Unable to fit smart meter - what will happen now? 17 March at 3:33AM in Energy 11 replies 438 views

Rusty190

My energy company e-mailed me a few weeks ago to say that my meters were "approaching their certification date" and needed to be replaced.
They would be replaced with smart meters and would be fitted where the existing meters are currently sited.
Meter day dawns, engineer visits, he can't site them where the old ones are - there isn't any space.
He took photos and went off in his van.
What will happen now?
I should say, I don't particularly want smart meters and am perfectly satisfied with the meters I have.
I send in readings every month and never have an estimated bill.
I pay by direct debit and don't owe anything on my account - it's in credit currently.
Any ideas what will happen now? Will I be allowed to continue with my uncertified meters?

frugalmacdugal

Hi,

forget about it, just continue doing what you are doing providing monthly readings, supplier will contact you if need be.

Reed_Richards

The same thing happened to me few months ago (but I only have the one meter, for electricity).  There was no mention of "certification" in my case.  Nothing "bad" has happened since, things have continued exactly as before with me supplying monthly meter readings.  Clearly "certification" was just a pretext or they would have changed your meter for a "certified" but "dumb" meter of the right size.

Because I might want to move to a time-of-use tariff I have asked my electrician to come and move another meter so as to make room for a smart meter to be fitted.  Would that be a possible option for you?    

GrumpyDil

Reed_Richards said:

 Clearly "certification" was just a pretext or they would have changed your meter for a "certified" but "dumb" meter of the right size. 

Genuine question but would someone out fitting smart meters have dumb meters with them? 

Reed_Richards

GrumpyDil said:

Reed_Richards said:

 Clearly "certification" was just a pretext or they would have changed your meter for a "certified" but "dumb" meter of the right size. 

Genuine question but would someone out fitting smart meters have dumb meters with them? 

Probably not, but if there was genuine concern about the need for a "certified" meter then someone would come back with a certified meter that would fit.

alleycat`

Mine were done on certification but they do seem a bit haphazard about how they go about these things. The houses either side of where my parents live both have the original meters in them from 1977, where as mine were done at just over 20 years old.

TadleyBaggie

My gas meter is around 35 years old, so clearly out of date. When my meters were supposed to be changed to smart versions (5 years ago or so), the installer refused to do the gas one due to concerns with the mounting bracket. Never heard anything else and the meter still seems to work fine.

Dolor

TadleyBaggie said:

My gas meter is around 35 years old, so clearly out of date. When my meters were supposed to be changed to smart versions (5 years ago or so), the installer refused to do the gas one due to concerns with the mounting bracket. Never heard anything else and the meter still seems to work find.

Certification has nothing to do with the meter working or not: it is to do with the accuracy of the volume of gas that is being measured. Legally, a supplier should not be billing you if a meter has passed its certification date.

km1500

Also it may be reading low (good for you!) or high (not so good)

angela110660

Our gas smart meter stopped sending readings last autumn and we cannot see anything on the blank screen. Engineer came in January to replace it but then said he would not touch it as a pipe on the gas meter is lead and should be changed but he was not qualified to do it. There was never anything said when the first smart meter was installed but anyway.....
He said he had logged this on his laptop system for another aptmt with a more qualified engineer. After 3 weeks of no further contact I rang the company again. They had no info logged on the system about this pipe query or about another aptmt so dont know what he had done but we booked a new aptmt. This was cancelled by them 2 days before it was due. Another aptmt is now potentially happening mid April and we have reiterated about this pipe needing sorting too so fingers crossed.  However they wanted a meter read the other week which we could not provide so they just used the one from last Sept again and promptly sent back money already paid! Not spending it of course as it will have to go straight back once the meter has been read plus a lot more no doubt!!

Rusty190

Reed_Richards said:

The same thing happened to me few months ago (but I only have the one meter, for electricity).  There was no mention of "certification" in my case.  Nothing "bad" has happened since, things have continued exactly as before with me supplying monthly meter readings.  Clearly "certification" was just a pretext or they would have changed your meter for a "certified" but "dumb" meter of the right size.

Because I might want to move to a time-of-use tariff I have asked my electrician to come and move another meter so as to make room for a smart meter to be fitted.  Would that be a possible option for you?    

It may be possible - if I'd wanted this in the first place - but I don't.

Thanks for all responses.
Hopefully it will be a case of don't call us, we'll call you.