When our Smart Meter was fitted, the guy from Octopus pulled the fuse, upgraded the tails and upgraded the fuse for us, sealing it afterwards.
Same here !.
The debate roll's on with regards to the who has legal permission to pull the main fuse as it belongs to the DNO.
But having them attend every time it needs disconnecting is just not workable.
So, it appears that some of the suitably training installers that work for the energy companies, are removing refitting & resealing them after the work is completed.
As a general sparky this so called process most be a nightmare.
Imagine, you are working on a row of terraced houses that all need a full rewire, and they all have different energy suppliers.
You are stuck on the phone trying in vain to contact each different supplier in order for them to come out and remove the main cut out fuse, is absolutely crazy.
On the other hand your energy company will install your a double pole switch at a cost, or maybe free, if you agree to a smart meter being installed ? .
We have a Smets 2 meter installed and when I approached Octopus with regards to a possible switch, they appear to have a better system.
They said they generally hold back from sending somebody out to replace the meter.
Opting for a more sensible route, of them trying to communicate with your current meters remotely first.
Now surely that is a better plan altogether ???.
I just wonder how many perfectly good meters have been removed and disposed of totally unnecessarily.
We had our complete service head upgraded by our local DNO who is SSC last year, the hardest job was getting an appointment, the actual job was done in less than one hour.
The THREE guys, allowed me to watch from a safe distance, as the it was on the internal wall of our garage.
House was built in 1982 and was kitted with a 60 Amp main cut out fuse.
I wanted to load switch some of our high usage items into the off peak time frame.
With the car on charge and other items in use, it was bordering close to the 60 Amp rating on the fuse.
I requested a 100 Amp upgrade, which means the service head has to be replaced also.
The 60 & 80 rated fuses are the same in actual size, but the 100 Amp fuse is physically larger.