Gas and electricity meter certification expiry dates?

bashful

Octopus Energy have contacted me wanting to fit smart meters.
They said "Your meters are approaching the end of their certification period and need to be replaced to ensure absolute accuracy and safety. Don't worry, the install is a breeze; our friendly engineer will be with you for about an hour per fuel and that's it - you're done!"
I am wary about smart meters and, at the moment, would rather hold off. 
I had never heard of meters having a certification period and there is nothing on my meters to show this. A customer support staff at Western Power Distribution who I asked about my meter hadn't heard of it before either. 
I went back to Octopus and asked them for the expiry dates and got a strange reply saying  "Your meter is due to expire in 2067"!
Does anyone know anything about gas and electricity meter certification expiry dates and can shed some light on this please?
Am I alone in being contacted like this?
Brian

What_time_is_it

I got contacted in exactly the same way by EDF.
It's vague and unless they actually say a date where the certification period (whatever that is!) will actually end, I would ignore them.
If you are wary of smart meters, don't get them until you are forced to.

matelodave

Have a shufti at schedule 4 of the following document - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1566/made#:~:text=%E2%80%9Ccertification%20period%E2%80%9D%20means%2C%20in%20the%20case%20of%20a,is%20certified%20for%20the%20purpose%20of%20the%20Act%3B

It looks to be mainly 10 years with a few at 15, 20 or even 25 depending on who they were made by and when. You'd need to check your meter type to see if it appears in this list (I'm guessing that a lot of smart ones dont unless the list has been updated)

yes it has - this is a version of schedule 4 dated January 2022 - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1056244/Schedule_4_-_31st_January_2022.pdf

My leccy meter is an Elster AS300P made in 2017 but for some reason isn't on the list

I haven;t looked for an equivalent for gas coz I'm not interested

However AFAIK suppliers can determine their own certification periods and would obviously try to change meters in batches rather than nipping out to each customer a day or two before their meter certification runs out.

I suppose that if you wanted to play silly B's, you could wave this around in front of your supplier and insist that he changes the meter in accordance with the schedule

Alnat1

What exactly is your worry about smart meters? The worst thing that can happen is your energy company has problems communicating with them and you have to give manual readings - exactly like you do now.

This happens to a small minority of people, the rest have trouble free, up to date accounts

bashful

Thank you for that schedule matelodave!

I have found information on my electricity meter and it’s an ME160 (so I assume an Iskra) with a certification period of 20 years.

The meter was installed in November 2002 so Octopus is correct that its certification is about to expire.

Maybe i need to bite the bullet and move to smart meters......

Brian

macman

If you don't like smart meters, just wrap it in tinfoil after install and carry on giving manual readings as before.

[Deleted User]

bashful said:

Thank you for that schedule matelodave!

I have found information on my electricity meter and it’s an ME160 (so I assume an Iskra) with a certification period of 20 years.

The meter was installed in November 2002 so Octopus is correct that its certification is about to expire.

Maybe i need to bite the bullet and move to smart meters......

Brian

The supplier does not require consumer approval to replace EoL meters with smart meters. This was agreed by BEIS a couple of years ago as suppliers already have a legal right of entry.

ansaryon

Interesting - I've been with Shell for several years and they haven't played the "your certification is going to expire soon" trick. They have randomly phoned me (or rather a "partner company" has) to arrange to have smart meters installed, but as I'm at work when they phone all they get is the answerphone. I don't really want smart meters myself as I don't want to burn a day's annual leave to have them installed.

As for the meters I have: a gas meter installed in the 90s, and an electricity meter from at least 1981, if not older. I suspect the latter predates any concept of "certification periods", it still works fine of course!

pochase

And if it suddenly does not work fine any longer and for example runs faster?

Try to complaint to the ombudsman if the supplier can show lots of emails asking for the meter to be exchanged and you refusing.

brewerdave

ansaryon said:

As for the meters I have: a gas meter installed in the 90s, and an electricity meter from at least 1981, if not older. I suspect the latter predates any concept of "certification periods", it still works fine of course!

My gas meter has a label date of 1998 on it whilst the leccy meter was changed in 2015. Never been approached about the gas but did have loads of messages from BG about the leccy meter - but then when I relented and phoned for my "free" smart meter, they told me to phone again later in the year as there were no appointments before November !!!

Alnat1

I'm happy for the people to keep their old meters if they wish. My Nan kept using her old B&W TV for years because she'd heard bad things about the colour ones. No point getting new tech when the old worked just fine.

I've got smart meters and chosen Time of Use tariffs and am happy to be paying less for what I use at certain times. It's no big deal to set the delay timer on the dishwasher to 2am if that will save me money. I still have clean dishes in the morning.