RTS switch off Economy 7

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trust.no.1 said:

Is it possible my Energy supplier is mistken as to whether this meter will be impacted by the RTS switch off

Yes, they will tell you anything.

Qyburn

trust.no.1 said:
Is it possible my Energy supplier is mistken as to whether this meter will be impacted by the RTS switch off?

Quite possible and not the first instance on here. I don't put that down to malice or conspiracy, I put it down to a combination of incompetence and a desire to play safe.

QrizB

trust.no.1 said:

I live in a flat with storage heaters and an immersion water heater. Looking at the communal meter cabinet I'm the only remaining smart meter refusenik on my floor.

The immerson heater does not appear to be driven by the meter - it has its own timer switch which turns it on and off at preset times within the off-peak period. The storage heater does appear to be controlled by the meter - it comes on automatically at the start of the off-peak and switches off at the end.

Your photo shows a five-port meter, the 5th being the timed E7 supply. Normally your HW tank would have two immersion heaters; one (conventionally the lower one) would be driven directly from the timed 5th port, and the other (upper) one used for top-up "boost" heating on peak rate electricity.

Which heater is your timer connected to? Is the other one connected at all (do you even have two heaters)?

trust.no.1 said:

Hi again Everyone. I emailed my Energy supplier with the serial of the meter and asked them wheher it would be impacted by the RTS switch-off. They responded within 30 minutes and said that it would and offered me the opportunity to change the meter.

I would have thought that the Energy supplier would be authoritative on whether the meter would be impacted but I'm not sure they have got his right.

Energy company front-line support staff have limited informatio available to them. I wouldn't expect them to know what make/model of meter you have, unless it's a smart meter (in which case it reports its own ID and appears on your account).
They will however have been told that everyone without a smart meter shoud be ecouraged to switch as they have a target from Ofgem with penalties if they don't.

trust.no.1 said:

The certification sticker on the meter states 11/07 and the installation date states 08/07/08.

Based on this all - can I safely assume that my meter does not need to be changed until around 2027? And that other than the slight timer drift (which actually is not a bad thing as the off-peak starts later ) that I can leave things the way they are?

2027 is only two years away now, so you might want to take them up on their offer now.

I don't know who your supplier is but eg. Snug Octopus is cheaper than their standard E7 tariff and only available to smart meter accounts.

https://octopus.energy/smart/snug-octopus/

Gerry1

It's either ignorance, playing safe or scaremongering.  It has a 20-year certification period so you'll be OK until November 2027.

trust.no.1

QrizB said:

trust.no.1 said:

I live in a flat with storage heaters and an immersion water heater. Looking at the communal meter cabinet I'm the only remaining smart meter refusenik on my floor.

The immerson heater does not appear to be driven by the meter - it has its own timer switch which turns it on and off at preset times within the off-peak period. The storage heater does appear to be controlled by the meter - it comes on automatically at the start of the off-peak and switches off at the end.

Your photo shows a five-port meter, the 5th being the timed E7 supply. Normally your HW tank would have two immersion heaters; one (conventionally the lower one) would be driven directly from the timed 5th port, and the other (upper) one used for top-up "boost" heating on peak rate electricity.

Which heater is your timer connected to? Is the other one connected at all (do you even have two heaters)?

You are correct about the immersion heater. It does have two elements - one of which is a boost. The heater elements are controlled via a seperate timer switch with a quartz clock. The timer has a switch which can be set to "Off" or "Timed'. When the timer is set to "Off"  the immersion heater main element does not come on at all during the 7 hour off-peak period. The boost also cannot be used.  When the timer is set to "Timed" then the main heater element switches on for two 2-hour preset time periods during the 7 hour off-peak period - provided the timer's clock is set correctly .

So Yes - the meter does ultimately drive the immersion heater, however the times when the main heater element comes on during the off-peak period are controlled by the timer switch.

trust.no.1

Gerry1 said:

It's either ignorance, playing safe or scaremongering.  It has a 20-year certification period so you'll be OK until November 2027.

Hi Everyone,

An update on this. It looks like I'll be succumbing to the dark side 

Why?  Well... My energy supplier has managed to break me  - not by pleading, scaremongering,threats or torture, but by offer of do$h.    In the form of a £150 credit if I book a meter replacement by end of March.

Given my meter comes to the end of its certification perid in just over 2 years at which point it will be replaced, it makes sense for me to give in to the inevitable.

And what's more ... the email states that if I wish I can request that the new smart meter be installed with its smart functionality disabled - so that it acts just like my existing meter. I will certainly be holding them to this.

So happy days to a point.

QrizB

trust.no.1 said:

An update on this. It looks like I'll be succumbing to the dark side 

Why?  Well... My energy supplier has managed to break me  - not by pleading, scaremongering,threats or torture, but by offer of do$h.    In the form of a £150 credit if I book a meter replacement by end of March.

£150 in the pocket is hard to resist!

And you might find those nice, cheap smart tariffs become tempting too ...

Please let us know how your installation goes.

Rosie1001

I’ve had the same offer from Edf … 

Gerry1

trust.no.1 said:

And what's more ... the email states that if I wish I can request that the new smart meter be installed with its smart functionality disabled - so that it acts just like my existing meter. I will certainly be holding them to this.

@trust.no.1 No such thing as a dumb smart meter !

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80320924/#Comment_80320924

Rosie1001

Just read on a group I’m in , that someone was supposed to be getting her smart meter but was told when engineer arrived that as she had 7 wires going into her new meter this couldn’t be done ..only can do 5 !! 

I’m concerned as I have 6 coming out of my  rts meter 

ant help please