REPLACEMENT ELECTRIC METER

christieb26

My house had prepayment meters installed when I bought it.  Now Electric meter is broke and needs replacing.  I am Bulb customer, in process of being transferred over to Octopus and they have said they will replace with new prepayment meter.  I have told them I would prefer a bill meter, but they said I have to have like for like and they would switch it over via a smart meter to bill payment after it has been installed.  Doesnt make sense to me. I dont have a smart meter and dont really want one.  I have cut back on electricty use as much as I can already and a smart meter is not going to change that.  Got rid of dryer and electric hob and got new energy efficient freezer etc, so i dont want to add something else that is going to be using electricty when I dont need it to.  Nor, do I see why I should have to pay more for my electricty because they want to put in a new prepayment meter.  What are my rights regarding this? can I refuse to have a prepayment meter and smart meter and insist on a normal bill meter. 

GingerTim

You might be better posting this on the Energy board at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/energy.

The supplier has no obligation to replace your meter with anything but a smart meter - and are required to install them to meet government targets. They can indeed switch it remotely from pre-payment to credit.

Also, don't worry, the smart meter adds nothing to your personal energy use.

Jonboy_1984

Moved into a house with a smart meter in prepayment mode fitted last year. Asked to be moved to credit meter and they (after a little bit of human incompetence within the call centres admittedly) gave me a date and changed it remotely on the day via the wireless signal.

The smart meter itself (the bit in the meter cupboard taking the readings) doesn’t add to the energy use.

The IHD ( in house display) which is the optional in the house gizmo that shows you the daily usage in £ uses a tiny amount of power, but was happily unplugged and a drawer when we arrived.

Keep_pedalling

If your meter is broken it will be replaced by a smart meter you don’t have a choice.

As has already been said a smart meter is switchable from pre-payment to standard and back again. The in house display only uses a tiny amount of electricity and you don’t need to leave it on. I don’t use mine but I do look closely at at my usage on the Octopus web site because using a smart meter means I can see what is used in half hour slots.

A smart meter also g Ives you access the Octopus time of use tariffs that might be useful for you in the future. If you currently had a smart you could be earning some credits to your bills through the savings sessions.

https://octopus.energy/saving-sessions/

EssexHebridean

christieb26 said:

My house had prepayment meters installed when I bought it.  Now Electric meter is broke and needs replacing.  I am Bulb customer, in process of being transferred over to Octopus and they have said they will replace with new prepayment meter.  I have told them I would prefer a bill meter, but they said I have to have like for like and they would switch it over via a smart meter to bill payment after it has been installed.  Doesnt make sense to me. I dont have a smart meter and dont really want one.  I have cut back on electricty use as much as I can already and a smart meter is not going to change that.  Got rid of dryer and electric hob and got new energy efficient freezer etc, so i dont want to add something else that is going to be using electricty when I dont need it to.  Nor, do I see why I should have to pay more for my electricty because they want to put in a new prepayment meter.  What are my rights regarding this? can I refuse to have a prepayment meter and smart meter and insist on a normal bill meter. 

I'm not sure why you think you'll be facing increased costs because of the meter being changed? There is no cost for installation of the meter, and indeed there is a possibility that once the new, working meter is installed, and they switch you over to a credit account, you may even be paying less (I would suggest checking your supplier's tariff for your area though as it could be that you will actually pay less staying on Prepay.) 

As already explained - the meters now being fitted are Smart Meters so that is almost certainly what you will be given - at the end of the day a meter is a meter anyway - and the smart meter would come with the advantage that if you do decide to stay on prepay then you'd be able to manage top-ups online which a lot of people find far less hassle. 

The Smart meter won't be using any more electricity than your current meter would - so again, not sure why you think it would be? 

I suspect the reason why they need to install the new meter in prepay mode and then switch it is that it's simply more straightforward that way - to try to do a simultaneous swap of both meter and payment method would run the risk of all sorts of things going wrong, and they are trying to mitigate against that. 

christieb26

I wanted a bill meter because pre-payment meters charge more day on standing charges other meters.  which is very unfair and will a bill meter I wouldnt have to remember to top up.  Thank you for the advice.

EssexHebridean

christieb26 said:

I wanted a bill meter because pre-payment meters charge more day on standing charges other meters.  which is very unfair and will a bill meter I wouldnt have to remember to top up.  Thank you for the advice.

Prepay doesn’t always work out more expensive these days - it depends on your suppliers rates. While the standing charge might be more than on Direct Debit (credit meter) the unit charges are sometimes lower, so for those who aren’t low users it can actually work out at a lower cost. Definitely worth checking - you may still wish to go to a credit meter in the long term if the convenience would be worth a small extra cost, at least then you’ll be fully armed with all the info! 

macman

christieb26 said:

I wanted a bill meter because pre-payment meters charge more day on standing charges other meters.  which is very unfair and will a bill meter I wouldnt have to remember to top up.  Thank you for the advice.

You can have a credit meter, but first you need a smart meter. As soon as that's installed, you can ask to have it switched remotely to credit mode from PPM mode. 
You'll be getting a smart meter anyway, no one is installing dumb meters now, they don't have any.