controversial topic for the electricians out there today when undertaking an installation of
a home EV charger can you install additional equipment within the meter box enclosure
well this one is going to be interesting we got called out on social media because we installed a
current transformer and a passive device in the form of the Harvi within the meter box and got
posed the question Gordon can we do that yeah well they're probably pretty categorical that
you couldn't um and we're gonna unpack that during this video but before we do that Gary
let's just remind ourselves what we mean when it comes to a meter box enclosure okay let's have a
look at one of those then bring that in so what have we got inside this box yeah traditionally
there we go we've got the cut-out fuse we've got a kilowatt-hour meter and the appropriate
tails and that equipment will be owned by the DNO and or maybe the uh metering company that
installed that as well so that's what we've got yeah so the electrician is only responsible
for yeah the connect bringing the tails in there and having them available to connect
um and we'll come under who actually owns the meter box a little bit later um but let's just cut
to what we're seeing on social media when it comes to EV charger installation we'll bring that one in
and uh yeah so what's been added to this box well notice we've got a 100 amp switch now it
wasn't in our first one but you can also see a consumer unit there so someone's thought it's
easy to install the consumer unit there the EV charging point is likely to be on the same wall
and in very close proximity to this meter cabinet and also you can piggyback into those tails kind
of you can pick up that supply that's needed for that consumer unit in that location as well
yeah so what don't we have much of in that in that box we don't have a lot of room i would suggest
now that consumer unit has been installed yeah and i think that's the concern here that yeah all
the room has been taken up by that additional installation and should that meter be changed
in the future yeah you know who knows what this new smart world looks like that we're going into
there could be a possibility that additional equipment needs to be fitted in there by the
DNO or the meter operator and unfortunately the space is already gone yeah and we've seen it a lot
on social media as well it's that if somebody else has done it and taken a photograph of it and left
it on Instagram Twitter etc or even produced a video it becomes well we can obviously do that
because such and such and such and such and such have done it yeah and uh and yeah you get sort of
lulled into a false sense of security so this is not a one-off let's just cover some other images
that we found out there um yeah again similar situation there's a small consumer unit being
added all the room has been taken off yeah if the supply authorities come along the DNO's come along
and they want to change that meter for something else there's not a lot of room it's been taken up
we can also talk about some other constraints as well around things like the temperature obviously
you've added some equipment in there and that might create a temperature that's
different yeah so with obviously efixx we like to help electricians out and bring some clarity
to the situation so for your gain uh we threw ourselves at the mercy of the DNO's and asked
the question whether this situation is allowable um you know you know somehow as guidance changed
or something else and we decided to uh ask all of the DNO's right okay we did yeah and it took
a while to get some responses but we did get some responses and it got all the way up to the top
didn't it yes it did so um yeah a few of uh DNO's responded directly to us uh particularly the ones
who are very proactive in terms when it comes to the EV situation um and the others bumped it
up to the Energy Networks Association um which is essentially the trade body for all of the
DNO's operating in the UK um and yeah their their response we'll come to in a minute um but you'll
probably recognize the ENA because they're the people who come up with a form that uh basically
the permission to connect for an EV charger that has to go off when you install one anywhere so the
answer from them would probably be the answer won't it yes so let's just cut to that let's
uh let's this is the official answer that we got back so while the meter cabinet is the customers
a bit of clarification for you there it is a space designed for the use of the electricity industry
operators only and no allowance is made for additional equipment for safety reasons we would
not recommend that any internal wiring including a consumer unit is installed within the cabinet
okay wow so i'll shorten that because i like a short answer that's no yeah i think that
was that's quite a polite no um not all of them were polite though that we got back were they no
no there was there was it's some of the DNO's also responded directly and once we have a uh obviously
a relationship with some other matters we've dealt with including looped supplies yeah check that
video out if you haven't seen that it was yes a no and they did mention that the meter box has been
designed around equipment they understand which is meters and cutouts and temperature rise could be a
potential issue that they are concerned about one of the DNO's went a little bit further than that
so it wasn't uh just a no and you're in breach of your electricity supply agreement which would
state that as part of them supplying you with electricity you're responsible for maintaining an
area to house the meter and associated equipment so what's the worst case scenario what could they
do to us if we start installing stuff within their cabinet uh well they would want the um they would
want that equipment removed from the cabinet okay and if you don't remove it Gary what could happen
now they could actually take something out of your cabinet to free up a bit more space that would be
your cut-out fuse whether it be 60 80 or 100 amps could be removed from that location therefore no
supply to you yes on the worst case scenario yeah you could lose your electricity supply and that's
probably quite an extreme measure but they'd probably suggest that you got the electrician
who installed that equipment in there to come back and remove it to an area that's
