Smart Meters

carl.waring

Two years ago they will have been the SMETS1 meters which, as you found out, do not retain their smart functionality on change of supplier. However, the SMETS2 now being fitted do. Therefore, as your problems were not caused by the smart meters themselves, rather the change of supplier your conclusion is invalid. As I said, with the v2 this issue no-longer exists.

TateD

Osberto said:

My very strong advice to anyone considering whether to install a smart meter is - DON’T.  We installed a smart meter two years ago.  When we changed suppliers from OVO to Bulb the meter became inactive.  It has taken us six months since then to try to sort out the subsequent problems with both electricity and gas supply.

Electricity – it was unclear for five months what readings we should send to our new supplier despite six requests for clarification.  We do now know what readings to send – apparently our meter has switched from a two-rate to single rate.  Fortunately we don’t use much overnight electricity.

Gas – after taking a reading finally when the electricity was sorted out, we were given a bill for twice as much gas in 6 months as we normally use in a year.  Again after a month of back and forth to our supplier I finally worked out that the reading we sent was taken as 100 cu.ft. instead of cu. m.  I still think there is a problem as a simple test by heating up water and checking its temperature suggests the new bill is still too high.  So our struggle for clarification continues take up enormous amounts of time.

So smart meters? – don’t.

This is exactly what is happening to me... smart meter fitted by OVO and all ok. Switched supplier to Bulb and all ok just had to send readings monthly by pressing 9. No problem. Switched to Ebico and supplied manual readings all OK until they switched on smart meter capabilities.  I then had a smart reading 2306 units LESS than previous reading. After being passed from pillar to post within Ebico, with what I can only describe as shocking customer service, my reading being “manually adjusted” (in between switching again to another company) Ebico finally admitted I wasn’t being stupid and there was actually another reading for economy 7. I’ve never had economy 7!
Ebico owe me hundreds of pounds which they don’t seem to want to part with and my new company seems just as bad. 

Don’t swap - I really could cry as I know my next bill will charge me for approx £300 electricity I have never used.  And so the fight begins again with my new supplier.  All I wanted was to press 9 and read a figure

Absolutely jaded.

Gerry1

TateD said:

This is exactly what is happening to me... smart meter fitted by OVO and all ok. Switched supplier to Bulb and all ok just had to send readings monthly by pressing 9

Smart meters send readings automatically without any action from the customer.  You can choose see an up to date reading by pressing 9, but that may differ from the reading that appears on the bill.

MWT

TateD said:

And so the fight begins again with my new supplier.  All I wanted was to press 9 and read a figure

Absolutely jaded.

Do you have a working In Home Device (IHD)?

If you do, even with the meter set for E7 mode the IHD will usually let you display the correct total reading for the meter...

If nothing else it gives you something to validate the reading you see on the meter itself.

Unfortunately a lot of smart meters will display many different totals in various units depending on how they are set up and which buttons you press/how many times you press...

Nick_C

Switched from Ovo to Outfox The Market in September. 

Went on line to find out how to manually read an Ovo smart meter. 

Have submitted monthly meter readings to OTM.  I've received accurate monthly bills. No problems whatsoever. 

I miss the Smart functionality and I'm looking forward to the day it is restored. 

But I also know how much gas and electricity I use each month, and would know immediately if the bill was wrong. 

Timbosaurus

I managed to get a smart electric meter installed (in prepayment mode) by EDF just prior to the lockdown coming in.  Waited a couple of weeks for the 'urgent calls only' message to drop from their customer support line only to be told that they won't switch it over to credit mode as it 'may involve an engineer visit and all those have been suspended'.  Isn't it all done remotely?

Steve33

keitht1949 said:

Can anybody help me please? In 2017 I had my smart meters installed by British Gas, a few months later I changed supplier so, of course, the meters went dumb and the energy monitor stopped working. I have just moved back to British Gas and I can’t get any sense out of them about the process or timing to get the smart meters working again. Has anybody gone through returning to the supplier who installed their meters, if so how was it handled?

I have the same problem. BG fitted 1st gen smart meters a few years ago, we’re now back with them (since early January) after switching a few times but they don’t seem to acknowledge that we have them. Instead we’re “on a waiting list”. It does seem ridiculous that they need to send someone out (post -Coronavirus of course). Did you ever get any sense out of them? 

MothballsWallet

House_Martin said:

Hengus wrote: »

Suppliers have to fit 53M of these things before the end of 2020. At the last count,(Sep 17), the total number of smart meters installed in homes and businesses had reached 8.61M. At a cost of £420 per dual meter installation, you can see why many suppliers are unwilling to replace your smart meter. The 'good news' is that by 2020 your meter will either be adopted by the Data Communications Company or deemed an orphaned asset and replaced.

There is now non such thing as a normal meter. For consumers who do not want a smart meter, suppliers are permitted when an existing meter reaches its end-of-life to fit a smart meter with the communications hub disabled.

That cannot possibly happen Hengus given the speed the suppliers meter fitting teams progress. I thought the wording now is "offer " to fit a smart meter by 2020. That is doable, "fitting " a smart meter is plainly not possible in that time frame
They can "offer " to fit it, you then either agree or disagree , then they put you on the list for somewhere around 2025 before the knock on the door.
All the refusers will count as "offered "

What knock on the door (bit in bold) is this supposed to be?

giraffejoe

I had a smart meter fitted by eon in December. It has a 19P serial code so annoyingly it looks like a first gen version.
Any way I'm coming to switch and want to know that I can switch to a company that doesn't use smart meters. I just press 9 on the meter to get a reading and submit them manually? Have I got this right?

MWT

giraffejoe said:

I had a smart meter fitted by eon in December. It has a 19P serial code so annoyingly it looks like a first gen version.
Any way I'm coming to switch and want to know that I can switch to a company that doesn't use smart meters. I just press 9 on the meter to get a reading and submit them manually? Have I got this right?

Yes, you can switch wherever you want, if they can't access your smart mere you will just have to give them monthly readings manually.