Converting gas to electricity...

[SGirl]

...how easy is it?

Some background to start with. We have just a gas hob and a small gas wall heater in our house. And some genius fitted the gas meter in the airing cupboard, right at the bottom, at the back. Which makes it difficult to access because we keep stuff in and around the airing cupboard.

As a result of this, I've asked British Gas to phone if they need to see the meter, and not to call round on spec because it's not the 2-second job their meter readers always seem to think it is.

About 4 years ago, we were due a meter change. Nothing exciting there - appointment was made, airing cupboard was emptied. The guy turned up, looked at it, said "hm, you need an outdoor meter there, I can't fit those. Someone will need to arrange an outdoor meter for you" and cleared off. I tried to find out which company they'd sent round in order to make an appointment for an outdoor meter - no luck in finding out who it was, and no attempt was made to contact me to fit a new meter. Ho hum. Every time I speak to British Gas, I ask about it - but still nobody can assist. Curious.

Since then, it's just been the same old thing of meter readers turning up and me asking them to come back when they have an appointment.

Then last month, it was time for the Meter Safety Inspection! (Excitement!) Cleared out the airing cupboard, got everything sorted, bloke peered at meter for 30 seconds, went away again. Good. All fine and above board.

Now this morning, I have a "revenue protection officer" from British Gas on my doorstep at 8.25, asking to see the meter. "Not without an appointment", says I. Same as has been noted on their database for some years now. He then goes on to explain that since I refuse to let them see the meter without an appointment, they just like to check we're not up to anything dodgy. So I explained that the meter had its safety inspection on 10 October (noted in my phone calendar, showed him the entry even!), and that he doesn't need to look at it again, less than a month later. He insisted that the safety inspection is separate from the revenue protection inspection and he still needs to see it. And there was I thinking it was just a matter of looking at the numbers and making sure they're still incrementing. I assumed the word of a British Gas employee would suffice. Silly me.

So essentially, I'm totally fed up with British Gas. The head end has no idea what the @rse end is doing, I still can't find anyone who knows who's responsible for meter replacement, and I just want shot of them since we use so little gas anyway. So just how hard is it to replace a gas hob with an electric one and a wall heater? Would I have to have the gas piping removed from the property, or can it just be blanked off? Can the same person remove the gas fittings and replace them with electric ones?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Scraggles]

look for corgi registered fitter to remove stuff, ask to see their badge and know what it looks like

got central heating ? probably gas

check out http://www.ebico.co.uk/html/home.php

[SGirl]

Thanks Scraggles. No, no central heating. Just the two appliances running off the gas.

[Dogwatch]

I'd copy and paste your post into a letter and send it to British Gas (with your account details of course). With the problem set out in front of them someone may finally do something. There is likely to be be a charge for repositioning the meter though, if that is what you want. Otherwise formally request disconnection.
Phoning is a waste of time and if you saw some of the unintelligible gibberish which call centres feed to back offices you wonder why people bother to ring except for the simplest enquiry.

[Ribol]

Why not just change gas supplier?

The next lot can't possibly be as bad as British Gas.

[ferg]

You could easily have the gas capped off. The pipework doesn't need to come out, but your supplier will want to take the meter away before stopping charging.

As an aside, I'm not surprised they want to check your meter without an appointment. If someone told me they could only check it when they told me I could I'd immediately suspect they:

a. Had a second meter (nicked) and they were substituting it between readings,
b. Had a bypass pipe fabricated for the same purpose, or
c. Turned their meter around to run it backwards for a period between readings.

[SGirl]

Dogwatch said:

I'd copy and paste your post into a letter and send it to British Gas (with your account details of course). With the problem set out in front of them someone may finally do something. There is likely to be be a charge for repositioning the meter though, if that is what you want. Otherwise formally request disconnection.

Thanks Dogwatch. TBH I wouldn't mind paying to get the meter shifted, the amount it costs me in lost production every time they want to see the meter where it is at the moment would probably make it worth the expense!

Ribol said:

Why not just change gas supplier?

The next lot can't possibly be as bad as British Gas.

Depends. Who actually owns the pipelines and meter? If it's British Gas, aren't we just adding another tier of paperwork?

ferg said:

As an aside, I'm not surprised they want to check your meter without an appointment. If someone told me they could only check it when they told me I could I'd immediately suspect [...]

But to implement all of these, I'd need access to the meter myself. That's just it - it takes ages to actually empty the cupboard to get to the thing in the first place! If they want to get their bloke to come and empty the cupboard, read the meter and then put everything back in it again, they're very welcome to do that any time they like. But it's more than a 2-second job, so I can't leave the meter reader on the doorstep for an hour while I sort it, and they always seem to call round when I'm snowed under with work anyway. So the only option is to ask them to call back at a time that's convenient for me.

Thanks for all your input.

[Scraggles]

trying to get an electric meter that used to have a storage heater attached, they declined the removal as I might have a storage heater, well done to siemens for not RTFM

also it appears that have to have all appliances off the grid as they might get a shock, something the electric company forgot to mention

[Ribol]

SGirl said:

Ribol said:

Why not just change gas supplier?

The next lot can't possibly be as bad as British Gas.

Depends. Who actually owns the pipelines and meter? If it's British Gas, aren't we just adding another tier of paperwork?

Not at all, the people who come along and do it might well be the same but the problem is they are not being told to get it done in the first place.
If you change supplier the people putting the job out will be different and may well be better at getting things done. I moved from BG to Southern Electric for purely financial reasons, I thought all suppliers were the same, not so. This lot answer the phone and get things done, BG were hopeless, hence the suggestion.