Will switching cause my smart meter to revert to an ordinary meter? 30 November 2016 at 9:00PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Energy 7 replies 998 views

SabNys

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A month ago, I had a free smart meter installed by OVO.

After the recent MSE horror stories about switching, I was using the Which? magazine Switch service.

I would have saved £135 pa. The £60 early-exit fee would reduce that to a £75 pa saving.

But when I ticked the box that says I have a smart meter, I got a rude message saying that switching would cause the smart meter to lose its smart functionality. The meter would then work simply as an ordinary meter.

Does anyone know if that's correct?

I've heard that some people are delaying the installation of a smart meter until April, when the government introduces new legislation.

Thanks.
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System

Yes. Your smart meter will not send readings to your new supplier but the in home display will still let you see your gas & electricity consumption. The tariff info will be wrong but to be honest I never found that useful - I want to see consumption in Kwh not in £s. Best of all for me is that although I will need to submit meter readings to my new supplier I will not need to get out my step-ladder and perch from the top trying to read the meter display with is high up in a narrow entry outside. The reading can simply be read on the display from the comfort of your front-room.

SabNys

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scgf wrote: »

Your smart meter will not send readings to your new supplier but the in home display will still let you see your gas & electricity consumption.

Thanks for your response.

That sounds encouraging. I don't mind entering meter readings online. I had assumed that the display would also stop functioning.

The current switching problem seems to be caused by non-uniformity of smart equipment among suppliers. So can I ask if your smart equipment was from Ovo? Both of my meters and the display are made by "Secure". Are you the same?

It would be nice if anyone else could also confirm what scgf is saying.

Thanks.
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System

My smart meter was installed earlier in the year by British Gas. Apparently 'they' are working on a central database so that smart meters will work across different providers, but as to which smart meters will work with this system and when it will launch I have no idea. The most recent date I've seen mentioned is April 2017.

System

scgf wrote: »

My smart meter was installed earlier in the year by British Gas. Apparently 'they' are working on a central database so that smart meters will work across different providers, but as to which smart meters will work with this system and when it will launch I have no idea. The most recent date I've seen mentioned is April 2017.

The Data Communications Company went live in some regions on the 1st of November. It will only accept meters that are SMETS2 compliant which are not expected to be rolled out in great numbers until the end of next year. Some SMETS1 meters may be upgradeable but this is not expected to happen before mid 2018.

Your meter is most a SMETS1 version.

SabNys

scgf wrote: »

The [meter] readings can simply be read on the display from the comfort of your front-room.

For the benefit of other forum users, I will mention that my Ovo Secure smart meter does not give meter readings on the display unit. These need to be read directly from the meter.

That statement is quite clear in the User Manual.
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poppellerant

SabNys wrote: »

For the benefit of other forum users, I will mention that my Ovo Secure smart meter does not give meter readings on the display unit. These need to be read directly from the meter.

That statement is quite clear in the User Manual.
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What you say is correct to a degree, however, with a little calculating, you can get a good idea what your readings are. If you go to history on your IHD, tap on Hour, Day then finally Week - you will see your entire year's usage, as well as cumulative (shown as Cuml).

For the electric I've always found this needs no calculating. For the gas, you need to use a calorific value of around 39.41 and convert the value from KwH to get your standard metric reading - ignore any decimal points and don't round up.

SabNys

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poppellerant wrote: »

What you say is correct to a degree, however, with a little calculating, you can get a good idea what your readings are. If you go to history on your IHD, tap on Hour, Day then finally Week - you will see your entire year's usage, as well as cumulative (shown as Cuml).

For the electric I've always found this needs no calculating. For the gas, you need to use a calorific value of around 39.41 and convert the value from KwH to get your standard metric reading - ignore any decimal points and don't round up.

That's all useful info. Thanks.
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