Any creative ideas for boxing in meters ???

[zak99]

Hi,

I've converted a dank old cellar to a nice bright room but have some ugly meters, cables and pipe on the stairwell. Need to box them in but I'm a bit blank on ideas. I'll probably sell the place so not looking to spend a fortune but its a nice place with character in a trendy area. Ideally would like a sort of funky, perhaps, industrial maybe reclaim sorta look (does that help !!! #-o )

I'll probably box the meters separately and make a box/shelf affair over the horizontal pipes.

Any ideas for material and / or construction please?

 

[sunnybob]

Whatever you do, you must make the covers easily detachable. gas meters need a lot of room around them to allow for the use of pipe wrenchs to disconnect and replace defective meters.

Electric meters dont need quite so much room, but if you build it all in the first tradesman to come along will just rip it all out again.

 

[scholar]

It is disappointing that the electricity service providers have so little regard to the neatness of their installations, but I guess you are stuck with that unless you pay an extra fee to get them to come and change it.

My first question looking at the layout is whether the proximity of what looks like a gas pipe to the incoming switch etc is compliant with regulations. I started looking at this question (for my own future reference) and it seems that the regulations are not very clear - one quote I found was this:

BS6891-2005

8.16.2 Separation of installation pipework from other services

Where installation pipes are not separated by electrical insulating material, they shall be spaced as follows: a) at least 150 mm away from electricity meters and associated excess current controls, electrical switches or sockets, distribution boards or consumer units; b) at least 25mm away from electricity supply and distribution cables.

I cannot say how reliable that source is, but if it is so, then you might need to box in the electrical stuff and leave the gas pipe outside or in a separate compartment insulate dfrom the electrical stuff.

As regards funky industrial, I like the idea, but imagine that you will be best to do a nice boxing in with readily accessible doors etc to access the CU and meters.

Cheers

 

[scholar]

It is disappointing that the electricity service providers have so little regard to the neatness of their installations, but I guess you are stuck with that unless you pay an extra fee to get them to come and change it.

My first question looking at the layout is whether the proximity of what looks like a gas pipe to the incoming switch etc is compliant with regulations. I started looking at this question (for my own future reference) and it seems that the regulations are not very clear - one quote I found was this:

BS6891-2005

8.16.2 Separation of installation pipework from other services

Where installation pipes are not separated by electrical insulating material, they shall be spaced as follows: a) at least 150 mm away from electricity meters and associated excess current controls, electrical switches or sockets, distribution boards or consumer units; b) at least 25mm away from electricity supply and distribution cables.

I cannot say how reliable that source is, but if it is so, then you might need to box in the electrical stuff and leave the gas pipe outside or in a separate compartment insulate dfrom the electrical stuff.

As regards funky industrial, I like the idea, but imagine that you will be best to do a nice boxing in with readily accessible doors etc to access the CU and meters.

Cheers

 

[sunnybob]

It never ceases to amaze me that the gas meter is always under the stairs in older houses. In the event of a fire, the stairs always get burnt away before anything else.

 

[Togalosh]

Scholar you are correct - that was the 1st thing I spotted... also looks as if 2 cables are taped to it.

Zak - any gas meter cabinet/enclosure needs to be vented (I have just noticed that ours is not) .. if the meter is moved (to above the door ?) you could tidy things up better.

As for the woodwork; I'd cut down some old 4 panel doors.. or use any old floorboards.

HTH