British Gas enforced smart? meter installation

vigman

I have dual fuel with BG. I’ve had an email saying my electric meter is old and possibly dangerous and they need to replace it urgently. It also says that my gas meter can/will be changed at the same time

I don’t want smart meters (very poor mobile signal in our area) plus other known faults and am happy to have standard replacement meters. 

However in the small print it says to ring the smart meter helpline with any queries. 

On top of this it says if I don’t make an appointment they will make one for me?!

 I posted a query to BG help on Twitter but have not received a reply. 

I know I don’t have to let anyone in without a warrant and it is not yet a legal requirement to have smart meters. 

Any thoughts please?

TIA

brewerdave

IF the leccy meter is "end of life" then they have a right to replace with a new meter - currently you can ask for them to continue to use the smart meter as a dumb one and provide them with manual reads. I'm led to believe that they aren't replacing "like for like" any more, so highly unlikely to agree to use old style meter.

MattMattMattUK

vigman said:

I have dual fuel with BG. I’ve had an email saying my electric meter is old and possibly dangerous and they need to replace it urgently. It also says that my gas meter can/will be changed at the same time

I don’t want smart meters (very poor mobile signal in our area) plus other known faults and am happy to have standard replacement meters. 

However in the small print it says to ring the smart meter helpline with any queries. 

On top of this it says if I don’t make an appointment they will make one for me?!

 I posted a query to BG help on Twitter but have not received a reply. 

I know I don’t have to let anyone in without a warrant and it is not yet a legal requirement to have smart meters. 

Any thoughts please?

TIA

It does not matter that there is poor signal, that is their problem, if it is not good enough to be able to operate in smart mode (and most do not use the standard mobile networks anyway) they it will function as a normal meter. What do you think the "known faults" are with smart meters?

MWT

brewerdave said:

IF the leccy meter is "end of life" then they have a right to replace with a new meter - currently you can ask for them to continue to use the smart meter as a dumb one and provide them with manual reads. I'm led to believe that they aren't replacing "like for like" any more, so highly unlikely to agree to use old style meter.

That went away a little while ago, as a minimum they are entitled to take monthly readings without requiring customer permission.

The customer can still deny permission for half-hour data to be collected though, or regular daily reads, if they wish.

mr_stripey

I don't understand why would you not want them to take regular readings from the smart meter if you have one? 

Astria

BG typically say if you don't make an appointment they'll make one for you, but you can then re-arrange the appointment if you wish, if it's not convenient. It's not a legal requirement to have smart meters installed, but also it's not a legal requirement for them to have stock of non-smart meters. So if your meter is considered EOL then you may end up with no choice. You can then choose between a smart meter or no meter.

If you continuously refuse all attempts to book a date to have your meters changed, they have the right to obtain a warrant to change or remove the meter without your permission.

vigman

Just one example of issues with Smet2 meters (and 39% of installs fail in some way):

“The manufacturers test the top layer of meters before they leave the factory. Typical good practice to make sure a batch works.

But under the SMETS2 security protocol, it seems that a meter which has been tested will no longer work – possibly never again.”

Other faults are failure of transmission and complete lockup of equipment with no obvious cause. 

As a chartered engineer (IT and electronics) I don’t find over a third of installs failing being acceptable. 

[Deleted User]

brewerdave said:

IF the leccy meter is "end of life" then they have a right to replace with a new meter - currently you can ask for them to continue to use the smart meter as a dumb one and provide them with manual reads. I'm led to believe that they aren't replacing "like for like" any more, so highly unlikely to agree to use old style meter.

This is a myth. There is no such thing as a dumb meter as all smart meters have to be connected to the DCC Network for commissioning; security and meter firmware updates. 

BEIS has agreed that any meters deemed end-of-life can be replaced with a smart meter without the homeowner's permission as suppliers are obliged by Law to replace such meters and have a legal right of entry into a property to do so.

MWT

vigman said:

Just one example of issues with Smet2 meters (and 39% of installs fail in some way):

“The manufacturers test the top layer of meters before they leave the factory. Typical good practice to make sure a batch works.

But under the SMETS2 security protocol, it seems that a meter which has been tested will no longer work – possibly never again.”

That is a reference to a 3 year old early rollout issue that Octopus uncovered, it is not indicative of the current state of play.

Similarly, your 39% failure rate will also include a lot of software and configuration/security certificate errors that are remotely resolved without hardware replacement, it is not suggesting that 39% of meters fail.

Either way, if BG have determined your meter is EoL they do have the right to replace it, so you can delay the inevitable, possible for quite a while, but in the end they do have the right to gain access to replace the meter if they have to...

 

Ally_E.

How does one find out if their meter has reached end of life?

I requested in 2019 to have a pre-pay meter replaced with specifically a non-smart credit meter from Bulb and they agreed, all went very smooth.

Astria

Ally_E. said:

How does one find out if their meter has reached end of life?

I requested in 2019 to have a pre-pay meter replaced with specifically a non-smart credit meter from Bulb and they agreed, all went very smooth.

The meter will have a certification period, this will typically be up to 25 years from manufacture, after which point they can't confirm if it's still reliable or safe, so will typically request to change it.