Electricity meter box options

[flanagaj]

Our pole was moved on Wednesday and now sits nicely on the boundary.  Next step is to get a connection, but I'm unsure as to the best option for the meter housing, as there is currently no house and we will need a supply so we can live in a static caravan.  Is it a case of installing a temporary housing near the pole so a meter can be fitted and a consumer unit added and then accepting that I'll have to pay again to have the meter moved or should I just get someone to build a brick housing for an external meter unit.  There is currently no walls or anything that I could use.

[Kelvin]

Buy a kiosk (would suggest a 3 phase kiosk even if single phase supply) and mount it on a concrete pad. Fit it with three ducts (supply in, cable to house, and a spare) For the ducts Have the meter installed in it, a small CU and some sockets. That’s your temp supply. When it comes time for your permanent supply you remove the small CU and sockets, fit an isolator and run your house supply from it. 
 

Or get a small brick kiosk built as you suggest. Make it quite big. I’ve ended up with two kiosks as the EV charger supply is installed directly into the meter cabinet but this needed a small CU and because of the large isolator there’s no space in the original kiosk so had to fit another smaller one. 
 

Just think carefully about the cable run from housing to the house. You want it to be as straight as possible and as close as possible to wherever the CU in the house is going to be. I got that massively wrong with ours and placed the kiosk too far up our boundary but this was a year before we’d even finalised exactly where the house was going. It caused me a bit of grief when we came to pull the cable up to the kiosk from the house. Took my wife and I a full day! 

Edited September 7 by Kelvin

[saveasteading]

Unless you are a bricklayer who can also make a nice door, buy a fibre glass kiosk. You need  proper hockeystick  ducts too.

The concrete base is easy diy apart from getting the ducts in the right places.... these cables are big and stiff.

 

Thr kiosk will look the business and recognisable the electric company will be happy,  and it's easy to recognise and access in perpetuity.

[nod]

I installed this relatively cheap and easy to install 

[saveasteading]

 

[ProDave]

As above once the supply is installed into your kiosk there is no need to move it, the supply and meter will stay there and you lay a big armoured cable from there to feed the house.

[JohnMo]

I did a white external meter box on a post. Positioned it exactly where it would end up in the house.  As wall was built it was moved about slightly. Once water tight box was cut away from meter and positioned correctly.

 

If you need power to caravan, run armoured cable between meter and caravan.

 

[saveasteading]

The box simply bolts down on this.

[FarmerN]

We demolished a house and rebuilt. The meter was moved by the power company to a temporary kiosk as already suggested. Once the new build was water tight we paid to move the meter again into the plant room. I was expecting the power company to go back to the pole for the final new connection into the plant room and was surprised that they just made an underground connection to the temporary kiosk supply cable to make the new supply. Saved them about 15 meters of cable, the builder was doing all the digging except the last 3 meters to the pole which the power company wanted to do them selves.

Edited September 7 by FarmerN

[Kelvin]

I used the 38mm diameter black hockey sticks. The white ones are smaller (32mm I think) In hindsight I should have just continued the ducting in the ground up into the kiosk for house supply as the cable was 35mm2 so only just fitted but it took several goes. 

[mjc55]

I built a concrete pad and put external box on top.  Will remove next year when house is built

[flanagaj]

What do people mean by "black hockey sticks"?

When I met SSEN onsite, he said use 100mm ducting from the kiosk to the pole.  I thought that seamed a lot.  We are having a split phase connection.

Also.  Where are people buying the kiosks from?

[LnP]

15 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

What do people mean by "black hockey sticks"?

When I met SSEN onsite, he said use 100mm ducting from the kiosk to the pole.  I thought that seamed a lot.  We are having a split phase connection.

Also.  Where are people buying the kiosks from?

I got mine here https://meterboxesuk.co.uk/product-category/electric-meter-boxes/

[flanagaj]

One other question.  I am going to mount the grp kiosk within 3 ft of the pole where they will bring the feed from.  What I'm not sure about is the additional 100mm ducting that they mention.  They mention for split phase you need to install a 50mm hockey stick to a depth of 450mm below FFL.  It's the section from the hockey stick to the pole that I'm not getting.  Does the SWA cable that they will install also have to go into some sort of ducting?

