Bought an old stone cottage, just submitted Listing Building Consent application. We are not living in the house and will not for probably a year, quite a lot of work to do.

Currently have a prepaid electricity meter and some sort of historic, hilarious consumer unit, beautifully arranged on the living room wall.

We will, I hope have the eventual, modern consumer unit in a different place, and I think the meter can go right next to it. The whole house will be rewired

is it worth getting a new meter now? British Gas say they will do that (though they have not yet seen the current installation and will probably throw a fit when they do). 

Given that we are not living there and only really paying the standing charge, it is not an issue for the moment. But I was thinking about having a more economic supply on site when contractors are there...

But maybe better to wait?

The meter is normally very close to the incoming service head.  Moving the service head is expensive and needs to be done by the DNO.  You may be able to change the meter to a standard tariff one F.O.C.  If you are certain you want the kit in a new location and it won't get in the way during the works you may as well get it done now.  A new consumer unit should be safer and will be easier to reset.

I think what I would do is buy the new CU and mount it where you want it eventually.  Then get a quote from the DNO to move the supply head to the new location and connect the supply to the new CU.  then just connect a couple of sockets next to the CU for powering tools etc during the work.

 

But please post a picture of the existing supply, meter and CU.

Thank you ProDave and Mr Punter, that's useful. I will post an amusing picture in a few days