Where the ECV sits, what must accompany it, and why a boxed-in meter is a safety problem.
Everything in this topic comes back to one question: in an emergency, can somebody who is not you turn the gas off quickly?
The emergency control valve
The ECV is the means of shutting off the supply to the installation. It sits at the inlet to the installation, adjacent to and upstream of the meter, and the requirements on it are all about that emergency:
- Readily accessible. Not behind a fixed panel, not needing furniture moved, not somewhere a
householder would have to hunt for it while they can smell gas.
- Hand-operable. No tool, no key, nothing held by the supplier. If it needs something you
have in your van, it is no use to the person living there.
- Labelled. A safety notice displayed at or near the valve, telling the user what to do in a
gas emergency.
A valve that is hidden, or that needs a supplier-held tool, fails the purpose even if it works perfectly.
The regulator
The regulator built into a domestic meter installation reduces the incoming service pressure and holds it steady as demand changes. It has to stay accessible for the same family of reasons as the valve: it is a device that can fail, and one that has to be inspected and worked on.
Siting and enclosures
A domestic meter installation must be readily accessible, protected, and not shut inside an unventilated enclosure.
⛔ Boxing in a meter without ventilation or access is not a cosmetic decision. It does three things at once: it hinders inspection, it hinders operation of the controls in an emergency, and it removes the safe dispersal any small escape would otherwise have. Ventilated meter enclosures exist so that gas which does escape goes somewhere harmless instead of collecting in a sealed void.
If a customer asks for the meter to be boxed in, that is the conversation to have: access, operation and ventilation are what the box has to preserve.
*Original revision guidance; confirm siting, labelling and enclosure requirements against the GSIUR ACOP and BS 6400.*
Something wrong, unclear or out of date? Report an issue with this note.