Shortage of non smart meters

Dhooper

Hi
We have been trying to get our old economy 7 meter changed and after some missed appointments we are now being told by Ovo is that they are either no longer being made or there is a shortage. They have suggested they fit a smart meter and turn disable communication.
Does anyone know if this is true, has anyone else had a non smart meter fitted recently ?

Thanks

matelodave

I would think that is quite likely that most energy suppliers would not be buying any more non-smart meters and would be reluctant to install them in the future.

Why would they, if the government are encouraging them to install smart meters and fining them if they don't.

In the end, the meter belongs to the supplier and they have the option to decide what they want to use. Even though there's no law that says you have to have a smart meter the supplier can install whatever sort they want.

You then have the option to accept it or go to a supplier who can provide what you want but I suspect that it will become increasingly difficult and more expensive to insist on a non smart meter.

LeeCox

Dhooper wrote: »

Hi
We have been trying to get our old economy 7 meter changed and after some missed appointments we are now being told by Ovo is that they are either no longer being made or there is a shortage. They have suggested they fit a smart meter and turn disable communication.
Does anyone know if this is true, has anyone else had a non smart meter fitted recently ?

Thanks

You ask us if this is true?
We can seeyou posted this:

• Today 3:31 AM

• Join date: 09-07-2019
• Last activity: Today 3:31 AM

Do we get the picture yet? :cool:

Dee72

We were in exactly the same situation.

Ovo told us they could provide us a non-smart, single rate, credit meter in exchange for our E7 meter, but that they would charge us £57.75 as they said it was classed as a non-essential meter change.

However, they told us we could have smart meter instead and that would be free of charge, as they are not permitted to charge for those.

We opted for the free option! :money:

Talldave

Why change an E7 meter? You don't have to be on an E7 tariff if you don't want to be, Ovo just add two readings together and charge a single rate.

Dee72

Talldave wrote: »

Why change an E7 meter? You don't have to be on an E7 tariff if you don't want to be, Ovo just add two readings together and charge a single rate.

Really? They told us they were unable to do this, hence why we needed to have the meter changed to get the single rate tariff we wanted from them.

Talldave

Dee72 wrote: »

Really? They told us they were unable to do this, hence why we needed to have the meter changed to get the single rate tariff we wanted from them.

Ovo were the existing supplier when we moved to our current property in July 2018. I signed up no problems with the E7 meter on a non E7 tariff and stayed with them until I moved to Pure Planet in December 2018 (who were also happy to take 2 readings and add them together).


I am now with Yorkshire Energy, on an E7 tariff because he break even point for night usage is 15% which is a no brainer.


Every property I've lived in (since the 1980s) has had an E7 meter and this is the first time, in 2019, that I have actually gone on an E7 tariff.

matelodave

Not all companies will add the two readings and they may become more reluctant to do so whilst the government is putting pressure on them to install smart metering. Their systems will also be changed over to use smart meter data rather than manual readings.

There's a better than even chance that companies will start charging more for non-smart tariffs as it will cost them more to process the data from dumb meters.

Talldave

matelodave wrote: »

Not all companies will add the two readings and they may become more reluctant to do so whilst the government is putting pressure on them to install smart metering. Their systems will also be changed over to use smart meter data rather than manual readings.

There's a better than even chance that companies will start charging more for non-smart tariffs as it will cost them more to process the data from dumb meters.

I wouldn't disagree with that but this thread is about Ovo, and my experience dates back just 7 months, so will hopefully be of use to Dhooper and Dee72.

Dee72

Talldave wrote: »

Ovo were the existing supplier when we moved to our current property in July 2018. I signed up no problems with the E7 meter on a non E7 tariff ..

Did you perhaps have smart meter at that property that Ovo were able to communicate with?

Otherwise I don't understand how you were able to do that. :huh:
They told me they were NOT able do that. And they presumably have told the OP something similar.

I also found this on the Ovo forum - see the first/best answergiven by 'Nancy' who appears to be from Ovo.

If you've got a smart meter that we can't communicate with, or a traditional meter, we'd have to change the meter.

forum.ovoenergy[dot]com/understanding-economy-7-74/can-i-switch-to-ovo-and-go-from-economy-7-to-a-single-rate-meter-and-tariff-1163

Dee72

Talldave wrote: »

I wouldn't disagree with that but this thread is about Ovo, and my experience dates back just 7 months, so will hopefully be of use to Dhooper and Dee72.

You must have missed my earlier post where I explained we now have a smart meter. It was installed free by Ovo as we did not want to pay the £57.75 they would have otherwise charged us to change the meter to obtain their single rate tariff we wanted.

Now we have a smart meter, Ovo say we can choose either a single rate or E7 tariff from them
(they say they can change the set-up remotely)