coin-op utility meters in england?

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cfz2882

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watching a british movie once,i saw some gas or electric meters that appeared to be
coin operated-you put "x"amount of coins in and the meter allows "x" amount of gas
or electricity to flow,stops if you forget to feed more coins...?
could result in a cold or dark morning!?
 
Slot meters....

Have become obsolete due to people breaking them open to remove the coins they now have tokens instead that you go and put your amount on the token then insert it in the meter which is now adays set up to claim back a non bill payment, Its the only way to guarantee payment there was one here when I moved in last november it was on the gas and as the heating is gas we put over £200 in it for a week before it was removed as the previous tenant had run up a large bill not paid it and cleared off before it was paid back hence it was still set to claim £7 of every £10 to clear the bill thank fully we got it taken off our balance.
They are good in some ways as you know what your paying and you know you have to pay it or have no gas/elctricity.

Austin
 
I have also read in older trade mags about rental washing machines being equipped with a coin slide to insure that the rental fee was paid. Of course, this was before people would consider breaking into a coin box on the appliance they were renting. People were damn glad to have an automatic washer in their home and would not jeopardize the rental agreement.
 
You reminded me now

About RadioRentals they used to hire Televisions with a meter on the back you had to put a £1 pound coin in, before we had those it was a 50p piece and your tv would switch off if the money ran out lol

Austin
 
A few years ago I saw an old movie (American) from the 1930's, where the apartment had a coin operated electric meter. The woman living there ran out of coins and the lights went off. Outside her window was an electric sign that blinked on and off. She leaned out the window and unscrewed one of the bulbs, and hooked up an extension cord. Of course then her lights and appliances would go on and off as the sign blinked. Can't remember what the title of the movie was or who was in it.
 
TV fee in the UK

if i understand correctly,in the past at least,in the uk one had to register your TV and pay a fee to recieve"over the air"tv broadcasts-a van would drive around
with equipment on board to detect the signal from "unauthorised"tvs so the TV
user could be found and made to pay the fee...
 
Ah yes our TV licence

Only in this great country could everybody be ripped off by the BBC Thats British Broadcasting Company you pay to recieve the programmes they put out and if thats not your cup of tea you pay again for cable or sattelite.
The only people who do not have to pay a licence are those over 75 and yes the detector vans are still about though I think its done with computers these days and yes you can be summonsed if you do not have a licence and go to prison..

Austin
 
When I was a child we had coin-operated gas and electricity meters. Most people had them for as far as I know. They used special tokens that could be bought in shops and yes, it happened frequently that the lights went out only to be activated again by inserting a new token in the meter. As we didn't use gas for heating (that was too expensive in those days) I can't remember the gas being turned off because the token was used up.

Nowadays these "prepaid" meters are only installed with people who are reluctant in paying their bills or with those that have specifically requested this and they use chipcards instead of tokens so there is no need for periodical collection of the tokens from the meters.
 
In the Beatles' HELP Klang and Bhuta are after The Boys and jump in a hired (US: rented) van (Harrod's) with a coin box outside the door you had to put a shilling in to make it run. True story? Wouldn't rain get into the works?
 
I remember seeing those for the first time as a kid when we went to England in 67 and stayed with my great aunt in Manchester. We were sitting in her kitchen or something and all the lights suddenly went out. She had a meter near the top of the stairs going down to the cellar. Most all of the rooms had a fireplace even the kitchen. It was the only one left that still burned coal, the others had gas heaters retrofitted. In the kitchen wall behind the firebox I was told was where the water tank was that heated the water for the house so the coal fire was always going.
 
I have to disagree with you Austin

No way do I consider that I am being ripped off by the license fee - even at £145 it still represents teriffic value for the wide range of services they offer. I tend only to watch BBC4, BBC2 and am an ardent listener to Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra with the occasional documentary (music usually) on radio 2. Yes, I agree there is a great deal that I would not watch or listen to, but for the quality of what I do see and watch it is very well worth the price. I dont subscribe to either Sky (Murdoch/News International) or Virgin. The only commercial channel I tend to watch is Channel 4, but I often find the programmes are so "padded" that I usually record them so i can skip over the ads and the inevitable re-caps of what i have just seen and previews of whats coming up.

I cannot begin to describe the pleasure of watching a programme from start to finish with no ad breaks and no padding!

Al
 
Back-Boiler

Pete

The arrangement you describe with a boiler to heat the water (in a separate, gravity fed tank) was very common here until central heating (hot water radiators) became common here. I believe that it is one of the reasons why washing machines with heaters were the majority here, because that way not all the hot water got used up on the laundry. Of course back then insulation was almost non-existant, although there was the benefit of the hot tank being in a cupboard which was normally used to store clean bedding, towels, underclothes etc. It is not so common now, especially since the widespread adoption of gas combination boilers which provide not only central heating but instant hot water - there is no tank.

However, for those of us who are "all-electrc" and still have the hot water tank in a cupboard (airing cupboard is the more normal term although I know it better as a "hot press" - from the Scottish term of "press" = cupboard) and the tank is well insulated, still there is enough escape of heat to keep the cupboard as a wonderful boon - I would really miss it if I did not have it.

Al

 
£1 meter for electric

I live in a rented flat and still have a coin meter for electricity. The main meter is the basement that the landlord is billed by the electricity board off of that is the submeter which I put £1 coins into! It is the bain of my life we are ripped off big time! I think I am paying 17.85p per unit of electricity! The landlord is robbing us!

Nothing we can do about it though as the lecky board are not interested!
 
They have prepay meters available here in Ireland, but they are reserved for situations where a person is unable to maintain payment to the utility company / is in serious financial difficulty. The utilities are generally not allowed to completely cut you off.

Some rental properties where there's really short term tenancies <6mths or perhaps student accommodation also uses them.

Prepay meters here normally operate with a card. You load credit onto the card, and insert it into the meter and it prepays it. There's no cash in the meter.

A lot of stores have the ability to reload the card, as the same machine that sells prepay phone credit and in some cases also processes their credit/debit card payments also handles prepay utility meter cards.

It's just some kind of smartcard, similar to a credit card.
 
seamus

Hi Seamus,

I have looked into it and for that option to be available it would mean my landlord installing separate electricity supplies to each flat.

As there is only one supply into the house, he splits this off to each flat from the "main billed meter" in the basement and fits a "sub £1 meter" in each flat.
 
Plus he wont let us see his bills but I know he is shafting us as he will get charged only so much at a higher rate then the rest of the usage is at the lower rate which he doesnt pass onto us.

I know we are paying a fortune for it its so annoying in winter I can put in £7 a day to keep the place warm if I am off work during the week due to working nights.
 
With particular reference to this........

It is now the case that landlords will not be able to charge tenants more for electricity than they have paid for it.

Also your meter needs to be certified as accurate so that may be worth looking into.........
 

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