Roger and Marina had a digital meter installed, and suddenly all electrical appliances in their house were broken: “We heard explosions everywhere in our house” (Leuven)

Actually, Roger and Marina’s old meter still worked perfectly. But in order to install a charging station for their electric car, they first needed a digital meter. And so on 23 August a Fluvius subcontractor came by to install the device.

“I stuck with it because I was interested as I used to be an electrician myself in the 1970s,” says Roger. “During the installation I already expressed my doubts about their way of working, but they refuted what I said so I assumed that I was just not completely up to date with today’s techniques. I thought ‘Those guys from Fluvius, they must know what they’re doing’”.

Wire connected incorrectly

But when the workers set up the counter after installation, things went wrong. “Pets, pets, pets. It blasted left, right, above us… everywhere. All fuses were blown. The men wanted to leave, and went to their car shouting that the explosions were normal,” said Roger. However, he did not let the men go. Rightly so, because when they opened the cabinet again, they discovered that a wire was connected incorrectly.

The mistake was corrected and the workers left. “Those men ran off as if I was chasing them with a gun. But the light was still on, so we assumed everything would be okay. Nothing turned out to be less true,” says Roger. (Read more below the photo)

The box in question. — © hsb

When the couple started cleaning up everything in the garage, they soon discovered that the explosions had also caused damage. First they noticed that the garage door stopped working. The fuel oil burner of the central heating: broken. The freezer: broken. “A little later our neighbors rang the doorbell and we notice that the doorbell was also broken,” says Marina. “And we couldn’t cook in the evening because the hob turned out to be broken. Chargers of our mobile phones, also broken. Our CCTV, also broken. The only things saved are our washing machine because Roger always unplugs it, and the television because there is a protection in the power strip in case lightning strikes. But otherwise literally all electrical appliances that were in the socket are broken.”

8,000 euros in damage

In total, the house has more than 8,000 euros in damage. “And then we can count ourselves lucky that nothing worse happened. Imagine if that short circuit had also caused a fire. I don’t want to think about it.”

The couple contacted Fluvius. “With a digital meter they can see at any time how much power is being sent through a house. As a result, they could see that three times 400 Volts were chased through our house instead of 220 Volts. Dangerous,” says Roger.

A complaint file has now been drawn up and the insurance company has also been contacted. “We have to replace all electrical appliances, and it can take months before we see anything in return,” says Marina. Apart from the financial hangover, Roger and Marina want to warn others. “It is incomprehensible that those workers do not work more precisely. That they don’t just advise customers to unplug all electrical appliances before they start working. Even if it doesn’t always go wrong, it can clearly go wrong and they should take precautions for that.”

In the meantime, Fluvius officials visited Roger and Marina to see what went wrong. Fluvius has already installed more than 2.8 million electricity meters in Flanders. Incidents like this are an absolute exception, although some individual minor problems have already been reported.

2023-09-05 17:15:00
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