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david lavis

this morning i had an email from the NICEIC to say that 3 of my solar installations did not conform due to the energy meter being in the wrong place. when i asked for the evidence of this they said the information had come from Gemserv. i then contacted Gemserv and asked them to send me the evidence of the regulation breach. their answer was "we were told of the regulation breach by the supply companys meter readers"!!!! am i now to asume that we are to be audited by unqualified meter readers? this is insulting to say the least. i totally refute any alegation that the meters are in the wrong position and i do not see why i should send out a team of engineers to look at a problem that does not exist. will Gemserv pick up the bill for my wasted time? according to the NICEIC they have had to send out hundreds of emails of the same context. it would be interesting to see if any of you have the same oppinion. rant over
 
How can anyone take the word of an unqualified, unskilled meter reader over that of a vetted, registered, specialist is beyond me. In your position I'd be inquiring about their preferences for sex and travel until they can provide documentary evidence of your breach of regulations.
 
It sounds like there is no breach in the guidelines you follow but I sense that installation guides of DNO meters must have some proximity clause with other Electronic equipment that you have inadvertently breached.

Without any feed back from the accuser I fear we are all in the dark but would be interesting to know if there is a clearance clause?
 
It sounds like there is no breach in the guidelines you follow but I sense that installation guides of DNO meters must have some proximity clause with other Electronic equipment that you have inadvertently breached.

Without any feed back from the accuser I fear we are all in the dark but would be interesting to know if there is a clearance clause?

apparantley this has all come about due to some meters being placed in the loft areas next to the inverters. (that is a breach of the regulations)
on this contract, all of the inverters were placed on the outside wall so that the local council could gain access to the units without any issues. all of the meters were then placed next to the consumer units ajacent to the A/C isolator.
also, all of the meters are smart meters and transmit the readings to a third party monitoring company.
 
I know nothing about solar panels etc as I've stated on here before on another thread. The info that i had at the time on a new property was the inverter was being sited on the ground floor near the consumer -unit. Some installers on here said that it was a crap design and that they always installed their inverters in the loft.
Could this be the reason why the company is installing the solar inverter on ground floor? By being installed on ground floor, much easier to get to ( is there a meter on them ? ) and maintain etc.
 
I know nothing about solar panels etc as I've stated on here before on another thread. The info that i had at the time on a new property was the inverter was being sited on the ground floor near the consumer -unit. Some installers on here said that it was a crap design and that they always installed their inverters in the loft.
Could this be the reason why the company is installing the solar inverter on ground floor? By being installed on ground floor, much easier to get to ( is there a meter on them ? ) and maintain etc.
the inverter and meter are two separate components. the inverter is the part that changes the D/C power into A/C power and the meter is there to measure what has been generated from the PV array. the closer the inverter is to the array the better as you do not get such a volt drop on the D/C side. usually this is installed in the loft or on the outside wall at high level as close to the array as possible. the meter is installed next to the CCU so this can be read by the meter readers in order for the owner of the array to get the feed in tariff.
 
the inverter and meter are two separate components. the inverter is the part that changes the D/C power into A/C power and the meter is there to measure what has been generated from the PV array. the closer the inverter is to the array the better as you do not get such a volt drop on the D/C side. usually this is installed in the loft or on the outside wall at high level as close to the array as possible. the meter is installed next to the CCU so this can be read by the meter readers in order for the owner of the array to get the feed in tariff.

So really, this problem is basically about where your meter is sited? Of the 3 that your experiencing problems with, are all the suppliers meters internal? As opposed to being sited in an OMB. Interesting really, as I'm working on new build. would be nice to know if any issues will surface with my customer.
PS inverter will be approx a further 4 m from where it could of gone on gable wall in loft space. they have fitted 2 x rotary isolator switches there. 2 x lots of solar panels.
 
Is there not a possibility of siting the meter in the rectum of the meter reader, although a messy job at the initial stages, I can foresee the nit-picking complaints stopping almost straight away, a wifi version may be needed but it can also save on site visits as he has instant access to reading.... now this is not my field so do point out any pitfalls you may foresee, I estimate that from the reputation off these Meter lot that they are all massive A-holes so each could fit his local areas requirements behind his chocolate starfish for reference purposes.

In one context you can say that the sun does really shine out of their ---... well in digital form!
 
It's about access to the meter - it's that simple. When we had our check last year the meter reader had to take note of the position of the meter. I asked why and he said they had to do basic assessments about risk to access the meter.

It's not technical, so the meter reader doesn't need to have any technical knwledge, but it is a breach of the MCS meter guidelines and i'm fairly sure Building Control because we asked this question years ago when the rent a roof companies were installing in the loft. The meter has to be in an accessible place so that you can read it easily. I suspect it's the utility companies that have instigated the process.
 

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