Smart Meter question

LindsayT

When I moved in here a few years ago, there was a SMETS1 electric meter and a gas meter in cu.ft. A couple of months ago, Octopus asked if there was a reason I didn't want a smart gas meter. I said there wasn't, so they arranged to change it.
When the engineer came, he thought he was here to change both meters, I said I was only told gas, so he didn't change electric. 
On 16th September, I got a bill for electric only. I had not used any gas but expected to be billed for gas standing charge. When I queried it, they said they haven't been able to connect to the gas meter yet but I asked to pay the standing charge and was sent a revised bill.
Having returned from living abroad for 12 years, I knew nothing about smart meters but after reading these boards it occurred to me that it's possible they would never be able to connect to the gas unless I had SMETS2 electric meter and I emailed back on 16th September with that query. 
This morning, I got this reply.

That is absolutely right. SMETS1 electric meters cannot communicate with SMETS2 gas meters, this is why both were due to be replaced. Would you like me to arrange an electric only meter exchange? This will allow the meters to communicate and operate correctly as smart meters.

Surely Octopus billing me on a SMETS1 electric meter should have told me both meters would be changed. 

My question is, what are people's opinions on having the electric meter changed?

Alnat1

Get it changed then Octopus can (hopefully) read both and save you having to give monthly readings.

[Deleted User]

I struggle to understand why you didn't let the installer change both meters: by the sound of it, the installer had been briefed to change both meters and the comms hub.? The basic set up for SMETS2 is that both meters communicate with the comms hub (that usually sits above the SMETS2 electricity). The comms hub contains a gas proxy meter. This is to protect gas meter's battery life. The gas proxy meter converts 30 minute gas usage readings into kWh for display on the In House Display (IHD).

The supplier 'pulls' data from the meters once every 24 hours via the DCC Network.

Not all SMETS1 meters connect to the DCC Network. If you have a SECURE electricity meter then Octopus can read this remotely. These meters are being firmware updated so that they can connect to the DCC Network via a dedicated portal.

The above is a very long and complicated way of saying: allow Octopus to fit a SMETS2 comms hub and a SMETS2 electricity meter. Your existing SMETS2 gas meter will then be 'paired' by the installer with the new comms hub. 

LindsayT

@[Deleted User], you are obviously very knowledgeable about how these things work.
However, it wasn't that I didn't let him change both meters. I merely said I was told only the gas meter was being changed.
As I said in my initial post, surely I should have been told that the electric meter needed to be changed as well.
After all, they know more about it than I do.

brewerdave

LindsayT said:

@[Deleted User], you are obviously very knowledgeable about how these things work.
However, it wasn't that I didn't let him change both meters. I merely said I was told only the gas meter was being changed.
As I said in my initial post, surely I should have been told that the electric meter needed to be changed as well.
After all, they know more about it than I do.

The problem is that the "advisers" on the phone don't know very much about smarts themselves. I've been harangued by EDF re having  smart gas meter fitted ;When they phoned , I pointed out that it wouldn't work because I haven't got a smart electric meter (with another supplier) so the installer wouldn't be able to commission the meter.
She denied that it was a problem - said that ,anyway ,I could supply manual readings! - to which I replied "what's the point?"
Quite clearly all they care about ,is the install -not whether it'll work afterwards.

[Deleted User]

brewerdave said:

LindsayT said:

@[Deleted User], you are obviously very knowledgeable about how these things work.
However, it wasn't that I didn't let him change both meters. I merely said I was told only the gas meter was being changed.
As I said in my initial post, surely I should have been told that the electric meter needed to be changed as well.
After all, they know more about it than I do.

The problem is that the "advisers" on the phone don't know very much about smarts themselves. I've been harangued by EDF re having  smart gas meter fitted ;When they phoned , I pointed out that it wouldn't work because I haven't got a smart electric meter (with another supplier) so the installer wouldn't be able to commission the meter.
She denied that it was a problem - said that ,anyway ,I could supply manual readings! - to which I replied "what's the point?"
Quite clearly all they care about ,is the install -not whether it'll work afterwards.

Yes, you’ll find that. The only official target is for installing smart meters, not for fixing them or making sure they work. That pretty much means that as long as they can count you as an install they don’t care about the rest of it.