Crossed Polarity smart meter into mains

[HS2018]

hello!

Just looking for some advise,
Basically we had an electrician fitting a new shower and lights yesterday, he tested a light socket before touching it (after turning all fuses off) and it was live... come to realisation an electrician working on behalf of an energy supplier had fitted the smartmeeter into the mains the wrong way round (crossed polarity?!) and all the sockets, light switches and light fittings were the same downstairs.
The electrician shut our electricity down straight away and told us we weren’t to turn anything on until the contractor came out to fix it as he couldn’t touch it, he said he’s amazed the house didn’t burn down (they came out, done reports, took photos 12 hours later with two children under 2 in the house) at 11pm
I’m just wondering how bad this is and where do we stand?
Obviously not getting much info from the energy suppliers and just wanted to know the best course of action


Thank you

 

[Octopus]

The electrician has mislead you ...................... if the installation is safe then reverse polarity isn't a big "day to day issue"

Shutting the power down was unnecessary IMHO, especially that time of night.

I think you need him to justify, in writing, why he did this!

 

[shaun1]

I'm not sure that I would agree that shutting down the power was unnecessary. Whilst the installation would function without issue if there were no other faults, if there were no RCDs present there would be very little protection against Live to earth faults.

I guess with RCDs present it would be much less of an issue, but without it wouldn't be that much safer than finding no fuses/overcurrent devices present at all

 

[HS2018]

Sorry, basically the electrician said the neutral and live from the smart meter were going into the main fuse socket the wrong way round (neutral into live and vice verse)so when we thought the electric was off, it wasn’t
So this is no concern?

 

[Deleted member 105166]

he said he’s amazed the house didn’t burn down

Really? Can he elaborate on why he thought this?

 

[HS2018]

The smartmeter has been installed for a year
Our electrician done work before this and only come back yesterday as we needed the shower putting in- that’s when he noticed the smartmeter had been installed into the mains incorrectly

 

[Bobster]

Sorry, basically the electrician said the neutral and live from the smart meter were going into the main fuse socket the wrong way round (neutral into live and vice verse)so when we thought the electric was off, it wasn’t
So this is no concern?

Got any pictures you can post?

If it's a modern consumer unit, the main switch will be double pole. So switching this off will have cut power across both live and neutral.

 

[HS2018]

This is the only photo I could take before the contractor electrician came out again, of the mains unit, my electrician said it has no seals on it either from the man who fitted the smartmeter

 

[Octopus]

Your "electrician" needs to do some reading ............... rather than scaring homeowners

As I previously stated "if the installation is safe then reverse polarity isn't a big "day to day issue"

It could be an issue is a DIYer or spark weren't practicing safe isolation .......

 

[HS2018]

Your "electrician" needs to do some reading ............... rather than scaring homeowners

As I previously stated "if the installation is safe then reverse polarity isn't a big "day to day issue"

It could be an issue is a DIYer or spark weren't practicing safe isolation .......

Thank you for your time and info