Electric meter faulty - energy supplier wants to fit smart meters

Telegraph_Sam

But does that tell us if overall, = per annum not per hour, I am better off with the one or the other tariff???  May be I'll opt to be on Agile at 3 am and switch to Go at 6.30 am 
 I must speak to Octopus about this.

[Deleted User]

Sadly, no longer possible. Frequent switchers forced Octopus to bring in the 30 day rule; ie, you can switch from Agile to Go provided that you have been on Agile for at least 30 days and vice versa.

Telegraph_Sam

So what is the benefit or objective of using the app?

[Deleted User]

Comparing costs for any of the Octopus tariffs. I was on Agile from this time last year to October, and I averaged a unit price of less than 8p/kWh. Agile prices started increasing from October so I switched back to Go. Agile prices are now falling again.

Phones4Chris

[Deleted User] said:

Such tools already exist and are free to use. This App compares costs on the Octopus Agile and Go tariffs but it could easily be extended to all suppliers (and I know some clever guys are already working on it):

I can see the average non-geek consumer is going to easily make use of that then - not

Telegraph_Sam

So what is the name of the app (and is it limited to mobiles)? I suppose it is designed to compare tariffs within one supplier rather than compare one supplier with another. Or am I wrong?

Telegraph_Sam

Octopus have now reverted to me (promptly). At first glance both tariffs seem to be aimed at EV drivers who can load a large no of kwh's in the early morning hours, or similar.  This seems to be taking the Economy 7 principle one stage further. I suspect the downside is that the costs for a "normal" consumption pattern would be correspondingly higher. Back to smart meters ...

wild666

IMHO, Smart meters should not have been rolled out until every supplier could read the meters if the original supplier was changed. My SMETS 1 meter stopped working with other suppliers when I left BG and until Sept. 2019 it displayed the daily rate of 26.1p but now it's 0.00p.
It has been claimed that SMETS 1 meters would be able to be read by all suppliers by early 2020 it's now Feb 2021 and they still cannot be read by anyone but the original supplying company.

MWT

wild666 said:

It has been claimed that SMETS 1 meters would be able to be read by all suppliers by early 2020 it's now Feb 2021 and they still cannot be read by anyone but the original supplying company.

That was never generally true, for example Secure branded SMETS1 meters could be read by other suppliers that also installed the same brand.

Now those meters are being registered with the DCC and open to be read by any supplier properly using the DCC.

Yes, the process is behind schedule but millions of those meters have already been added to the DCC.

[Deleted User]

Telegraph_Sam said:

So what is the name of the app (and is it limited to mobiles)? I suppose it is designed to compare tariffs within one supplier rather than compare one supplier with another. Or am I wrong?

There are various Apps. The one above is Octopus Compare. Octopus Watch and Octopus Energy Watchdog are also available plus others. Moreover, if you search for Guy Lipman’s website there are some excellent free tools available to check smart bills etc. N3rgy.com is a good website for checking whether or not a meter is sending data, and Bright App shows the same costs and data as the IHD. As a 71 year old, I would never describe myself as a ‘geek’. These tools are just a very simple way of seeing whether a simple change in energy use can save me money. For example, Octopus offers a Go Faster tariff which is not restricted to EV owners which gives 3//4/5 hours of Offpeak energy starting from 20.30. Great for high energy use devices such as the washing machine; dishwasher or immersion heater.

One thing that is worth thinking about. Future PCWs will, with consumer approval, use actual time of use past consumption data to compare time of use tariffs. I am now in a position where I have 20 months of SMETS2 usage data that I can access.