Black meter box

[Russdl]

As the title suggest really. I'm looking for an electric meter box that is black and not recessed. With good old Google I've found the square root of diddly squat. Does anyone know where I can get one:

 

Black (or very dark grey) non recessed, electric meter box?

[PeterW]

Struggled with this and the recommendation from the manufacturer was to use Plastikote satin spray paint. 
 

Degrease with gun wash / white spirit and then spray with 2 or 3 coats from a rattle can.
 

I’ve also used this to smarten up an old meter box after a quick sand over with 180 wet and dry. 

[Russdl]

@PeterW Thanks, basically painting a white-is one the colour you want I guess. How has it faired?

[PeterW]

So the white one that went a mucky colour and got resprayes is still white after 2 years. The one we painted dark green was fine a few months ago which would be about a year after it was painted. Just have to watch for scratches as they show as white. 

[Oz07]

Ive seen them painted too think it's most sensible option

[Onoff]

SWMBO used to periodically paint the gas box at our old place with good old black gloss paint.

 

Bedec Barn Paint is supposed to be good on plastic. Think it has some mild etching properties.

[Mr Punter]

I really dislike meter boxes on the front of houses.  They are really ugly, especially in a terrace.  Also, the doors often fail and the boxes tend to break and discolour.  Surely they can be improved?

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Also, the doors often fail

Had a conversation with the meter reading man about this.

Much higher chance of it happening in deprived areas, especially with short term renters.

He had a list of meters that he was not allowed to touch as the wiring had been tampered with in the past.

Strange, how one house out of the 6 where I am had a meter open to the elements, it is now 2 properties, number 4 moved to number 5.

[Angel]

Couldn't agree more about ugliness of meter boxes.  Not keen on gas boxes either - some look like the things you use to catch vermin or water meter covers that seem to be trip hazards in lawns.  I guess the utility companies are not interested in aesthetics but surely architects can be persuaded to think about the issue and disguise them better?  With smart meters, will they all disappear? 

[SteamyTea]

49 minutes ago, Angel said:

With smart meters, will they all disappear? 

No, as they are still fitted on the property.

Odd though as telephone billing is not done the same way.

[Russdl]

2 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

I really dislike meter boxes on the front of houses.

 

I agree. Earlier when I said I'd found diddly squat in my Google search I wasn't being completely honest (shame on me) because I found this on Alibaba which would probably fit the bill, but I thought I'd ask the assembled masses first if they knew of a more local solution.

 

Are there any 'specs' that a meter box should conform too? If so, does that Alibaba box fit the bill?

[SteamyTea]

Going bake a bit, you could paint a normal GRP meter box with coloured flow coat.

[joth]

There's numerous government reports on how they frustrate and add cost  to adding external wall insulation too - especially the flush mounted ones. Basically the industry settled on the need for them to be external just as technology and the need to improve insulation made that obsolete, but the massively fragmented industry hasn't caught up. 

Annoyingly we're just about to move an internal meter to an external wall, just to avoid the hassle of not having any power on site while waiting to move it internally to a wall that hasn't been built yet.