Electricity Meters again

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burrotaxi
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Electricity Meters again

Postby burrotaxi » Wed May 23, 2007 9:53 am

In order to transfer the electricity supply to a new house we've bought we need to go through the saga of the electricity meter upgrade. We've now been told the external electricity meter will need replacing and the consumer unit inside the house (I think this is just the electrician trying to increase the size of the job!). Anyway question is: what would be a reasonable quote to do this job, there is no relaying of cables required just a replacement job and the consumer unit is for a small two bed house. Keen to see what I should be expecting in the way of a quote!
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Heston
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electricity box

Postby Heston » Wed May 23, 2007 5:02 pm

Hiya for the whole thing Sevillana charge around here between7/800euros..personally I would just get a local spark to do the internal stuff and fix the new box outside and then sevillana will come along and sign it off for around150euros. A decent spark will only charge day rate for the other things...a much cheaper option..we have just done this for my mother inlaws house.

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Thu May 24, 2007 9:52 pm

:roll: do i really have to keep repeating this.... :shock:

por LEY (by LAW) to change a name on an electricity bill you need a BULLATIN you WILL NOT GET a bullatin with old wiring, an old single meter and an old consumer unit, IT IS ILLEGAL, YOUR ELECTRIC WILL BE CUT OFF UNTIL IT CONFORMS WITH THE NEW LAWS.

ok, so the good news. to conform with the new laws, you need a DOUBLE meter box. (you can fit this yourself, if you are careful around the LIVE wires), you need a complete REWIRE of the house, to include EARTH at every point, you need a new consumer unit, with a seperate breaker for every circuit - 2 breakers for sockets, 2 for lights, one for kitchen sockets, one for each air con, one for the electric water heater, one for anything outside (lights etc), one for a pool feed, one for ... you get the point, everything is saftey saftey saftey now.

unfortunatly if you dont comply, you cant change the name, cant get a "new" contract, basically, you are screwed until you do.

a "basic" rewire, using the minimum of sockets etc, means two weeks out of your house (unless u like living in dust and mess as all the walls have to be cut and refilled), and around €5,000 ... :(

before you ask, yes, i do work with a spark that advertises in the trading post etc, so if you want we can come and give you a quote.

ps, heston, you are wrong. SEVILLIANA do not do this work. end of story. they will not do anything but sit back and wait untill you present them with a bullatin for the property and then send a third party company to come and connect the electric. you have to do everything inside the house out to the meter box, and everything from the meter box to the pylon (in the case of a campo house, which could run to thousands for new cable there as well), all sevilliana do is connect your new pylon wires to the meter and the new house wires to the other side of it.

we've just done a job that was 14,000€ in cable alone, not including labour. :shock:

Campo Kenny

Postby Campo Kenny » Thu May 24, 2007 11:24 pm

Blackpool lights :?: 8)

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Postby pete_l » Thu May 24, 2007 11:55 pm

One thing to add about the boletin.
Once you have had the work done (mine cost 1250E for a complete
rewire to spec. new lights and 53 power sockets) you need to get it
certified. There are only so many accredited electricians in any town
who can issue the boletin - you need to get one of them out. The
piece of paper they will give you declares that they have tested aspects
of the installation - for instance the earth resistance.

I have heard that some boletin-issuers won;t certify other people's work.
If you get your rewiring done by a contractor (or yourself) and then
ring up the certification guy, he may refuse to issue a certificate. In my
case he didn't, but you should either check before you start the work or
make the issuing of a certificate a precondition to the contractor getting
paid.

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Postby McT » Fri May 25, 2007 12:50 am

I recently moved house and was preparing myself for demands for a boletín, padron certificate etc., in order to switch the electricity bill to my name. I called Sevillana to ask what they needed and the answer was nothing. They took my name and address over the phone and that was all they wanted.

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Postby costacab » Fri May 25, 2007 9:02 am

We had that experience at first as well and assumed the transfer of the electricity account had gone ahead ok. It was only over a year later and when the electricity company didn't collect two direct debits and threatened to cut us of for non-payment even tho' we kept trying to pay, that we were told by someone else over the phone that the account couldn't be transferred until we had the boletin etc.

Heston
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electricity

Postby Heston » Fri May 25, 2007 9:08 am

Hi Spanish lad I maybe wrong for your area but here Sevilliana do it if you want them too I have personal experience on more than one occasion
x

McT
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Postby McT » Fri May 25, 2007 2:04 pm

costacab wrote:We had that experience at first as well and assumed the transfer of the electricity account had gone ahead ok.
I guess we'll have to wait and see whose name is on the next bill!

McT

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Fri May 25, 2007 5:53 pm

McT wrote:I recently moved house and was preparing myself for demands for a boletín, padron certificate etc., in order to switch the electricity bill to my name. I called Sevillana to ask what they needed and the answer was nothing. They took my name and address over the phone and that was all they wanted.

McT
probably because the house, well more specifically the wiring is less than 5 years old.

heston sevilliana as a company will not send out a couple of guys to rewire your house for you. all they do is to certify the work that has been carried out for you. if sevilliana in jaen do actually come along and chase your walls and rewire etc i would be VERY surprised.
pete_l wrote: Once you have had the work done (mine cost 1250E for a complete rewire to spec. new lights and 53 power sockets)
christ that is cheap, did that include chasing the walls, repositioning sockets, replacing the wiring, fitting double and triple switching in each room, around 30 breakers, a seperate "sobre tension" controller, a metal lid over your outside double sized meter box, all the labour and parts? i really cant see that, a full rewires worth of parts would cost more than that from the wholesalers... !!
:shock: :shock: any english spark will take more than that in two weeks labour, then they have their labourer (s) as well !!! thats extreamly cheap.

