Smart Meters and Economy 7

prccbc

Recently booked a smart meter installation with British Gas and was told by the installation engineer that Smart meters do not work with Economy 7 dual rate so cancelled the installation. Bit of a waste of time for everyone.

pineapple

If true, someone had better tell Bulb because I'm on E7 and they keep pushing me to get a smart meter.

Skintoap

I have E7 and a smart meter from Eon and was previously offered one from Ovo, so it is possible. 

tastyhog

some suppliers claim not to be able to, but that's just because their installers haven't been trained to install the extra bits and bobs, ebico said the same to me last year, booke an install then the installer had the wrong meter.

EDF certainly install smart meters for E7 because I've recently had one fitted, it's one of the more common meters a Landis E470 that does single rate and E7, it's just that E7 needs some extra wiring and a contactor switch, the red circled bit.

libretto

The issue is not that smart meters don't work with Economy 7, it's that British Gas have chosen not to support them. I had a smart meter installed by Bulb last year that was working fine with Economy 7 until the day I switched to British Gas, since when it has only updated one of the two readings. My tariff was showing two rates on the website/app for the first month, then that changed to a single rate. The tariff I signed up for is an Economy 7 tariff with terms that require customers to have a smart meter fitted within 3 months!

I've been chasing them up since last October, and British Gas finally got back to me today to say they can't do it, and gave me the option of having a traditional meter fitted or being transferred back to Bulb!

MWT

It is actually even more basic than that, all smart meters can support a 2 rate tariff so just being on E7 doesn't require anything other than a normal smart meter...

Only time it gets more complicated is if you require the meter to switch a circuit for the night rate, such as for Night Storage Heaters for example.

In that case you either need a 5 port meter instead of the normal 4 port meters, or a 4-port meter with an external contactor as shown above...

b1llys

has anyone actually had an answer from BG to say if or when they’ll have economy 7 smart meters?

ninety

We've had the same thing today; BG engineer turns up & pronounces E7 unavailable with a smart meter!

It's the usual shoddy practice from BG, forcing us to drop E7 if we want a smart meter & losing the low tariff.

MWT

This really is unacceptable, there is no need for a special 5-port meter, they just need to install an external contactor controlled by the ALCS which is a standard part of the 4-port meters. 

b1llys

think we need someone with a bit of clout to hold BG to account & ask why one of the biggest supplier’s can’t sort this out.

MWT

b1llys said:

think we need someone with a bit of clout to hold BG to account & ask why one of the biggest supplier’s can’t sort this out.

Particularly as they are acting as SoLR for hundreds of thousands of customers arriving from other suppliers, many of whom are quite likely to have smart meters on E7 tariffs...