Free PME

[stidge]

Arranged for an elderly couple to have a PME installed,Rang Western Power with credit card ready , Employee didn't mention paying (usually between £120/150).anyway they have been and fitted all good, couple didn't have to sign or pay ! Nice bonus for them . Have never come across this before and have always had to pay Up Front !!!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

From what i gathered, from a friend that was in Engineering management of a DNO company in Essex, that any cast iron service head with ceramic rewireable fuses (DP) should have all been replaced, by all the DNO companies in the UK, by the end of 2011 free of charge. But they didn't and still haven't achieved that instruction that came from the electrical ombudsman.


But getting back to the DNO'S charging for PME conversions, what an absolute disgrace, ...£150 for less than 20 minutes work. So what are you all paying this quarterly standing charge for then?? It was always described as a charge for maintenance and to cover system upgrade costs... Which when you think about it, should even cover the cost of a local main isolator at every service head... Most domestic installations have collected 1000's if not 10s of thousands over the years for the service companies....

well a church i have been back on this week has had the old cast iron cutout replaced with new (3 phase)...they have replaced the old paper-lead with a new concentric as well....
still billed em about £150 odd for it though.....
but theres much more work gone on there than was paid for....

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Its all very well saying "stand up to these companies", but if you phone them up and ask to be converted to PME and state you will not pay they are going to shrug and say "if you won't pay we won't come and do it. Bye." You can't make them.

strops...if its distributers facility then they have a duty of care to maintain it...
now, whenever i liase with the DNO now on a customer`s behalf...i ask to be put straight on to the duty engineer....
and generally i`v found they have come out to deal with issues...
at least then i`m not stuck on the phone to some stupid bint who dont have a clue what she`s on about...

 

[Stroppy]

I understand they have a duty of care over their equipment. I suppose the difference comes whether you are asking to be PME'd because the existing head is ancient and/or dangerous - whereupon they are duty bound to replace it for free, or if the head is a perfectly safe and serviceable TT installation but you want to go PME to improve your Ze instead of banging in another stake or finding a nice earthy gas pipe in which case I think it would be reasonable to charge for the upgrade, as it is not necessary on safety grounds.

 

[Engineer54]

I understand they have a duty of care over their equipment. I suppose the difference comes whether you are asking to be PME'd because the existing head is ancient and/or dangerous - whereupon they are duty bound to replace it for free, or if the head is a perfectly safe and serviceable TT installation but you want to go PME to improve your Ze instead of banging in another stake or finding a nice earthy gas pipe in which case I think it would be reasonable to charge for the upgrade, as it is not necessary on safety grounds.

One of the original reasons for going down the PME route by the original Regional boards was to provide existing customers, mainly on country Overhead supplies, a stable low impedance earth connection. Ever since the 1930's when the programme began, up until the privatised DNO companies took over, PME connections were performed free of charge where available, to commercial and domestic customers. So why do you think it's reasonable to charge now?? What is that standing charge everyone pays, actually for??

 

[Andyfm]

They always used to replace the VIR mains cables (from overheads down to head in the house) as a matter of course, but now refuse to do so!!

 

[Stroppy]

I thought a charge would be reasonable as the conversion is not necessary on safety grounds, and is 'voluntary'. I didn't know they did it for free in the good old days. This is the price we pay for changing our utilities from being service providers to profit-generating businesses, where the primary aim is to generate money for the shareholders, rather than supply a good service. Bring back nationalisation, I say!

 

[Engineer54]

A bit off topic, but can anyone identify any once public operated service that has since been privatised, and where that service has improved??

 

[jimmymac]

It's all gone quiet E54!

 

[Stroppy]

Silence speaks volumes! Privatisation (aka Selling the family silver) has been an expensive (for the public) disaster.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

I understand they have a duty of care over their equipment. I suppose the difference comes whether you are asking to be PME'd because the existing head is ancient and/or dangerous - whereupon they are duty bound to replace it for free, or if the head is a perfectly safe and serviceable TT installation but you want to go PME to improve your Ze instead of banging in another stake or finding a nice earthy gas pipe in which case I think it would be reasonable to charge for the upgrade, as it is not necessary on safety grounds.

i hope you were just arsin about here...

 

[Stroppy]

What about?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

the bit in red..

 

[Stroppy]

Yes of course I was joking, that's why I put after it. We established in our last earthing discussion that I know the purpose of and difference between earthing and bonding service pipes.

 

[oldtimer]

Silence speaks volumes! Privatisation (aka Selling the family silver) has been an expensive (for the public) disaster.

Yep Maggie sold council houses to bribe the voters and she gave away housing built in perpatuity for the low paid fast foeward 30 years and Cameron is being told there is a massive shortage of Social (Council) housing Aka selling the family silver indeed

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Yep Maggie sold council houses to bribe the voters and she gave away housing built in perpatuity for the low paid fast foeward 30 years and Cameron is being told there is a massive shortage of Social (Council) housing Aka selling the family silver indeed

yeah well i saw edd balls`s offerings the other day...
when asked about what labour would do..if they (god forbid) get in at the next generals....all he could come out with was `we need to build more houses`....its a load of crap...there isn`t a real shortage of houses...its just that too many are being let in....
Margret Thatchers right to buy was the first (and only real chance) for people to genuinely get on the property ladder....and as such was a good thing...
if the old left had have had its way...then many, many who would have jumped at the chance of genuine home ownership....would never have realised this....
but i suppose the soviet view has always been `well its in the interests of the state`.......