Switching to Octopus Go with 5 wire Smart meter

lohr500

Hi all,
After successfully getting a 5 wire smart meter installed through EDF with 30 minute reporting to replace our dumb Economy 7 meter, I am now considering switching to Octopus Go. 
Has anyone done this with a 5 wire meter and if so what happens when on Octopus Go with the peak and off peak meter registers and the output on the 5th wire (energised now during the Eco 7 off peak period)? 
It wouldn't be a problem if the 5th wire became redundant as it currently only serves as a trigger signal to tell our electric Aga that off peak electricity is available to charge the core. The actual charging current is taken from a 30 amp feed off the main consumer unit which is permanently live. I can easily supply the trigger voltage signal via a timer programmed to match the Octopus Go off peak hours.
Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks

[Deleted User]

You could try contacting smart@octopus.energy and I am sure that they will give you an informed answer. Go prices have recently increased.

matelodave

As far as I'm aware the fifth terminal is just activated by the clock inside the meter which is probably not remotely triggered by the supplier although I'm happy to be corrected

I'm just guessing, because I dont know, but I would think that the 5th terminal may become redundant and gets set either in a permanent powered or unpowerd state. There's always the possiblity that the off-peak function could be set and unset by remote command and the timing adjusted to suit a fixed off-peak period like E7, E10 or even Go.

However if you go onto a variable TOU tariff which is calculated from half hourly readings direct from the meter then any  timing function within the meter would probably only be used record 30 minute data and not used to activate either the auxiliary load contactor or signal and probably wont increment the off-peak register either as there's no need.

As Dolor says, the only people who'd know for certain are Octopus as it's their billing system and they'd have to interact with the DCC to pass switching info back & forth if it wasn't under the control of the internal clock. 

lohr500

For anyone interested I now have a reply from Octopus.
The meter is reprogrammed remotely to energise the 5th wire based on the off peak tariff hours agreed. I didn't ask what happens to the two meter registers and if the off peak register is still used to record the usage during the off peak period as it does now.

matelodave

I'd guess that if the meter gets reprogrammed to switch the auxilliary load control then the off-peak register would register energy consumed through the ALC output.
A question, as I dont know, I assume that all energy through the main connection is recorded on the peak rate register during peak hours but the ALC control output is off. Does all the energy (both main and auxilliary) get recorded by the off-peak register during the off-peak period when ALC is on. Or, is it just energy through the ALC that gets recorded as off-peak with the normal energy being recorded as peak.

[Deleted User]

matelodave said:

I'd guess that if the meter gets reprogrammed to switch the auxilliary load control then the off-peak register would register energy consumed through the ALC output.
A question, as I dont know, I assume that all energy through the main connection is recorded on the peak rate register during peak hours but the ALC control output is off. Does all the energy (both main and auxilliary) get recorded by the off-peak register during the off-peak period when ALC is on. Or, is it just energy through the ALC that gets recorded as off-peak with the normal energy being recorded as peak.

SMETS2 meters have 4 registers if that helps.