smart meter catch 22

busterpem

i hope you can help..i live a one bedroom housing association flat.  i very happy with my flat apart from the heating/bills.  My flat is 100% electric (no gas). iv been trying for some time to have a credit (direct debit) smart meter installed but keep hitting wall. At the moment I'm on a prepayment ( no debt now or in the past) meter. BUT because i have a economy 7 meter i keep been told that there is no smart meters available. i was first with British gas who kept telling me this..i ask if i could have the old type of non smart meter but would told that they did not do them and i would have to wait for the smart economy 7 meter .  this i did, with no joy. This was 18 months ago.. I moved to edf .  one because at the time there prepayment plan with cheaper and they told me that they would be rolling our economy 7 smart meters. I waited and called and waited some more  but still no dates for the roll out..  so 6 months age i moved to bulb.. some again.. moved. One because the price saving and was told the roll out soon.  But iv been told once more that that is no available of economy 7 smart meter and no date  to have some.  i have called s number of times and sent an email if complaint regarding this but still hit the same wall . im now stuck going round in circles I'm now on the cheapest plan and can save no move money..  Dose anybody know of ANY companies that are 100% installing economy 7 smart meters.  i will be happy to move once again to save money..

thank you rob

Gerry1

You don't have to have a smart meter to be on E7.  Send a Letter Before Action via snail mail (get a free certificate of posting) threatening to go to the ombudsman.  Work out how much extra you have had to pay by being locked in to a pre-payment tariff and make this part of your complaint.

busterpem

that is true but i keep being told that there are not older type meter to install ..

Gerry1

There must be thousands of reclaimed ones, it doesn't have to be new.  See whether they have a sudden change of heart when they receive your formal complaint.

[Deleted User]

Email smart@octopus.energy. Explain your situation and, from my experience, they will happily provide advice. For what it is worth, I had SMETS2 meters installed 18 months ago and the meter was happily recording both R1 (peak) and R2 (off peak) readings. Octopus has also been enabling the ACLS system built into their meters for complex metering situations.

PM me if you want further help or a referral code.

tastyhog

it's not that you need an E7 meter, from SMETS1 you could have E7, it's that you likely need a 5th terminal / 2A auxiliary switch, if you have storage heaters that run off a separate switched / timed circuit, look at your current meter, you'll have either 4 or 5 wires on it, 4 is a standard meter, 5 is a 5 terminal meter, with one output likely going to a separate fuse box for the storage heaters

these meters weren't available under SMETS1, or early SMETS2, but they are now available and are getting installed all the time by loads of different installers, some of the most popular SMETS2 meters now being installed have a 2a aux switch or a 5th terminal that can turn on the storage heater circuit.

EDF have just literally fit this for me today so they are doing them. It's on E7 with a separate circuit for storage heaters. 

It's an E470 5424 which is a pretty standard all purpose meter for single / dual rate it just uses the aux port (the small pair of grey wires)  for the storage heater switch

busterpem

hi all.  so once more stuck in limbo . just a reply from bulb.. iv passed there credit check for a new credit meter.. asked to send them a picture of my economy 7 meter  and once more iv been told they have no smart economy 7 meter install.

Can send till me which energy is install smart credit economy meters

spiro

Here is something you could try but no guarantee it will work. You only have to top up a prepayment meter IF the meter has a unit rate that is not zero. There is nothing that I am aware of, other than suppliers systems, from setting the rate to zero which mkaes it the same as a credit meter.

busterpem

thats great but im looking have a economy 7 smart meter installed and this is the problem im having

dave_dph

Like Tastyhog, I have the same SMETS2 meter and set up running on economy 7 installed by EDF in October 2019. I switched to OVO in January this year, and apart from an initial issue with the In Home Display showing the wrong rates, they have taken over the full smart functionality without a problem.

nottsphil

spiro said:

Here is something you could try but no guarantee it will work. You only have to top up a prepayment meter IF the meter has a unit rate that is not zero. There is nothing that I am aware of, other than suppliers systems, from setting the rate to zero which makes it the same as a credit meter.

I didn't know that. I'm now  wondering if Neon Reef would take on my SSE electric  key meter (it's dual rate, but that's not a problem for Neon)
Just so as other people understand, your term unit rate also covers the standing charge.