UK EON smart meter installation nightmare

[ukepunk]

Hi All
On the 2nd November an EON contractor attempted to fit an electricity smart meter at my address. He was unable to do so because the property was out of range.
I live in a rented property and my landlord let him in and out. When I arrived home a few hours later the fuses had blown on my broadband router, my printer and also my desktop PC which was on sleep. I managed to fix the router and the printer with new fuses but unfortunately the motherboard on my PC had blown. I might add that all this equipmant was pluged into a surge protector. I have been advised by two different electricians that the contractor has not 'powered down' when putting the fuse back into the main power supply thus causing a massive surge.
EON have refused to take responsibility after an initial apology for 'damaging my equipment' and have finally sent me a letter with a statement from the contractor that says he did everything by the book (Well he would say that would'nt he?) and that is final.
I have 10 days to submit any evidence to the energy ombudsman who say that I definitely have a case with EON.
Has anyone else heard of had any experiences of this kind of issue? I'm aware of problems with boilers after smart meter installation.
Any advice/evidence would be much appreciated. I am self employed and this has caused me a big headache not to mention the hassle of even trying to get EON to even speak to me!
Many thanks in advance.

 

[jay sean]

We had smart meters fitted a few years ago, with the gas he had to check the boiler and took the cover off our potterton prima and broke the fixing cover in the process.
Eon spoke to the guy who said the cover was like that before he took the cover off, I told Eon that this was untrue, not that they belived me, I could not prove it.

I got £10 in compensation. I was not very happy.

You should stand your ground, they should have switched off the main switch and switched it back on after the supply was back on.

 

[MJPD29]

From what I gather meter fitters in UK have very little electrical qualifications. From seeing posts on here their work is rough and sometimes dangerous compared to what I see here, problem is fighting those large companies can be very difficult.

 

[LukeD]

we have refused to let EON swap our meter out for a Smart one.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Is the supply to the property a standard single-phase one or is it 3-phase?

The explanation of a surge sounds attractive but is not actually very likely, especially with single-phase supplies. In disconnecting and reconnecting a single-phase meter, the most he could have done was to glitch the supply on and off a few times, which would not normally result in blown fuses. It might crash a digital device requiring a reset, but not readily damage any hardware.

With a 3-phase supply there are other things that can go wrong through installer error, such as accidentally disconnecting the neutral while the lines are still connected, or interchanging one line and neutral during reconnection. This can result in 400V being supplied to 230V equipment which is a recognised cause of failures. Damage caused specifically by connection to 400V can sometimes be identified by internal inspection, and distinguished from conventional surge damage eg from a lightning strike to the supply network.

Which fuses did you replace - plug fuses or internal? It is rare for a plug fuse to blow without permanent damage to such a small PSU, unless it's a larger PoE unit with quite a sizeable PSU. And what was up with the PC motherboard? I can envisage various kinds of damage to the PC PSU, but it would take something like a lightning hit to propagate through to the mobo because there is a high level of isolation between the mains input and the ELV DC circuits leaving the power supply itself. Even with a 3-phase 400V cross-connection incident I would still expect the PC PSU to be fried but the motherboard to be OK. You didn't mention replacing the PSU - was this in fact damaged?

 

[Vortigern]

What do you mean "...my motherboard had blown..."? Are you saying there was an explosion of capacitors or melted components? Or is that the BIOS was damaged or what exactly? Did the electricains PAT test your extension lead/products? Does anyone else living near you have a smart meter? In my experience the smart meter will be installed irregardless of connection to the HAN which is used to speak to you meter. I have been in more than a few places where smart meters are installed with no connection to the network.
The installer says he went "by the book" I am surprised he did not isolate vulnerable equipment or if he could not ascertain the state of such, delayed installing. It is a bit puzzling when the reason is the HAN/WAN is out of range. Does this mean he installed the meter then took it out and put the old one back?
You could ask for a copy of the checks and reports issued by the installer, it may help. Do you know how long he was there?

 

[Darkwood]

Be wary Eon cannot just demand anything at this point like 10 days , they have to allow you enough time to send your pc in for inspection and the result of that would be your defense, however at this stage the cost lies on your shoulders, only if you can show the motherboard failed due to surges etc then you are kinda on a losing battle, it would take hard drive evidence it was working prior to the visit through timestamps and then a report that an external electrical issue was the probable culprit, then all your costs could be claimed.
They are a big company with money for solicitors, I cannot say if what happened is their fault or just coincidence, if your computer is always plugged in permanently but just in sleep etc then a power outage can see normally warm hot components fail which isn't as uncommon as people realise, factory shut downs and machinery issues are a regular thing I deal with and basically the electronics are energised for so long, 6 months plus in some cases that when the boards finally switch off and cool down they can get component failure.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

@Darkwood makes a good point there, that equipment that has been powered for years without a break and worked flawlessly, sometimes fails at the next power cycle. I've seen this quite often with installed media equipment that goes into standby under system control but is never powered down from one year to the next. That doesn't explain blown fuses, but it's worth bearing in mind in this kind of scenario. Again, it is sometimes possible to identify equipment that has failed in this way.

