[Anke]

We have just been told (by letter from our current electricity supplier) that our electricity meter (installed new in 2006) has come to the end of it's life (what is the natural lfe span of the average electricity meter - anyone knows?) and there is a legal requirement to exchange it for a new one. I have never heard about it... Is anyone else getting this letter? Anyone know about the legality of this - esp as they will exchange it for an all-singing and dancing smart meter... with no mobile signal in the house I can't see it working. Would be a bit worried if they wanted to switch themselves into our wi-fi...


Also it says on the meter that it is the property of Scottish Power (the installer and original supplier), so who can exchange it? Anyone?

[PipKelpy]

Our letter wasn't like that, it was more "they're sooooo efficient" blah blah blah!

We have dual fuel here and though I'm loyal (mostly) I do shop about and managed to dodge the smart meters for several years! Until we joined Eon, the deal was too good to IGNORE. We've not had any issues with both meters. The gas meter is in the same place as the original, tight spot under the stairs.

Must have a good built in Wi-Fi as my router Wi-Fi actually loses connection and that sits 2 foot in front of it! I can sit with my tablet, right next to it, "no signal."

We swapped from Eon after a year, spent 2 years with Ovo, (they refused to redo a deal as prices rising..... This was 2019) went with Edf for a year then got a phone call off Ovo asking me if I would like to lock into a 2 yr deal £90 a month starting from November 2020! Jumped at it.

Ukraine war ........ Now, still with Ovo and £270 a month variable (always had fixed! Usually around £110 a month).

Actually, in the late 1990's our dual fuel was £70 a month, I miss them days!

I now log on to Ovo to see energy use each day! Used the MF stove to cook dinner on Sunday, didn't make any difference. Must be the 2 uprights, 2 chest freezers and fridge freezer full to the brim of beef, pork, lamb and chicken costing us!

[chrismahon]

As far as I am aware the meter is the property of the electricity supply company and they have the right to inspect it, read it or change it as they see fit. Normally they wouldn't bother, unless the readings suddenly became rather low. They would of course need to make an appointment. Ultimately, if they were not allowed in I supposed they would need a Court Order to force entry? Smart meters are great as it means no visits to read them and all the data is on-line to view.


Here we have had to have 'Linky' meters fitted. These relay the readings back to HQ daily by a signal sent down the electricity supply cables (like a baby alarm system). We can view our readings, get a monthly estimate and we receive emails every month comparing the reading with the previous year. The meter itself can give you instantaneous load and daily maximum load readings, so if you think some appliances are costing a lot you can check them. What has recently become apparent is that these meters can be switched off individually. In the case of dual tariff meters they have just switched off thousands of customers hot water heaters for a two hour period to see how much load they can take off the system. What we did find when ours was installed was that the first reading sent at 2.00am set off the smoke alarms, which then had to be replaced. I need to mention is that here the maximum load determines your standing charge. In our case we pay for 6KW (cheapest) and if we exceed that the supply trips out.


As to the natural life span of a meter, it can be 50 years, based on the one we had replaced in Dordogne. Be aware they are designed to fail so that they over-read (I used to work for a meter manufacturer) and the one we had replaced was over-reading 20%. But as there was a €200 inspection and test deposit, we just paid €60 to have a dual tariff fitted.

[oor wullie]

If you are North of Central England the smart meter communicates through a radio signal so has nothing to do with mobile signal.

In the South it uses mobile signal but they can mesh them together so if you don't get signal the meter can send the information via another meter in the area that does get signal.

[Steph Hen]

Or you could go down the route of buying your own for £10-£15 off eBay.
Politely request Scottish Power/they remove their meter from your property and have a sparky install yours.

[Rupert the bear]

No compulsory in Great Britain at present. The old analogue meter has a design life of about 30 years, it is required to be along with the incoming installation to be inspected every two years , COVID and cost cutting has put that on the back burner.
If your old analogue meter has come to the end of its working life it may be replaced by a Smart meter or you have the legal option to refuse a Smart meter and have another analogue fitted.
Chap down the road instals these Smart meters, the power suppliers will try and say every and any thing to get a customer installing a Smart meter.
He refused to have one.

