Should I have a smart meter fitted.

hollie292

My mother has an economy 7 meter fitted at her home but she pays a standard rate with the high and low readings added together for total usage on her electricity bill.  She has consistently refused to have a smart meter because she has heard so many bad reviews from her friends.  However, she has now received notification from her supplier that they need to change her Electricity meter because of something called the BBC Radio Teleswitch Service and the fact that when this happens there may be problems with her meter and electricity.  Should I encourage her to have the meter changed for a smart one?  I have not got a smart meter myself and am quite happy with the meter I have got. I also have heard some bad feedback on them

Grizebeck

No issues with having a smart meter fitted but it isnt bbc radio its just a radio teleswitch which is used for economy 7. We have the same

dunstonh

My mother has an economy 7 meter fitted at her home but she pays a standard rate with the high and low readings added together for total usage on her electricity bill.

That is quite a common thing where the property used to have high off peak use at some point but no longer does.

 She has consistently refused to have a smart meter because she has heard so many bad reviews from her friends.

That is quite bizarre as there are actually less issues with smart meters than many historic ones.   Most people don't like them because of misinformation or mistakenly thinking the IHD is the smart meter.   The IHD can be awkward or fail to work but that is different to the meter.

However, she has now received notification from her supplier that they need to change her Electricity meter because of something called the BBC Radio Teleswitch Service and the fact that when this happens there may be problems with her meter and electricity. 

Teleswitching is the old fashioned way of handling the switch.   It is being turned off and anyone with a teleswitch meter will need to change before that happens or risk issues.

Should I encourage her to have the meter changed for a smart one?  I have not got a smart meter myself and am quite happy with the meter I have got. 

I have one too.  And like 99% of other users, there have been no issues.  However, my previous two non-smart meters were both faulty.      

I also have heard some bad feedback on them

But was that bad feedback genuine or mistaken?

DullGreyGuy

dunstonh said:

However, she has now received notification from her supplier that they need to change her Electricity meter because of something called the BBC Radio Teleswitch Service and the fact that when this happens there may be problems with her meter and electricity. 

Teleswitching is the old fashioned way of handling the switch.   It is being turned off and anyone with a teleswitch meter will need to change before that happens or risk issues.

Playing devils advocate (as someone who has actively wanted smart meters installed), given the OP is on a flat rate tariff is the loss of switching signal going to cause a problem? Can see why it would for those still using economy 7 or equiv tariffs but struggle a bit more with those who are ultimately just adding the two numbers together anyway

[Deleted User]

hollie292 said:

My mother has an economy 7 meter fitted at her home but she pays a standard rate with the high and low readings added together for total usage on her electricity bill.  She has consistently refused to have a smart meter because she has heard so many bad reviews from her friends.  However, she has now received notification from her supplier that they need to change her Electricity meter because of something called the BBC Radio Teleswitch Service and the fact that when this happens there may be problems with her meter and electricity.  Should I encourage her to have the meter changed for a smart one?  I have not got a smart meter myself and am quite happy with the meter I have got. I also have heard some bad feedback on them

From a letter sent by Ofgem to all suppliers last month: