EICR Basic Insulation on Meter Tails

Are the tails before or after the meter ? If after they belong to the end user. If before they may either be DNO, or part of the building network depending on ownership.

In any case, assuming it really is a C2, then assuming you are proposing to do anything more more than add a turn of tape, which is about all that is possible with the power on, then. you need to clarify how it can all be made safe to work on, and that probably will involve DNO equipment.


However, if it is basic insulation inside a meter box with a key  or other tool to open it, then maybe it is not a C2.

regards Mike.

It is not great, but there are thousands like that. I expect it has been like that for years. The concept of a sheath or enclosure over basic insulation has always been a difficult one to sell. Some meter tail fitters were of the misguided opinion they needed to reveal the basic insulation colour for identification, not grasping that you can use a coloured tie wrap and keep the outer sheath.

15mm is a lot but seen much worse. How dangerous or not is where it is, what it is enclosed in and how accessible it is. Meter equipment is usually all insulated.

A brutal simple fix is a 4 x 4 x 2"  plastic adaptable box. With lid off, cut two slots up and down, wiggle underneath and put the lid back on and C3 it.

I concur with the first two replies.  For my two-penn'th, one of the Housing Associations I worked for had an agreement/"Special Relationship" with the local DNO giving us permission to access and "interfere" with their equipment so that we didn't have to keep calling them out to faults in multiple residences such as the various blocks of flats we owned.  Since you are presumably dealing with social or council housing, your Local Authority may have a similar agreement.  But for us to pull a service fuse still required appropriate training and wearing of all the anti-flash PPE that a DNO operative is required to wear.  In the absence of all three of these (formal permission from the equipment owner, recorded competency, anti-flash PPE) you should not pull a service fuse (despite what a properly qualified and experienced sparky might do in the real world) and you should tell your boss accordingly.  In the absence of an agreement between your employer and the DNO you should not break the little lead seal on the service fuse or the meter, which means that even if the meter is "insulated" as @Alcomax comments, you are still not "allowed" to open the terminal box at the bottom -- but then that would still expose live terminal screws that you would be considering playing with...


Of course, if you are in a suite or block of flats with remote service heads and your C2 is actually after the solid link (red service head) local to the flat, the distance may be such that the chance of flash from pulling the local red service "fuse" is reduced to acceptable level or risk.  Nonetheless, when working for a HA or Local Authority, I wouldn't risk it without written risk assessment.  Residential work is not like Domestic, their governance, compliance and H&S are rightly far more strict and "proper" and you risk getting yourself in trouble and your supervisor in more trouble (summary dismissal for gross misconduct) for instructing you to do this.

QUOTE : Are the tails before or after the meter ? 

Tails entering a DB are not an issue. Im talking about everything upstream of the DB, which would be Load and Live of meter, and DNO cut out.

I venture to suggest that the problem here is coding C2. I can fully understand the manager's position that it should be rectified.


The rule of thumb: C1 = already dangerous; C2 = 1 fault to danger; C3 = 2 faults to danger doesn't really apply. It's more a matter of how deep can I cut to danger?


In terms of where you stand legally, you and your boss have to comply with EWR 1999. R 14 concerns live working.


So if remediation involves removing the tails, cutting back the inner insulation, trimming the conductor, adding identification, and putting it back together again, you unquestionably have to make dead. If your manager insists, he (or she) may well be in breach of R3. Of course you could ask him (or her) to remove the service fuse and replace it. You keep it in YOUR pocket in the mean time.

I have seen short lengths of small diameter 'split conduit'  used  to cover  exposed singles after the fact. Personally  I do not think it offers any advantage over tape, but regs wise you can run singles inside it, whereas tape is not recognised.


I'm not convinced it is a real C2, and the not very great benefits  are mostly  offset by the dangers and inconvenience of having  to  take it all to bits to work on- we need to ask, is there a  credible chance of the exposed inner insulation being damaged and exposing live copper in this case, as presumably there is a meter in the way that will get hit first.


This is not the normal and more dangerous case of exposed inner cores where a flex has been half pulled out of the cord grip in a rose or a plug.

I think we can all agree that unless you take it all apart which is in breach of EWR, and other legal matters, you will end up making a pigs ear of it.

I have been given a few tips here, and going forward, I will manufacture a tophat, made from plastic trunking, and carefully adhere some silicone to fix it, which will get rid of the C2.

C3 will still be there, unless it is all taken apart.


Welcome any future comments

Metering equipment is not our responsibility.  Notify the supply company if you  think there is a  problem with it.


Gary

Hence the question about which side of the meter the dodgy tails are - not so much as not being able to isolate them but who's responsibility they are.

   - Andy.