British Gas meter replacement chaos

arjar

I asked BG to install smart meters last October.  After cancelling the appointment to do it at 24 hrs notice, they eventually turned up on Jan 31st and said 'no can do', because my electricity meters are economy 7, and BG apparently don't do E7 smart meters (despite selling E7 tariffs, and having not noticed that I was an E7 customer).

This week I have received an email saying that they MUST URGENTLY replace my meters because of their age, and implying that they could be a fire hazard, and that they will do it whether or not I agree.  But (unlike other suppliers) they still can't/won't install E7 smart meters, so I'll get 'new' conventional E7 meters (including a new gas meter, as they are 'on the premises'.) This all seems completely potty to me.  In January they refused to change the meters.  Now they are insisting on changing the meters, but not to smart meters.  I guess the line of least resistance is to simply let them get on with it.  But I am slightly concerned that if I ask another (more competent) supplier to provide smart meters in the future, they'll baulk because everything is 'new'.  Tried calling them to discuss it today but just got transferred into an infinite queue.  Any advice welcome.  

QrizB

For some unfathomable reason BG don't/can't/won't support E7 on smart meters. There have been several threads from customers who were forced to join BG (via SoLR arrangements) and weho have had terrible trouble with their E7 as a result.

I think your only option, short of leaving BG, is to let them fit conventional E7 meters. Don't worry, this shouldn't prevent a future supplier from fitting smart meters; your meters will still be dumb and will still get swept up in Ofgem's continuing efforts to get smart meters rolled out.

arjar

Thanks. Yes, compliance seems the easy answer.  But it all seems so wasteful when the Govt. wants every one to have smart meters, other suppliers are busy doing it, but BG are refusing to do it.

morhen

Talking about 5 port economy 7 smart meters, and British Gas being unable to support them.  What happens if they put in a smart meter, but you don't have any wiring left from an old economy 7 setup?   Is the meter smart enough to know the different rates it should charge, and at what time?

MWT

morhen said:

Talking about 5 port economy 7 smart meters, and British Gas being unable to support them.  What happens if they put in a smart meter, but you don't have any wiring left from an old economy 7 setup?   Is the meter smart enough to know the different rates it should charge, and at what time?

If you don't have a separate E7 circuit then you wouldn't need a 5-port meter.

Any normal 4-port meter can still support E7 and switch between the 2 registers to correctly record consumption.

BobT36

Make sure they actually install E7 meters and don't go installing non-E7 smart meters instead...
Definitely check with the engineer on what equipment he turns up with.

arjar

Don't understand the 'port' thing.  Does this mean that as I don't have a dedicated E7 circuit (for instance, for storage heaters) a BG smart meter will be able to report the 'night' and 'day' readings perfectly well?  If that's the case why won't they install it?

MWT

arjar said:

Don't understand the 'port' thing.  Does this mean that as I don't have a dedicated E7 circuit (for instance, for storage heaters) a BG smart meter will be able to report the 'night' and 'day' readings perfectly well?  If that's the case why won't they install it?

The ports are simply the cable connections. 4 ports gives you live and neutral in/out, the 5th port, along with an internal contactor,  gives you the ability to control an extra circuit for night storage heaters for example, which would be turned on when the night rate is live.

If you don't need that then yes, a standard smart 4-port smart meter can run E7 perfectly well.

You only need two registers for E7 and the standard smart meters have 4 registers so E7 is trivial for them.

I had a 4 port meter providing E7 for me a while ago as like you, I had no equipment on a separate circuit to control.

arjar

Thanks. Very helpful.  I'll try this out on BG (when I can get through to them).

Phones4Chris

arjar said:

Thanks. Very helpful.  I'll try this out on BG (when I can get through to them).

I understood from other threads that BG currently do not support E7 Smart Meters?

cjeb1

Not a very helpful comment but I wouldnt be too worried about not getting the BG smart meters. We have them, they stopped working correctly in May last year, multiple calls later (where they tell me to turn them off and back on again) theyve agreed to replace them at the end of May (appointment booked since March)... we'll see if it actually happens. Its definitely more hassle than it's worth imo!