Been across to a neighbour’s to watch her TV - naturally wine was involved and, when the programme was over, we fell to discussing the fuel price rises and I was asked if I would read her meters for her. She had a knee replacement some years ago and can no longer kneel to read them herself. The Gas one was not so bad - in the under sink cupboard. But the electricity one - nightmare - had to lie on her kitchen floor half in, half out of a very small cupboard - with a torch in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. Had to position both of them very precisely to be able to read the meter at all. Both being somewhat mellow on Merlot - we speculated on what someone might think if they looked through her window - me flat on the kitchen floor - her hovering about with an empty wine bottle in hand! We both had a fit of the giggles - and it took me several attempts to stand up again.
I vaguely remember my parents house had all the meters inside. Daft, no wonder you have to do the readings yourself. All my meters (well, electricity and water) are outside so the meter reader doesn’t need me home to take the readings.
Like it!
The electric meter cupboard was a challenge for me with with my ancient bad legs, the torch, and the camera to view it. The gas meter is outside so a wee bit less of a challenge.
That gave me a laugh, ST.
My meters are in the garage & the garage is full of ‘stuff’, at 10 p.m. I said to my daughter I need my meters read before tomorrow, so out we went in the chilly night air, opened the garage door & had to move a lot of stuff out the way to get to said meters. Nearly fell over trying to reach them, Daughter managed after some difficulty to take photos of each one & we were able to post the numbers on line, after a wait, to my supplier. It was very busy there, never known it like that. They wouldn’t be so hard to see if there wasn’t so much ‘stuff’ in the garage, but it does make a good storage place.
I have a feeling they will relocate meters for you, if you struggle to reach them. Why has she put up with such a stoopid location all this time?
I am lucky here, as both of mine are on outside walls. I was especially glad about that when I had a gas leak in the meter cupboard recently, it would have been horrible with that stink indoors - although I would have smelled it quicker!
We had our electric meter moved outside nearly 30 years ago, and it cost us just over £100 then . Our gas meter isn’t difficult to get to, it’s just low down. I guess they position them right near the floor to minimise the amount of pipework needed, but it is very annoying!
Because my water meter is 50yds up the road on the path under a heavy manhole cover I asked if I could have my meter fitted inside my house . The meter man came and fitted it by my stop cock in a tiny cupboard in the kitchen
A few weeks later I decided to try read my water meter, I needed a torch and a cushion to kneel on , I peered into the dark hole ( no doubt full of spidery things ) and to my surprise found the meter upside down . So I had to get a mirror to read it backwards!
I tried a few times but gave up years ago . I’m too scared to even put my hand in this cubby hole in case the spidery things have got bigger .
Well boilers do quite often explode, and since you probably spend less time in your bedroom than the rest of the property, it makes sense to put the boiler where you are least likely to be if it does explode. Boilers are also much more likely to explode while they are operating, and they are usually turned off when you are in the bedroom, at night. Neither the manufacturers of the boilers, nor the engineers who fit them, will tell you this, but it really is the case.
Since the increasing trend is for people to have electric instead of gas boilers, I cannot by help wonder whether having a central heating system really is the best way. Is it really more efficient to heat water in one spot and then pump it around pipes to radiators? This seems to me to lead to some rooms being heated up when they don’t need to be as people don’t tend to go round and turn their radiators on or off regularly. And then there will be water left in pipes which you’ll have paid for to get heated but which you’ll never benefit from.
. Our gas meter isn’t difficult to get to, it’s just low down. I guess they position them right near the floor to minimise the amount of pipework needed, but it is very annoying!
