Economy 7 and ending of RTS (Radio Teleswitch Service)

Binman1990

I've received a letter from my supplier informing me that I need a smart meter because of the rts switch off but is this a rts meter? 

Gerry1

If you have an RTS it will be in a separate box.  The cut off date is now expected to be April 2025.

Binman1990

I can't see anything that mentions rts. This is attached to it though. 

pozzyxtra

I cannot see that my meter says it is controlled by an RTS system anywhere ? It is for an Economy 10 tariff.

macman

As advised, the RTS switch is a separate unit, so post a wider shot of the meter box.
This raises another issue though: do smart meters support E10/Heatwise tarrifs?

pozzyxtra

There is nothing else in the meter box apart from a standard fuse. We do have a neighbour with Economy 10 who has had a smart meter installed by SSE/OVO. We spent several months getting our providor SP to say they could do the same, when we said okay do it they replied "the supply in the area needed updating before they could do this" Nothing happened since that, which was a year ago.We will keep our heads down as long as possible I think.

Elisew

Hi,

I hope it's ok that I'm adding to this thread?

I currently own a ground floor flat in Cornwall that is on E7 Tariff and I'm a customer of EDF. I've received a letter today telling me about the RTS Service coming to an end and that 'They need to upgrade my meter as soon as possible'.
Once the RTS is shut down apparently my meter COULD shut down.......I've become a bit wiser to the wording that companies use in relation to the whole 'Green' thing so feel very sceptical of their wording.

I really don't want to change to a Smart Meter, I've spent the last year since buying the flat ignoring EDF's attempts and what I have felt at times is quite pushy and continuous communications even though I've said I don't want the info because I don't want a meter installed.
(The inconvenience isn't great as the flat is a Holiday Let property). 

The letter from EDF states:
'The RTS is coming to and end^'

^ 'The Equipment that produces the radio signal can no longer be satisfactorily maintained and will no longer operate beyond 31 March 2024. This affects all energy suppliers.

All information is correct at the time of sending'

Does anyone know for definite
1: whether it's 2024 or is it 2025,
2: is it the 'COULD' and not 'Will' stop working and
3: Do I really have to change to a Smart Meter or can I just plod on with the digital 2 rate meter I already have?

I can't help but feel complete mistrust for these energy companies and I personally don't believe anything they do or try to push us to do is really for our benefit.

Advice and info would be very much appreciated, thanks. Lisa

[Deleted User]

Elisew said:

Hi,

I hope it's ok that I'm adding to this thread?

I currently own a ground floor flat in Cornwall that is on E7 Tariff and I'm a customer of EDF. I've received a letter today telling me about the RTS Service coming to an end and that 'They need to upgrade my meter as soon as possible'.
Once the RTS is shut down apparently my meter COULD shut down.......I've become a bit wiser to the wording that companies use in relation to the whole 'Green' thing so feel very sceptical of their wording.

I really don't want to change to a Smart Meter, I've spent the last year since buying the flat ignoring EDF's attempts and what I have felt at times is quite pushy and continuous communications even though I've said I don't want the info because I don't want a meter installed.
(The inconvenience isn't great as the flat is a Holiday Let property). 

The letter from EDF states:
'The RTS is coming to and end^'

^ 'The Equipment that produces the radio signal can no longer be satisfactorily maintained and will no longer operate beyond 31 March 2024. This affects all energy suppliers.

All information is correct at the time of sending'

Does anyone know for definite
1: whether it's 2024 or is it 2025,
2: is it the 'COULD' and not 'Will' stop working and
3: Do I really have to change to a Smart Meter or can I just plod on with the digital 2 rate meter I already have?

I can't help but feel complete mistrust for these energy companies and I personally don't believe anything they do or try to push us to do is really for our benefit.

Advice and info would be very much appreciated, thanks. Lisa

Have a read of this letter from Ofgem to suppliers:

As your existing metering system has been deemed to be end-of-life, suppliers can legally fit a smart meter without your permission.

JSHarris

Teleswitches are REALLY old, not seen one in the wild for around 20 years.  They stopped being installed in the 1980's I believe.  They use a signal on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave to switch, sequenced to phase the switching times by region (for grid balancing).

Time clock switching replaced Teleswitches from the late 1980's onwards.  Initially the time clocks were a separate box (like the big Teleswitch box) but around 30 years or so ago digital meters with built in time switches took over.  Two rate digital meters have 5 wires, rather than 4, with the fifth wire being the switched E7 or E10 line conductor.  This line conductor can directly supply a separate E7 consumer unit, for things like storage heaters or water heating.

The timing for a digital two rate meter is done internally with a preset clock (for obvious reasons this isn't user adjustable).  These tend to be pretty accurate, but I've seen a few over the years where the time has drifted a fair bit, or just been set incorrectly initially.  One quirk of these clock controlled meters (I have one) is that they don't adjust between UTC and BST in the way that multirate smart meters do.  This means the off-peak times change when the clocks change.

Finally, there are five wire multirate smart meters now, they've been around for three or four years.  This means that any five wire dumb meter can be replaced with a smart meter and retain the switched circuit for storage heaters with no significant changes needed.  Some suppliers are STILL unaware of these five wire smart meters though, and are giving out incorrect advice.  A  multirate smart meter is little different to a digital E7 meter, the peak and off-peak registers can be manually read by pushing a button in the same way.

Gerry1

@Elisew The RTS contract runs until the end of March 2024.  However, it's been extended numerous times and IMHO may well be extended by at least another year.