Electricity meter "lifespan" before replacement due

recci

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

doesntnotcompute

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

Well that's why I put lifespan in quotes, but as you can see people in this thread are discussing "certification life" and "end of life" etc, at some point the supplier or (is it the network operator) will replace the meter they own with another one. It all seems a bit of a lottery but it is in legislation (clearly I'm no expert though).

The reason I ask about this is because currently I have about £240 on my prepayment electricity meter and £254 on my key fob (British Gas have said this is fine to do to stay on the old rates), but I'm currently using maybe £5 per week - which by my calculations 240 + 254 / 5 = aaagggeeesss.

So, if not in the next year or two, but maybe if I were to pull this trick again - I mean at some point I'm gonna have a new meter and the "fun" of reclaiming what's left on the meter and maybe the key fob aswell. I'm not so much worried about it as trying to think ahead.

Astria

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

I was told 25 years from date of manufacture, they are typically left in a property for 10 - 20 years, or until someone complains.

Zandoni

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

How do they cost you more?

Astria

Zandoni said:

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

How do they cost you more?

Maybe they mean the 50p/year the in home display costs to run?

Ectophile

Astria said:

Zandoni said:

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

How do they cost you more?

Maybe they mean the 50p/year the in home display costs to run?

Or maybe it's where people had ancient spinning disc meters with worn out bearings.  So when a new freshly calibrated meter is installed, they blame the new meter for over-reading.

Zandoni

Ectophile said:

Astria said:

Zandoni said:

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

How do they cost you more?

Maybe they mean the 50p/year the in home display costs to run?

Or maybe it's where people had ancient spinning disc meters with worn out bearings.  So when a new freshly calibrated meter is installed, they blame the new meter for over-reading.

Old meters have diaphragms inside, which are measuring chambers, these are linked to the index by a gearbox and a small chain of gears, it is extremely rare that you’d notice any difference in its accuracy compared to a new electronic meter which works by measuring the speed of sound between two points.

SAC2334

brewerdave said:

My dial gas meter has a 1988 ticket on it !!!

Jesus ! you still got a dial gas meter. I started reading meters for all the main meter reading companies in 1998 , now retired, and have only seen a couple of these ever , one of which was a large business gas meter in a Chinese takeaway.
How on earth has that thing got missed brewerdave ?
There are still many thousands of the brilliant Sangamo Weston electric dial meters around from the same vintage and no meter is more reliable than those IMO

MattMattMattUK

SAC2334 said:

brewerdave said:

My dial gas meter has a 1988 ticket on it !!!

Jesus ! you still got a dial gas meter. I started reading meters for all the main meter reading companies in 1998 , now retired, and have only seen a couple of these ever , one of which was a large business gas meter in a Chinese takeaway.
How on earth has that thing got missed brewerdave ?
There are still many thousands of the brilliant Sangamo Weston electric dial meters around from the same vintage and no meter is more reliable than those IMO

My mum had dial gas and electricity meters until they were replaced with smart ones in 2019, the installer did not know how they they had not been replaced long ago, the gas and electricity meters were older than me!

jimjames

Astria said:

recci said:

There is no lifespan, they last for a very long time. Never change to a smart meter unless you like paying more for your energy.

I was told 25 years from date of manufacture, they are typically left in a property for 10 - 20 years, or until someone complains.

Our meter is between 40 & 50 years old from the design so not sure how it has slipped through the net - not complaining though!