phone?

It does need a bit of setting up but it's quite easy if you are
reasonably PC literate and/or already familiar with such things (like
the Arduino Microcontrollers).

I bought mine from Aliexpress for less than a fiver each delivered,
including the camera and were very easy to set up following the
guides.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Those boards don't typically come with a uUSB interface (easy for
powering with a Poundshop phone charger) but you can buy a tiny uUSB
'breakout board' for a few pence, once you have them setup). You will
also need an interface board to program them but again, very cheap and
you only need one.

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 12:29:42 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 12:07:49 +0100, Chris B wrote:

snip

One minor problem might be visibility of the meter but this could easily
be solved with smart a meter or a smart phone on a selfie stick. (or at
a real push move the washer out to read the meter).

snip

Along the camera lines could be the use of a ESP32Cam module, set up
as a webcam and then accessed whenever you need to view (live stream)
or take a photo of the meter?

https://www.instructables.com/ESP-32...Fi-Getting-St/

The boards have a pretty bright LED to enable you to take a picture
(or view video) in otherwise total darkness and they are cheap enough.

It could be stuck onto the back of the WM with some double sided tape
and looking at the meter and only needs to be powered (5V, a few mA)
when required. Access from a PC or your phone?

It does need a bit of setting up but it's quite easy if you are
reasonably PC literate and/or already familiar with such things (like
the Arduino Microcontrollers).

I bought mine from Aliexpress for less than a fiver each delivered,
including the camera and were very easy to set up following the
guides.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Those boards don't typically come with a uUSB interface (easy for
powering with a Poundshop phone charger) but you can buy a tiny uUSB
'breakout board' for a few pence, once you have them setup). You will
also need an interface board to program them but again, very cheap and
you only need one.

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:19:35 +0100, Scott
wrote:

snip

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

Or (in our case) leaving the cupboard_under_the_stairs clear so I can
easily read the meter g?

For me, an easier solution to not doing that or having to have a smart
meter fitted is to read the meters(s) from my chair. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:34:39 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:19:35 +0100, Scott
wrote:

snip

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

Or (in our case) leaving the cupboard_under_the_stairs clear so I can
easily read the meter g?

For me, an easier solution to not doing that or having to have a smart
meter fitted is to read the meters(s) from my chair. ;-)

Yes, but is there not an obligation that the meter has to be
accessible to any authorised agent of the supply company?

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:47:18 +0100, Scott
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:34:39 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:19:35 +0100, Scott
wrote:

snip

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

Or (in our case) leaving the cupboard_under_the_stairs clear so I can
easily read the meter g?

For me, an easier solution to not doing that or having to have a smart
meter fitted is to read the meters(s) from my chair. ;-)

Yes, but is there not an obligation that the meter has to be
accessible to any authorised agent of the supply company?

Of course, and it can be, they might just have to wait a bit. ;-)

In my mates shop you had to move a PC table and remove some paneling
and no one ever complained?

Cheers, T i m

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:17:34 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:47:18 +0100, Scott
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:34:39 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:19:35 +0100, Scott
wrote:

snip

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

Or (in our case) leaving the cupboard_under_the_stairs clear so I can
easily read the meter g?

For me, an easier solution to not doing that or having to have a smart
meter fitted is to read the meters(s) from my chair. ;-)

Yes, but is there not an obligation that the meter has to be
accessible to any authorised agent of the supply company?

Of course, and it can be, they might just have to wait a bit. ;-)

In my mates shop you had to move a PC table and remove some paneling
and no one ever complained?

I think some of the guys that come here with a long list of addresses
to get through might well complain.

On 08/06/2021 14:47, Scott wrote:
On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:34:39 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:19:35 +0100, Scott
wrote:

snip

Or what about asking to relocate the meter when your smartmeter is
installed?

Or (in our case) leaving the cupboard_under_the_stairs clear so I can
easily read the meter g?

For me, an easier solution to not doing that or having to have a smart
meter fitted is to read the meters(s) from my chair. ;-)

Yes, but is there not an obligation that the meter has to be
accessible to any authorised agent of the supply company?

Well in the worst case it would only take 10 minutes to move the
machine, every bit as quick as removing all of the junk from my parents
cupboard.