allowed for that equipment so if we're talking about where we're allowed to do it if i'm looking
at a meter cabinet i'm normally thinking consumer unit it's probably the other side of the wall
we've done a video on how long your tails can be from that area and to your consumer unit so
why are they actually going into the meter cabinet when we're actually that close possibly to the
consumer unit yeah again we know that EV charge points are right yeah and it's quite a competitive
market so it's a lot of time it's down the cost and obviously ease convenience for the customer
as we know in our video we had to change the whole consumer unit yeah we did to do our EV connection
um and obviously an easy way around that's to add an additional consumer unit but
as again we saw in that installation the consumer unit is in the hallway customers probably don't
want that disruption and another box in in quite a prominent area of the house yeah so it's driven by
cost we've done a video on how much does it cost to install an EV charger and i recommend you check
that one out so we we probably removed the need to change the consumer unit like we did because
we needed another fuse way putting a separate board in a hallway or a prominent area is a bit
unsightly so you sort of sneak it into the meter cabinet and shut the door nobody knows
it's there do they yeah and again you see a lot of these images on social media where you see
the nice shiny EV charger installed and you see the cable neatly clipped along the wall and you
say where's that cable going oh it's just gone into the meter box yeah and then we don't see the
photographs of that area do we so we'll probably see less of those photographs after this video
i would say it would be naïve to continue doing that practice because EV's going to be rolled out
we know it's going to be massive it's where we're going whether we believe it or not we're all going
to end up having a battery-powered car in our lifetime so we're going to need to charge it so
let's get in front of this problem what we suggest with a solution so this is obviously is understood
um and here's here's what we found some other images again this is what other people are doing
uh on across on social media you can see what they added there underneath
there Gary wow we've now got a consumer unit outside of the installation for me i'd probably
want to be able to lock that i wouldn't want somebody to nip down the side of mine and turn
my EV off yeah it's one of those it's a brave pill moment isn't it all of a sudden now we've
got an EV charging point on the outside of the building and now we've introduced a consumer unit
and predominantly that's because it's driven by cost I would suggest they would have suggested
it's cheaper to do that than change the board as we've suggested earlier but it does mean you've
got another piece of real estate on the outside of your house and i might be able to get away with it
was on the side of the house would you be able to get away with it on the front of your property uh
no that would be mean i've got some more examples here uh some other ones yeah i mean as as yeah i'd
have a challenging conversation if that was on the front of the house it's not the most attractive we
love Zappi chargers but then we've suddenly got all that conduit and we've got another
small consumer unit there yeah that would that would be a challenging challenging place to go
obviously the size of that consumer unit does very much depend upon the EV charger of course it does
yeah so we've got the technology for protecting the pen faults and that's sometimes remote and we
yeah yeah the Zappi is packed full of a RCD um and yeah the pen fault protection and other things
um check out our video when we install one of those as well because again fantastic however i'm
looking at that one and like you i'm looking at and thinking i'll probably get away with that on
the side of my property that little bit of plastic conduit the EV charger because obviously my car's
going to be there when i'm charging it up probably screening it off and when the car isn't there i'm
probably out in it and i'm not looking at the side of the wall but i see where you're coming from
yeah yeah it depends and some of some EV charges are sold on the looks we've looked at the Anderson
charger before on the channel which it comes with a selection of different wood finishes Gary so
unless uh unless consumer unit manufacturers are going to come up with some matching
wood finishes and things like that there's uh well there's a potential for a new product range there
um yeah then will we see more of this will we see some more innovations in terms of
better looking enclosures for outdoor consumer units yeah that's a big question and hopefully
one that will develop over time but we can just clarify again we can't just because it
doesn't look great on the outside we can't slip it into that meter box all the DNO's that we've
contacted have said no haven't they yes and yeah through the trade association as well the ones who
didn't get back to us directly um but we can also clarify something else Gary in terms of
who actually owns that meter box right okay when the door blows off you know the little catch
that comes down there's a very small piece of fiberglass there and if you end up just
breaking that off that'll thing or flap all day long and you end up with a bit of duct tape on it
and you'd like to think of that stage the people that own the space may be within that you'll
clarify that for me in a minute would come and replace that door and box for you is that right
no so that yeah so you do you do own the meter box it passes to you once you've signed that
electricity supply agreement but you are still responsible for maintaining enough space in there
so that your supply can be suitably maintained and upgraded if it needs to be so i'm in the box
and they're allowed to use a space within it yeah it's not so loose so on that bombshell
i would obviously love your comments on this situation um how are you installing EV chargers
and you know especially when it comes to these quick installs where you've got that hugely
attractive meter box that you want to access what are you doing about this does what we've presented
in this video cause you to uh possibly change that way or have you got a great solution um to solve
this problem bang those comments in below and we'll hopefully get back to as many as we can