Replacing tails.......notifiable?

S60TEM · Mar 21, 2011

Just a quick one really,

Went to a job last week to install a secondary telephone socket and a single socket in a porch to which I issued a MWC for. Now on Isolating the circuit at the DB I noticed that it was fed from the meter by a 10mm T&E instead of meter tails! Now, I told the customer the situation and advised that he needed to replace this ASAP. The tails from the DNO fuse to the meter are 16mm and the main earth is 10mm so all is good but he said an electrician had installed the new DB a little while ago and he put in the 10mm T&E to the board!

Now the seal fairy has obviously been to remove the seal on the main fuse so i'm going to replace the "tails" for my customer. Is it notifiable or just replacement like for like?

cheers.

Scott.

Andy™ · Mar 21, 2011

replacing tails is not one of the work done listed on elecsa site, and its not listed as notifiable on approved document p either

Manator · Mar 21, 2011

If your replacing from the meter to the DB the seal for the meter will have to be removed, this is even more serious than the main fuse, in that suppliers always think fraud is the reason why the seal is not there. I would normally leave this and contact the supplier not the DNO, if they give permission to carry out the work then all well and good. The last time I did this they asked for the meter number and the meter reading, then they booked a re seal with the customer.

As a quick fix it is possible to replace the tails into a henly leaving enough slack for the meter guy to connect into the meter at a later date. It would not be notifiable but I would issue a EIC to supply the information about supply characteristics to the CU, valid of course once they have connected the new tails into the meter.

ProDave · Mar 21, 2011

Yet another grey area.

The DNO will not connect tails into the CU.

If you are going to do it "by the book" the best you can do is fit new tails into the CU, then terminate these into a couple of temporary henley blocks still leaving a little of the old 10mm tails to the meter, then get the DNO to come and connect it.

If you are doing an official DNO temporary disconnection, then usually just tell the DNO guy what you are doing and he will be happy for you to cut the meter seals to terminate your new tails, and he will re seal it.

You may also be lucky and find you have one of the new Siemens meters with a built in isolator. Very often these are never sealed on the output side, so if you have one of those you can just do the job.

As always whenever you have to do work like this, how easy it is depends a lot on your DNO, and who the energy supplier is.

In a case like this if you have any trouble getting a temporary isolation, then I would fit my new tails into the meter, then phone the DNO and report a "dangerous meter tails" fault, for which they should come out immediately. They might not like you for doing that, but sometimes that's the only way to get them to attend. Once there, after he's huffed and puffed, he should just connect the new tails into the meter and re seal.

Manator · Mar 21, 2011

The DNO will not touch anything past the meter prodave, unless they are also the supplier. You have to contact the energy supplier because the tails are being replaced from the meter to the CU. Again its one of those jobs that if done right can be a lot of red tape, and very often speaking to people who have no idea what your talking about on the phone.

ProDave · Mar 21, 2011

The DNO will not touch anything past the meter prodave, unless they are also the supplier. You have to contact the energy supplier because the tails are being replaced from the meter to the CU. Again its one of those jobs that if done right can be a lot of red tape, and very often speaking to people who have no idea what your talking about on the phone.

Which is why, if you can't get through the red tape to do it officially, phone the DNO to report a "dangerous situation" (and who could argue that 10mm tails were not dangerous?) and they should come immediately irrespective of who the energy supplier is.

As I say, they might huff and puff and say it's not their job, but they will then usually do it as it's so quick and simple.

I only advise that as a last measure when you can't get through the red tape to get it done properly. That must be better than advising any other course of action that I may choose to make myself.

I hope the OP comes back and lets us know how he gets on, as it will help build up a picture of which DNO's / energy suppliers are helpful, and which just want to do everything possible to prevent the job being done properly.