[saveasteading]

No. If the box and pole were 20m apart then they would need an exposed pit at each. In your case they join so it is all pit. 

[flanagaj]

6 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

No. If the box and pole were 20m apart then they would need an exposed pit at each. In your case they join so it is all pit. 

Can you elaborate as I don't follow.  

[LnP]

34 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

One other question.  I am going to mount the grp kiosk within 3 ft of the pole where they will bring the feed from.  What I'm not sure about is the additional 100mm ducting that they mention.  They mention for split phase you need to install a 50mm hockey stick to a depth of 450mm below FFL.  It's the section from the hockey stick to the pole that I'm not getting.  Does the SWA cable that they will install also have to go into some sort of ducting?

In my case the supplier was SPEN. They required the supply from the street (not a pole) to the meter to be in 100mm red conduit. They supplied the conduit, I dug the trench and laid the conduit, about 20m. If you have questions about what needs to happen between the meter and the supply, you should ask SSEN.

[Crofter]

Blimey things have moved on. Used to be that you just nailed a fish box to the nearest fence post and the guy from the Hydro would stick a meter in there! 

 

Or maybe that was always just a Highlands thing 😂

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, flanagaj said:

Can you elaborate

I mean that the cable comes down the pole into the ground, so they need a hole there. Then underground either alone or in a duct. Then at the box again it has to emerge from the ground and go through your hockey stick.   In my eyes your case it is only 3 ft. Take away the hole at the pole leaves 18"?  Leave hockey stick expose, another 1ft gone. So has a negligible  trench so doesn't need a duct.  But if you had a bit handy they could drape it over the cable if they wanted to.

[flanagaj]

Given that others have said how difficult it is to pull the cable through the ducting and around the bend, has anyone found a larger hockey stick duct than the 50mm (split phase / 3 phase) that SSEN specify which would work with 100mm internal diameter ducting?

The other stupid question I have is around the ingress of water into the underground ducting.  I assume that the ducting remains below ground and is not bent 90 degrees and partially up the side of the pole when they come to connect.  The pole is on a bank and the kiosk is lower.  I just have visions of water making it's way in one end and coming out inside the kiosk.

 

And one final thing.  How do you connect 100mm ducting to a 50mm hockey stick.  The internet seems to suggest using tape!  Surely, there must be a ducting to hockey stick reducer?

Edited 22 hours ago by flanagaj

[saveasteading]

17 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

coming out inside the kiosk.

That's a very good point.

But assuming all the ground is the same then the trench below the box should act as a soakaway as fast as it enters.

At worst, the cable ends  are well clear of such water and the box to base is not sealed so it would run out.

[flanagaj]

2 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

That's a very good point.

But assuming all the ground is the same then the trench below the box should act as a soakaway as fast as it enters.

At worst, the cable ends  are well clear of such water and the box to base is not sealed so it would run out.

But the twin wall ducting does not look permeable? 

[saveasteading]

1 minute ago, flanagaj said:

does not look permeable

Make it so. 

Or use perforated duct. It doesn't need to be twin wall.

[LnP]

Am I missing something?

 

Everything up to (and not including) your meter is the responsibility of SSEN. You won't be pulling SSEN's cable. What sort of duct needs to be there and how it's laid out is for SSEN to specify. You're asking questions about facilities which are their responsibility. They will have expectations about what you will do and what they will do, so you'd better ask these questions to them.

[Kelvin]

On 16/09/2025 at 08:37, flanagaj said:

What do people mean by "black hockey sticks"?

When I met SSEN onsite, he said use 100mm ducting from the kiosk to the pole.  I thought that seamed a lot.  We are having a split phase connection.

Also.  Where are people buying the kiosks from?

The black hockey sticks have a bigger diameter (38mm)  than the white ones which are more common.