Both analogue meters faults but don't want to go digital - On OVO

Gerry1

Dolor said:

There is no legislation in place which allows suppliers to fit smart meters without the agreement of homeowners. There is however legislation in place which allows suppliers to replace end-of-life meters without a homeowner’s agreement.

So smart meters won't be compulsory, except when they become compulsory?  'When I use a word,’ said the Secretary of State, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean'.

Dolor said:

Rolling blackouts, as you put it, is blatant scaremongering: it would require a change in legislation.

Yeah, right.  There were no rolling blackouts in the 1972 miners strike, and no three day week back in 1974, none of this ever happened.  Everybody knows that when demand exceeds supply, you just shake the magic leccy tree.

theoretica

A more recent example would be the electricity bills in Texas in the bad weather earlier this year - some people had signed up to tariffs which varied daily according to the wholesale price of electricity and led to astronomical bills.

unforeseen

theoretica said:

A more recent example would be the electricity bills in Texas in the bad weather earlier this year - some people had signed up to tariffs which varied daily according to the wholesale price of electricity and led to astronomical bills.

And they were laughing all the way to the bank until things went pear shaped.

If you link your bills to a variable that you have no control over then there will always come a point where you get bitten, 

[Deleted User]

Dolor said:

Rolling blackouts, as you put it, is blatant scaremongering: it would require a change in legislation.

Yeah, right.  There were no rolling blackouts in the 1972 miners strike, and no three day week back in 1974, none of this ever happened.  Everybody knows that when demand exceeds supply, you just shake the magic leccy tree.

I think that you will find that the three day week; power restrictions etc were covered by The Three Day Week Order that went through Parliament. If, in the future, there is a need to manage demand and supply there are a lot easier ways of disconnecting consumers than sending out messages to millions of individual smart meters. Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean that it will ever happen.

For example, If you think back to the power blackout in August 2019 which was the result of the unplanned shutdown of a CCGT followed by parts of a wind farm, National Grid had to cut power to nearly a Million domestic customers plus transport services to maintain the frequency of the Grid. This was done regionally and not by individual smart meter. There is legislation in place to cover extraordinary events of this nature. There is no legislation in place to manage demand by randomly disconnecting individual homes from the Grid. Disconnections require a Court Order.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

Yeah, right.  There were no rolling blackouts in the 1972 miners strike, and no three day week back in 1974, none of this ever happened.  Everybody knows that when demand exceeds supply, you just shake the magic leccy tree.

You make a good point Gerry, there wasn’t a smart meter in sight back then and the blackouts still happened, and if it was needed the same blackouts could happen now regardless of having avoided the installation of a smart meter...

MWT

andy_spoo said:

Since it's NOT a legal requirement to go digital, can I demand that OVO supply replacement analogue meters?

To answer your question as asked, no, you cannot demand analogue meters, all replacements and new installations have been digital for many years now so they are completely unavoidable.

Moving to another supplier would just leave you without a meter for longer.

If you are willing to accept a digital meter, but not a smart meter then you can request one from OVO but they are allowed to charge you for it, if they have one available, but they are not required to obtain one if they do not already have a stock.

So in the end if you want to have an accurately metered supply you may have to accept a smart meter.

The_Fat_Controller

@MWT I wonder how the OP or the energy suppliers would guesstimate the final and opening readings if they wanted to switch when the meters are not working.

MWT

The_Fat_Controller said:

@MWT I wonder how the OP or the energy suppliers would guesstimate the final and opening readings if they wanted to switch when the meters are not working.

The industry process will estimate the readings based on previous history.

niktheguru

andy_spoo said:

Both out meters have gone faulty. The economy 7 electric meter at fist (a while ago) and now the gas meter.
For numerous reasons I don't want to go to digital meters (don't waste your time asking why as switching to digital isn't the question I'm asking).
Since it's NOT a legal requirement to go digital, can I demand that OVO supply replacement analogue meters?

When they originally noticed that the electric meter wasn't producing good readings and they tried to push us in to digital meters, when I refused they said they'd just have to estimate on an average reading. NOW they want to charge us £460 a month (dual fuel) !! How is THAT an average? I swear that they've deliberately massively over estimated in an attempt to force us to digital - a pretty shoddy practice in my opinion.

One option might to to temporarily change to a supplier that doesn't do digital meters, and then swap to a cheaper supplier in the future?

What do you think?

Thanks,

Andy

Hi Andy,

The answers to your questions are simple.

You will find it extremely difficult near impossible to get a replacement "rotary" (non digital) meter.
You should be able to request a non-smart meter, but the supplier are within their right to charge your for this. (i.e. it wont be a free swap)
You are entitled to a free smart meter replacement (which i understand for your own reasons you dont want)

With two broken meters now you are at the mercy of the utility companies and will pay through the nose in estimates. Companies will find it difficult to base readings on previous years because of the pandemic and increased usage because of working from home etc across the board in the last year,  so even if they have your past usage, your estimates will probably be higher.

Switching to another company with a broken meter is a really really bad idea and frought with problems. if you do this you are going down the road of multiple agony and pain.

MY advice would be just to get the meter replaced. You'll be wasting time and money holding out for some sort of analgoue meter.

Good luck.

bsms1147

andy_spoo said:

For numerous reasons I don't want to go to digital meters (don't waste your time asking why as switching to digital isn't the question I'm asking).

I’m happy to waste my time with this question, am still genuinely curious as to your thoughts. Without prejudice. Am I missing a big issue with digital (non smart) meters? Or a big benefit of an analogue meter?

(Unless you’re conflating digital with =smart meter, because I appreciate many people for various reasons don’t want smart meters).