 

[davesparks]

Any advice/evidence would be much appreciated. I am self employed and this has caused me a big headache not to mention the hassle of even trying to get EON to even speak to me!

My advice is to let your insurance deal with it, they'll decide whether they want to pursue eon or just pay the claim.

 

[brianmoooore]

@ukepunk You haven't answered the first sentence of Lucien's post #5 yet. This is an important question, since with a split or three phase supply it's easy to cause damage, but not so likely with a single phase.

 

[ukepunk]

@ukepunk You haven't answered the first sentence of Lucien's post #5 yet. This is an important question, since with a split or three phase supply it's easy to cause damage, but not so likely with a single phase.

Hi Brian, thanks for your reply and sorry for the late response. How can I tell if it's a split or three phase supply?

 

[brianmoooore]

Pic of the service head would do.

 

[Midwest]

Eon changed my Smart meters a couple of years ago. If I recall, I was advised to switch off & unplug appliances.

I think the 'because the property was out of range' reference, is the limited range of Bluetooth between meter and In House Display? Mines just a few meters and on same wall as meter, and always displays 'weak signal'.

 

[telectrix]

theycan stick their fart meters here the sun never sines afaiac, onlyway to save on leccy bills is tothurn bloody things off. no matter what sort of meter youse got.

 

[ukepunk]

Pic of the service head would do.

Thanks Brian
Is this it?!

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[ukepunk]

Be wary Eon cannot just demand anything at this point like 10 days , they have to allow you enough time to send your pc in for inspection and the result of that would be your defense, however at this stage the cost lies on your shoulders, only if you can show the motherboard failed due to surges etc then you are kinda on a losing battle, it would take hard drive evidence it was working prior to the visit through timestamps and then a report that an external electrical issue was the probable culprit, then all your costs could be claimed.
They are a big company with money for solicitors, I cannot say if what happened is their fault or just coincidence, if your computer is always plugged in permanently but just in sleep etc then a power outage can see normally warm hot components fail which isn't as uncommon as people realise, factory shut downs and machinery issues are a regular thing I deal with and basically the electronics are energised for so long, 6 months plus in some cases that when the boards finally switch off and cool down they can get component failure.

Thanks but the PC is barely a year old and normally turned off when not in use. I had left the house at 7 that morning and printed something off to take with me then left it in sleep mode. I've had2 power cuts since moving here whilst using it and no damage done. The fact that this time the surge from the installation blew the fuses in my router, my printer and also ruined a perfectly good desktop pc up tells me,as advised that the installation process is to blame.
I had a perfectly good PC before the installation and now I don't.

 

[ukepunk]

Update.
According to the energy Ombudsman I have a legitimate case. It has now been logged with them.

 

[Welchyboy1]

From what I gather meter fitters in UK have very little electrical qualifications. From seeing posts on here their work is rough and sometimes dangerous compared to what I see here, problem is fighting those large companies can be very difficult.

Yes I would agree with that, and also the amount of times they will reconnect existing undersized, single insulated or vir tails to a smart meter, then seal it, preventing me from legally replacing them is truly frustrating when upgrading a consumer unit

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Update.
According to the energy Ombudsman I have a legitimate case. It has now been logged with them.

Good to hear, I hope it works out for you. I'm still interested to understand what occurred because I have a strong interest in the vulnerabilites of electronic equipment. In my work, I build racks and systems of computers and studio equipment which then travel the world and are exposed to some harsh conditions. This includes dodgy local power from 3rd-world networks, unattended generators that run out of fuel and start misfiring, field distribution systems with faulty earthing etc. Damage is rare especially for equipment behind a UPS, but it does happen, and I get to diagnose and repair it at component level. Sometimes, I also serve as an expert witness when other people experience damage, so I have built up quite a clear picture over time of the usual ways that bad power damages electronics. Your situation does not neatly fit the pattern, which makes it interesting.

Would you mind answering a few questions to help me understand? The fuses you replaced... were these plug fuses? What size? What VA rating is the router PSU? I assume it's a brick with a detachable power lead (most home routers have a wall-wart PSU with a non-replaceable fuse). Did you replace the fuse in the surge protector strip? Does that have an indicator light for surge protection functioning, and is that still lit after the event? Do you know what was damaged on the computer mobo? Was the PSU also damaged?

Thank you!

 

[Darkwood]

Thanks but the PC is barely a year old and normally turned off when not in use. I had left the house at 7 that morning and printed something off to take with me then left it in sleep mode. I've had2 power cuts since moving here whilst using it and no damage done. The fact that this time the surge from the installation blew the fuses in my router, my printer and also ruined a perfectly good desktop pc up tells me,as advised that the installation process is to blame.
I had a perfectly good PC before the installation and now I don't.

As I pointed out, it is often down to you to prove the case at your own initial cost, simply saying what happened in your experience is not often enough as people do lie (not suggesting you are), send in your computer to a reputable repair agent and get a report without repair, this would go some way to stand up for your case, the meter installer maybe the culprit here, he could have done the cable connections live without isolating your main switch which could easily have spiked your connected loads, this is not the issue, proving it is the issue.