[Rupert the bear]

Or you could go down the route of buying your own for £10-£15 off eBay.
Politely request Scottish Power/they remove their meter from your property and have a sparky install yours.

Meter needs to be calibrated and certified

[chrismahon]

Just have it fitted and stop worrying. Ignore the recent replies, they haven't a clue what they are talking about. It seems to be a UK problem with information- the mushroom conditioning, keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit.

[oor wullie]

Indeed.  I'm in Norway just now where every meter is 'smart' and so everyone is on a time of use tariff ie. The price changes every hour depending on supply and demand.

This is good as, if you want to, you can load shift to get cheaper electricity and then the resulting load shifting helps balance peaks and troughs in demand which takes strain of the grid.

As with many other things the UK is about 20 years behind many other countries!

[Goatherd]

 
   We have a smart meter here (south uk) its the second with updates still never has right time don't change time with season gmt.We get an email to read the meter when they want a reading.Very fast with bill thou.

[Rosemary]

I undestand that the concerns about smart meters in the UK is the poor regulation (quelle surprise - welcome to Tory Britain). Energy companies can automatically and remotely convert customers to prepayment plans, which are more expensive and leave the customer more vulnerable to being cut off.
So it's not prepayment meters per se, but the lack of regulation and protection for vulnerable customers.

[Anke]

I undestand that the concerns about smart meters in the UK is the poor regulation (quelle surprise - welcome to Tory Britain). Energy companies can automatically and remotely convert customers to prepayment plans,.

That is exactly my worry - the tone of the letter is just very much that I MUST do this, when it is not compulsory... The electricity companies are making millions at the moment, you are unable to switch and even without ever defaulting on any payment by me they can increase the direct debit payment to whatever they like!


I think I will just quietly ignore them, from what I have read they queues for smart meter instalments are quite long, so they will not be in a hurry to come round to us anyway... and currently they cannot disconnect you.

[doganjo]

I undestand that the concerns about smart meters in the UK is the poor regulation (quelle surprise - welcome to Tory Britain). Energy companies can automatically and remotely convert customers to prepayment plans,.

That is exactly my worry - the tone of the letter is just very much that I MUST do this, when it is not compulsory... The electricity companies are making millions at the moment, you are unable to switch and even without ever defaulting on any payment by me they can increase the direct debit payment to whatever they like!


I think I will just quietly ignore them, from what I have read they queues for smart meter instalments are quite long, so they will not be in a hurry to come round to us anyway... and currently they cannot disconnect you.

Change to Octopus!

[Anke]

I undestand that the concerns about smart meters in the UK is the poor regulation (quelle surprise - welcome to Tory Britain). Energy companies can automatically and remotely convert customers to prepayment plans,.

That is exactly my worry - the tone of the letter is just very much that I MUST do this, when it is not compulsory... The electricity companies are making millions at the moment, you are unable to switch and even without ever defaulting on any payment by me they can increase the direct debit payment to whatever they like!


I think I will just quietly ignore them, from what I have read they queues for smart meter instalments are quite long, so they will not be in a hurry to come round to us anyway... and currently they cannot disconnect you.

Change to Octopus!

It is nigh on impossible to change provider at the moment... and I am not unhappy with E-on as such (and when we changed last time it was a real struggle with missed bills etc etc), just don't want a new bit of tech in my house when it is not necessary and won't give me any advantages. I would be all for it if there was a) a system like in the Nordic countries so I can use cheaper electricity during the night but b) the only thing it would be advantageous for me would be for an electric car - which I won't have for at least a decade as they don't build good electric vans ... yet.


So we will see if they persist, but hopefully not for a while...

[Penninehillbilly]

There was a discussion on our local group, as said, slightest excuse they can switch you onto more expensive p3repay tariff. 
We need a good mobile signal - we have to stand at the kitchen or bedroom window to get a signal, electric is on the dead side of the house.
An engineer said  to someone who was asking, they will be free until 2025, then the funding stops, so when they become compulsory,  we will have to pay. But nobody else had heard this.
There would be no advantage to us, we really can't cut back on electric any more, no signal, so we would still have to read meter, and no control over tariffs.