Old E7 Meter - Help

Cameron1590_2

Hello,

I have a holiday home in North Wales which is a holiday let and rented out most the year. The property is heated by electric storage heaters (no mains gas in the area). 

The current electricity meter is an old Economy 7 “Radio Switched” meter. Essentially, I have two circuits coming from the meter “peak” and “off peak” the meter switches on the off peak heating upon the meter receiving the radio signal to do so. 

I read online a few months back (following a relative informing me) that the radio telemetry service is due to be switched off in March 2024 and all effected properties need upgrading to a smart meter, otherwise the heating will either be left permanently on or off (I guess it depends at what time they pull the plug on the service). 

Anyhow, I contacted Utility Warehouse (my provider) and they advised that they are short of smart meter engineers at the moment and the situation was unfortunate. They said the remote location of the property doesn’t help either but they can not give me a definitive date for replacing the meter and “hopefully” it will be done before the current service is switched off. 

Obviously I’m pretty cheesed off as this could turn in to a right royal pain to sort out post switch off of the existing service. To add insult to injury they informed me the current meter was installed in 1990 and the certification for the meter ran out in 2010~. 

Anyone in a similar position? I wondered if I would be better switching to one of the “big six” in a hope they might have more resources, particularly in the remote areas for swapping out these old meters?

Thanks,

C

QrizB

You're not alone!

There are a couple of other radio teleswitch (RTS) threads active at the moment:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6461502
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6462898
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6389691

The general opinion is that the RTS will probably continue to work as a timeswitch even once the radio signal is switched off. However it will lose any ability to be re-synchronised and there's a small chance it will stop switching.

Cameron1590_2 said:

Anyhow, I contacted Utility Warehouse (my provider) and they advised that they are short of smart meter engineers at the moment and the situation was unfortunate. They said the remote location of the property doesn’t help either but they can not give me a definitive date for replacing the meter and “hopefully” it will be done before the current service is switched off.

Utility Warehouse do not have a great reputation for customer service (or for anything else). They should know that your meter has an RTS and they should arrange for it to be replaced, but I share your doubts.

I wondered if I would be better switching to one of the “big six” in a hope they might have more resources, particularly in the remote areas for swapping out these old meters?

As well as a more switched-on CS team, you might also find a better E7 tariff.

I have no idea what their North Wales tariff is like, but my experience (and that of others on the forum) is that Octopus have an effective metering team.

EDF CS isn't great but they too seem to be pretty good at rolling out smart meters and their E7 tariff is usually competitive.

CSI_Yorkshire

Cameron1590_2 said:

 otherwise the heating will either be left permanently on or off (I guess it depends at what time they pull the plug on the service). 

That's probably not true, and is only theorised to happen in a particularly unusual set of circumstances.  More likely is that it will just continue to switch on a gradually drifting clock.

Cameron1590_2 said:

Anyone in a similar position? I wondered if I would be better switching to one of the “big six” in a hope they might have more resources, particularly in the remote areas for swapping out these old meters?

There's a general shortage of smart meters at the moment, so it's more luck than a case of picking the right company.