Getting ESB to move meter V waiting for new meter

Richard Roma

We've bought a house which had a fairly recent garage conversion. Unfortunately, that room has a big ugly old-style meter. We're considering asking ESB to move it. Am I right in saying they charge C. €500 to come out, in addition to whatever the builder charges us?

Ideally, we'd keep costs down by swapping it for a new smaller meter. Does anyone know whether the ESB would typically agree to that sort of thing, or whether they'll just maintain it needs to be moved outside?

The ESB said in September 2017 that they'd install smart meters in all houses by the end of 2019. It's also tempting to wait for that and avoid any costs. I wonder if that's a realistic timeframe.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on a smart meter installation. Things may have changed but they used only move a meter if it was to an outside cabinet.

Luckysasha

Your looking for a “ meter relocation “ which will cost you €500 plus vat to ESB. You will also need a cert from your own electrician to cover the new meter tails to your existing fuse board he will need to install. So factor in his price say another €300. You will also have to pay your builder to cut an opening in your outside wall and install a meter cabinet so probably a grand or so. So your talking roughly €2000 just to hide an unsightly meter !!! Just do what everyone else does and build a press around it.
As regards to the smart meter roll out they will only swap your existing meter where it is located now no alterations will be carried out.

Richard Roma

Cheers. Yeah, I know that they won’t change the location of the meters whenever they install the new ones. At least the eye-sore would be a lot smaller.
The current box is in a very awkward position, and as we’re pulling up the floorboards we feel like it’s now or never. Is it dangerous to have the box in the house, in terms of hitting off the main wire?

whosedaddy?

Hi,
what did you end up doing? Did you move it?
I'm in similar position. Meter in garage and we want to convert.
Meter is in the way of a new door opening and we would need to move up or sideways by about 50cm. Cable is coming in from overhead, so cable wise moving it woudn't be an issue.
But i hear ESB will only move to outside - which I'm not prepared to do / pay for, as no benefit to me.

Tenshot

Are you on a 24-hour or day/night meter at the moment? I think you can switch to a day/night meter for free (it costs to switch back), and you might be able to sweet-talk the installation guy into moving it up the wall a bit.

See https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057796649

whosedaddy?

we are on a 24h meter.
thanks for the suggestion, will check it out.

Richard Roma

whosedaddy? wrote: »

Hi,
what did you end up doing? Did you move it?
I'm in similar position. Meter in garage and we want to convert.
Meter is in the way of a new door opening and we would need to move up or sideways by about 50cm. Cable is coming in from overhead, so cable wise moving it woudn't be an issue.
But i hear ESB will only move to outside - which I'm not prepared to do / pay for, as no benefit to me.

We didn’t move it. Our cable was underground. ESB informed us we’d have to isolate it at the bottom of our driveway digging the whole thing up. The cost of that proved prohibitive.

My understanding was that they’d only move it outside.

If you’re still considering moving then I’d recommend getting on to them ASAP as there’s a big backlog of requests.

Richard Roma

whosedaddy? wrote: »

we are on a 24h meter.
thanks for the suggestion, will check it out.

Interesting. Will look into that. Thanks.

whosedaddy?

Richard Roma wrote: »

We didn’t move it. Our cable was underground. ESB informed us we’d have to isolate it at the bottom of our driveway digging the whole thing up. The cost of that proved prohibitive.

My understanding was that they’d only move it outside.

If you’re still considering moving then I’d recommend getting on to them ASAP as there’s a big backlog of requests.

thanks. Will call them. and need to talk to our contractor asap as well..