--
Chris B (News)

On 08/06/2021 12:29, T i m wrote:
On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 12:07:49 +0100, Chris B wrote:

snip

One minor problem might be visibility of the meter but this could easily
be solved with smart a meter or a smart phone on a selfie stick. (or at
a real push move the washer out to read the meter).

snip

Along the camera lines could be the use of a ESP32Cam module, set up
as a webcam and then accessed whenever you need to view (live stream)
or take a photo of the meter?

https://www.instructables.com/ESP-32...Fi-Getting-St/

The boards have a pretty bright LED to enable you to take a picture
(or view video) in otherwise total darkness and they are cheap enough.

It could be stuck onto the back of the WM with some double sided tape
and looking at the meter and only needs to be powered (5V, a few mA)
when required. Access from a PC or your phone?

It does need a bit of setting up but it's quite easy if you are
reasonably PC literate and/or already familiar with such things (like
the Arduino Microcontrollers).

sounds interesting I will have a look into it. I have done some temp
monitoring with a raspberry Pi so this might be another suitable project.



I bought mine from Aliexpress for less than a fiver each delivered,
including the camera and were very easy to set up following the
guides.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Those boards don't typically come with a uUSB interface (easy for
powering with a Poundshop phone charger) but you can buy a tiny uUSB
'breakout board' for a few pence, once you have them setup). You will
also need an interface board to program them but again, very cheap and
you only need one.



--
Chris B (News)

Chris B wrote:
Well in the worst case it would only take 10 minutes to move the
machine, every bit as quick as removing all of the junk from my parents
cupboard.

You could always put it on one of those sets of castors that somebody
mentioned in my 'moving appliances' thread.

If you were to get a smart meter there wouldn't be much call to read the
meter, since it's phoning home at least monthly anyway.

Theo

If there is also a gas meter, be mindful that most need a battery
replacement every so often.
Brian

--

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

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"T i m" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 12:07:49 +0100, Chris B wrote:

snip

One minor problem might be visibility of the meter but this could easily
be solved with smart a meter or a smart phone on a selfie stick. (or at
a real push move the washer out to read the meter).

snip

Along the camera lines could be the use of a ESP32Cam module, set up
as a webcam and then accessed whenever you need to view (live stream)
or take a photo of the meter?

https://www.instructables.com/ESP-32...Fi-Getting-St/

The boards have a pretty bright LED to enable you to take a picture
(or view video) in otherwise total darkness and they are cheap enough.

It could be stuck onto the back of the WM with some double sided tape
and looking at the meter and only needs to be powered (5V, a few mA)
when required. Access from a PC or your phone?

It does need a bit of setting up but it's quite easy if you are
reasonably PC literate and/or already familiar with such things (like
the Arduino Microcontrollers).

I bought mine from Aliexpress for less than a fiver each delivered,
including the camera and were very easy to set up following the
guides.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Those boards don't typically come with a uUSB interface (easy for
powering with a Poundshop phone charger) but you can buy a tiny uUSB
'breakout board' for a few pence, once you have them setup). You will
also need an interface board to program them but again, very cheap and
you only need one.

On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 20:00:40 +0100, Chris B wrote:

snip

Along the camera lines could be the use of a ESP32Cam module, set up
as a webcam and then accessed whenever you need to view (live stream)
or take a photo of the meter?

https://www.instructables.com/ESP-32...Fi-Getting-St/

snip


sounds interesting I will have a look into it. I have done some temp
monitoring with a raspberry Pi so this might be another suitable project.

Excellent, well you are already half way there then (if you used the
Arduino IDE as you can use that to program the ESP32Cam) and know the
sort of things you need to do.

I had my streaming cam up and running pretty quickly and was quite
impressed with the picture quality, considering the size and cost of
the thing! The illumination LED was pretty bright, similar sort of
thing you find on camera phones etc.

And being a d-i-y solution, you have the opportunity to make it do
exactly what you want. I did consider automatic character recognition
but that would be so easy on my old gas meter. ;-(

There are even cases for them available on the likes of Thingiverse,
if you have or know anyone with a 3D printer wink.

https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q...&sort=relevant

Cheers, T i m