Read a high up electricity meter

Why not get the meter moved to a more convenient heigt?

I am with Octopus and read my own meter. Octopus suggest taking a photo of the readings anyway.

You can buy Bluetooth Telescopic Sticks for about £6. That would enable you to take a photo with a smart phone. Then you have an evidenced reading.

Here’s the ebay link. I’ve shortened it with Tiny URL else it’s several lines long but perfectly safe to click.

tinyurl.com/yn3pjamv

If you have a mobile phone with a camera, use a selfie stick. We had a meter moved about twenty years ago and, although I can't remember the cost, I can remember being shocked by it. I don't know if it's still the same, but back then only the electricity company was allowed to do it.

Dear Truman - how I sympathise! My GAS meter is 10cm off the ground outside my house. The terrain is gritty and full of stones. I have to use my garden kneeler to get down low enough to read the meter.

Unfortunately I do not have a smart phone or a normal camera. It is very expensive to move a meter. I just thought someone would have brought out a stick with a magnifying glass at one end which would rely it to a digital readout on the other end. Oh well I will just have to put up with it. Thanks for your ideas.

Explain to your energy provider how difficult it is for you and ask them to come and take a reading for you. They are familiar with this situation.

Why do you not want a smart meter?

I am very happy with my smart meter. It saves me so much hassle.

I dont trust them. A lot go wrong an take ages to fix. A DIY man told me if the batteries go they turn off both gas and electricity and the utility company has to come out and fix them. Also I think in the future with all this Net Zero rubbish they will be able to control our power in our houses at a whim.

truman

I dont trust them. A lot go wrong an take ages to fix. A DIY man told me if the batteries go they turn off both gas and electricity and the utility company has to come out and fix them. Also I think in the future with all this Net Zero rubbish they will be able to control our power in our houses at a whim.

Thats is all a bit vague an indetermined.

Anyway, how can a smart meter be dependent on batteries when it is channelling a live electricity current? Any battery present is there to keep it ticking over if there is a power cut and the ones in the gizmo they give you to put in your kitchen is merely an easy read display. I never use mine, do not even know where it is. It probably ran out of battery years ago.

As for your power being turned off if the battery runs out! Well, thankfully nobody told me about that so it hasn't happened. I am sorry, but that really does defy belief.

DIY people have told me some pretty silly things in the past. I have just kept quiet and not told them I worked in the gas industry for many years.

We have had smart meters for 20 years or more, the first updated to a better one 5 years ago and never had any problems at all

Ordinary non-smart meters go wrong. Lots of peoples have had problems with them, in fact any mechanical item, or electronic, even,can go wrong, it isn't limited to smart meters.

As for controlling the power in our house in the future, they can do that now. They just switch the supply off, easy peasy.

Have you tried a pair of binoculars?

I would ring the electricity company and ask them to send someone to move the meter down to a cnvenient height, or tell you whether any qualified electrician can do so for you.

I think it's your electricity company's responsibility to make reading it safe for the consumer.
I'd call them first and see what they say.

I admit I think about this quite a lot as ours is 3 metres off the ground!
Luckily thete are 2 of us - one to climb and one to foot the stepladder!

Why not just tell your supplier that you cannot supply a reading because the meter is too high for you to read it and that if they want an accurate reading they will have to come and do it themselves.

Climbing on anything to read a meter is a health and safety issue.

We have the same problem - meter reading requires climbing a ladder. We have now succumbed to having both meters 'smart read'. End of this month. One daughter has a smart meter and not had any problems.

@Truman You are right to be cautious. A friend up North had her smart meter stop working on Christmas Day morning, with a family meal to cook. There was no customer support available over the Christmas period for two days! Fortunately her daughter lived a short car ride away so was able to rescue Christmas Day.

As long as you remember that Smart meters are mainly there for the benefit of the supplier and the customer then have one. Remember that a smart meter does not save you money - I was brought up to turn off lights , close doors and put on a jumper rather than a heater . No smart meters will tell you to do any of those. My understanding is that the new meters will not be dependent on 3G which is being phased out. I also believe that the mis-reading of smart meters by the energy firms is now unlikely. Yes they do give out radiation but it should be no more than the average TV

If you dont have a smart phone. Try this ol trick. Tie a mirror to the end of a old mop pole at an angle.

Then lift the pole at angle to get near a level with the meter..Maybe also use a torch. If it is dark.

Or what about a smart meter?

I have the opposite problem with the gas meter and I've had a smart meter since house built 16 years ago.
I have to lie on the grass and concrete slabs in my front garden to read the gas meter. It's so low and at an angle I can't read just bending down. Why not a smart meter? Don't know if it will cost but you could perhaps have meter moved, though no doubt youll be encouraged to go "smart". No help on telescopic gadgets afraid.

Take a photo with your phone on zoom. I have the opposite my electric meter is on the floor in hall cupboard.

I was told my outside meter could only go where it was put...completely out of my reach and I can't see well enough to read it.Luckily I love my smart meter....but of course when the electricity is off...

JacquiG

@Truman You are right to be cautious. A friend up North had her smart meter stop working on Christmas Day morning, with a family meal to cook. There was no customer support available over the Christmas period for two days! Fortunately her daughter lived a short car ride away so was able to rescue Christmas Day.

The electricity supply does not rely on the smart meter working. If you unplugged your smart meter and allowed its small battery to run down, you would still have power and your original meter would still measure what you have used.

truman

I dont trust them. A lot go wrong an take ages to fix. A DIY man told me if the batteries go they turn off both gas and electricity and the utility company has to come out and fix them. Also I think in the future with all this Net Zero rubbish they will be able to control our power in our houses at a whim.

This sounds like either a joke or an urban myth, as smart meters do not have batteries.
The in-house displays do, but they have no effect on the energy entering a property. If they did, the many thousands of customers who turn these displays off and stuff them in a drawer would surely have no energy whatsoever, which definitely is not the case.

I resisted getting a smart meter for ages but have had no issues since I got one. It allowed me to take advantage of a better deal which was only available to those with smart meters. It now enables me to take advantage of the peak save deals with British Gas where I get half price electricity between certain hours, only measurably with a smart meter.
Now I no longer have issues reading the gas meter which was in a very awkward position!
Now I just have to deal with reading the water meter which is down a hole in the pavement, not easy with my old knees, but I do use my phone camera for that. Unfortunately I do have to get down on hands and knees to access it in the first place!
Get a smart meter. You won't regret it.

Why all this bending and stretching and climbing rickety ladders to read the meter?

Just tell your supplier that you cannot read the meter because you cannot access it and put the ball in their court to find a solution.