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Postby Beachcomber » Fri May 25, 2007 7:54 pm

It is best to get electrical work carried out by an electrician who is qualified to issue boletines. That way you don't end up paying twice over.

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electricity box

Postby Heston » Sat May 26, 2007 3:02 pm

Spanish lad read my post..I never said anything about sevillana doing a rewire!!I said they would put the new big box on the wall outside and do all the bits for about 7/800euros( so just a sparky to do it!) or around 150/200 for the work involved in the bulliton
xx

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Postby pete_l » Sun May 27, 2007 8:55 am

spanish_lad wrote:christ that is cheap, did that include ......
I was having some building work done at the same time. The builder
did the chasing out and making good after all the wiring was complete.

The 1250 included all materials and about 1 week (7 working days) of
sparky-time. For that I got all new power sockets including those in new
locations, low-profile room lights (so I don't bang my head on them), new
light switches.
Complete re-wire, including running an earth to all sockets. New junction
boxes and an RCB panel. From memory, I have about 6-8 breakers: one
for the lighting circuit, and one for each main room. I don't have a cooker
circuit and only a 3.5kW potencia.
The cost did not include getting the boletin, which required a new
externally mounted meter box and "inspection (ha ha)". that was another
450 euros. I only found out I needed the boletin after Sevillana cut me
off as the electricity account was not transferred properly to my name.

There were some hidden costs. The spark was living at my house, as I
was in the UK while the work was taking place. Ha also drank all my
booze.

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Postby Miro » Sun May 27, 2007 11:26 pm

I have just had a studio re-wired. €158 worth of copper cable, €660 for all the bits & bobs (switches, differentials etc etc.) + €240 labour. Reasonable? I have yet to get the boletin :? Been quoted €120.
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Postby wendyakemp » Tue May 29, 2007 5:55 pm

Youve all got me worried now, just gave my details to previous owner who contacted electricity company for me and they have started taking payments from my bank straight away. The house has correct meter but is having a rewire at present, didnt get asked for any certificates yet!!
Do u think i'll be ok??

W :shock:

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Postby Miro » Tue May 29, 2007 7:32 pm

Wendy, I think you will find that the previous owner has merely changed the bank payment details, NOT the name on the contract. Doesn't really matter too much I suppose, as long as you are getting your electricity, but if you want to get the contract changed into your name, you'll have to go through all the hassle of getting a boletin, as per the posts on this thread.

Spanish Lad - help, I'm going mad. Having completed the re-wire, my man told me I need to get the ICP from Sevillana. Not knowing which comes first, the boletin or the ICP (I guessed the boletin) I went to Sevillana's office this morning to ask, and was told they could send someone out to do the boletin & fit the ICP all at once - for €120 (assuming everything is OK with the installation). They even offered to make the appointment. Last time I asked about boletins there a few weeks ago, the same girl told me I had to get an electrician to do it. What's going on?
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

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Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Tue May 29, 2007 8:10 pm

Who knows! Sevillana/Endesa would not normally issue the boletines. This would usually be done by a qualified private electrician as you were told previously.

The boletines then have to be authorised by the Ministerio de Industria then, once everything is ready, Sevillana technicians (or a company contracted by them) would come to check the power cables to the meter and install the meter and the ICP.

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Postby Miro » Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:22 pm

Thanks for your reply, Beachcomber - exactly what I thought too. The plot thickens;
I went to Sevillana again, saw the same girl again, asked her to explain again. This time, she said the authorised electrician we get to do the boletin can also fit the ICP, which will then be ours, as opposed to Sevillana fitting it and it being their property. Of course, she couldn't tell me what this would cost (depends who I use I suppose), but did tell me that when I come back to her with the boletin to change the name on the contract, Sevillana will charge me "about" €50 to do so, but this will include sending their guys out to fit the ICP.
I told her I didn't really need to change the name on the contract, since I'll be selling the place anyway and the name will only have to be changed again. She said "well, if you don't want to change the name, why bother with the boletin?" Silly me, I thought it was the law!
Just to check what she'd said before, I asked "If I get your guys to do the lot then, you charge €120 for the boletin, right?".
She said "oh....ermmm... well, the guy who does boletines has left and we're looking for a replacement. It's hard to get staff, you know."
So, I went to the local sparky, who had already quoted me €120, and asked how much extra for the ICP? You guessed it. "We don't do that, you have to get Sevillana out once we've issued the boletin".
I feel like I'm going round in circles. Incidentally, the few people in front of me at Sevillana were also asking about boletines. Why the H*ll don't Sevillana get their story straight, then print a leaflet explaining it in clear language so everyone is on the same page?
I'm now waiting for a phone call from the sparky to come and do the boletin.
I'll keep you posted.
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

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Beachcomber
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Postby Beachcomber » Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:16 pm

The ICP must be fitted by Sevillana. A private electrician cannot do it even if he is authorised to issue boletines.

Is the Sevillana office just that and nothing else or is it an office tucked away at the back of an electrical retailers?

Sevillana employees don't usually leave. It is a bit like the people who work in the Town Hall, post office or other public functionaries, a job for life no matter how incompetent or useless you are at it.

Miro
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Postby Miro » Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:20 am

The Sevillana office in Torremolinos is just that. The girl I deal with has been there at least 5 years. She was quite sure an authorised electrician could fit an ICP "de cliente". Unfortunately, none of the electricians I've spoken to are aware of this!
Thanks for all your replies - it helps to "speak" to someone independent who's not either trying to rip me off who just get rid of me to avoid actually having to do some work. :wink:
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative," Mordecai Siegal 1935-2010.


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