Just now SSE meter installer rang to say he could not swap a tenant's meter because it had a "shared neutral".
The meter is a pre-pay key meter which was installed when a previous tenant didnt pay his bill. Landlord is trying to get it swapped for a normal credit meter for the new tenant.
Supply is three-phase to a house split into 5 flats + communal services. Each phase feeds 2 x 60 amps suppiies so there are 6 meters in total. The issue seems to be that the 6 neutral tails come off a Henley block between the head and the individual meters. The meter installer says he needs to turn off all 6 supplies for safety. There are separate isolators after each meter so this is easy to do but he said he cannot turn off the supplies even if all the tenants are notified and agree. He says he needs a "second engineer" but its not clear to me what the second engineer would do that the first one can't do. Usual procedure would presumably be to isolate the flat or turn off the load on its CU, then pull the supply fuse and then simply disconnect all the tails from the meter and then fit the new one. Why the Henley block makes any difference to this process is unclear to me.
Anyone know anything about normal procedures in this scenario? This must be a very common situation.
What is bizarre is they didn't have any issues in swapping the credit meter for the pre-pay meter in the first place.
The meter is a pre-pay key meter which was installed when a previous tenant didnt pay his bill. Landlord is trying to get it swapped for a normal credit meter for the new tenant.
Supply is three-phase to a house split into 5 flats + communal services. Each phase feeds 2 x 60 amps suppiies so there are 6 meters in total. The issue seems to be that the 6 neutral tails come off a Henley block between the head and the individual meters. The meter installer says he needs to turn off all 6 supplies for safety. There are separate isolators after each meter so this is easy to do but he said he cannot turn off the supplies even if all the tenants are notified and agree. He says he needs a "second engineer" but its not clear to me what the second engineer would do that the first one can't do. Usual procedure would presumably be to isolate the flat or turn off the load on its CU, then pull the supply fuse and then simply disconnect all the tails from the meter and then fit the new one. Why the Henley block makes any difference to this process is unclear to me.
Anyone know anything about normal procedures in this scenario? This must be a very common situation.
What is bizarre is they didn't have any issues in swapping the credit meter for the pre-pay meter in the first place.
