SMETS1 upgrades

mikeyorkie10

Hi guys, thanks for all the feedback ..... I had realised that the meter was mains connected but I presumed that,  if the upgrade did ever happen, the IHD unit would be my only way to see if the display and the meters had gone 'live' again. Again thanks for the input - but I won't hold my breath!!

MWT

mikeyorkie10 said:

... but I presumed that,  if the upgrade did ever happen, the IHD unit would be my only way to see if the display and the meters had gone 'live' again. Again thanks for the input - but I won't hold my breath!!

Even if the meter has gone 'dumb' due to a switch, the IHD should still work to show you the current consumption, meter readings etc.

If that part isn't working then even if the meter is enrolled with the DCC you will still have a local pairing problem to resolve...

taff7996

Hi

We have SMETS1 electric smart meters, our energy supplier is E'on next, we want to go onto E7 tariff in March 2023, when present fix tarriff ends.

E'on next have informed us we'd need to upgrade our meter to SMETS2 to be able to go onto E7, i have asked when the free SMETS2 upgrade are being rolled out in my area, but they won't say but they said thet could do it now and charge us £157.

Our SMETS1 is a Secure 100 smart meter and on the manufacturer website, it states that their Secure 100 meters are variable tarriff enabled.

Feel like they are trying to ripped off?

[Deleted User]

taff7996 said:

Hi

We have SMETS1 electric smart meters, our energy supplier is E'on next, we want to go onto E7 tariff in March 2023, when present fix tarriff ends.

E'on next have informed us we'd need to upgrade our meter to SMETS2 to be able to go onto E7, i have asked when the free SMETS2 upgrade are being rolled out in my area, but they won't say but they said thet could do it now and charge us £157.

Our SMETS1 is a Secure 100 smart meter and on the manufacturer website, it states that their Secure 100 meters are variable tarriff enabled.

Feel like they are trying to ripped off?

Check here to see whether your SMETS1 meter is connected to the DCC Network:

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Suppliers should not be replacing meters which can be updated. All smart meters have 4 registers so an E7 tariff should not be an issue. Have you thought about switching to a new supplier. Octopus should be able to read your SMETS1 meter if it hasn’t been upgraded as they deployed the same meter model to their customers.

Smart meters are not free. We are all paying the £13Bn deployment cost through our bills.

Raxiel

taff7996 said:

Hi

We have SMETS1 electric smart meters, our energy supplier is E'on next, we want to go onto E7 tariff in March 2023, when present fix tarriff ends.

E'on next have informed us we'd need to upgrade our meter to SMETS2 to be able to go onto E7, i have asked when the free SMETS2 upgrade are being rolled out in my area, but they won't say but they said thet could do it now and charge us £157.

Our SMETS1 is a Secure 100 smart meter and on the manufacturer website, it states that their Secure 100 meters are variable tarriff enabled.

Feel like they are trying to ripped off?

When Eon fitted our Secure meters way back when, they configured them in Economy 7 mode to match the previous meters.

I told them I wanted them in single rate because that suited our usage better, and they told me that couldn't be done remotely. That didn't matter though because they could just give us the single rate tariff value on both registers.

Some time later after switching to Octopus I know that's no longer the case (if it ever was). Because somehow, while updating the tariff information on the meter after the switch, Octopus managed to swap the day & night registers around.

I don't mean they started reading the day reading as night and vise versa, but they actually changed which register counted during which period R1 started counting only night usage and R2 became day usage.

At some point (coincidentally when both registers were close to the same value) they even switched it to a single rate for a couple of months before switching the registers back around again so that R1 was incrementing during the day (I had a very confusing afternoon going through every bill I ever had for them making sure they all added up - which they did eventually, although my January dual fuel bill for 2021 was for -£67).

All of this was done remotely, so I find it hard to believe Eon couldn't now remotely re-configure your meter so that R1 counts usage 07:30-0:30 and R2 0:30-7:30 and bill against that. Especially as they also use Octopus' proprietary backend, Kraken.

[Deleted User]

Smart meter registers. There appears to be no industry convention on which of the 4 smart meter registers suppliers are required to use for billing. I am on Octopus Go and the R2 register records my peak time usage. If asked for manual readings, and the tariff has two or more rates, then the consumer needs to get out of the habit of referring to day and night and should refer instead to R1 and R2. Clearly, the consumer needs to check that the supplier is using the correct registers for peak and offpeak billing.

PS: the same applies on a switch: provide all the individual  index readings that the meter has recorded - not the total index reading taken from the meter or IHD.

thriftytracey

I've heard that the upgrade should take place by the end of 2022 but I'm not holding my breath.  I did look into contacted Offgem who directed me to the SmartSDC website

"The majority of the dormant meters we can upgrade have been migrated to the network. If your meter has not been upgraded unfortunately we're unable to provide you with an exact date as to when this will happen. That's because we need to work together with the energy companies to migrate the remaining meters, as we can't do it on our own. The programme is due to be completed by the end of 2022. If there is a problem with migrating your meters, your energy supplier will arrange for second generation (SMETS2) meters to be installed."

I suspect we will require a new meter as the smart meter installed at our property was one of the first (British Gas).  We are with Scottish Power and they don't seem to have any interest in the upgrade - get vague answers from their customer service representatives.

It's particularly infuriating as it was announced today that users with smart meters will be paid for using electricity at off peak times.