EDF. Smart meter

Supatramp

 EDF have been hassling me for some time to fit a smart meter, and now I can save £40 odd a month on both my gas and electricity.  Interestingly, not the £149 mentioned on Martin's latest update.

But I hear alsorts of stories re problems with them. If I go ahead with them, and have issues, will I ever have an issue with supply, particularly as it's now coming into winter.

And what's the difference between the SME1 and 2 meters?  Is it an age thing?

TIA

FlorayG

The problems occur if the wrong meter is fitted ( as happened in my house) or sometimes if you change supplier it stops working - the SME1 ones are particularly bad for this so insist on a SME2 one. Also if your gas and electric meters are not very close together you may need a dual hub ( which is what I need and wasn't fitted by EDF in the first place)

mac.d

You won't have any issue with the supply of your energy, the problems with smart meters are mostly related to their communication with your supplier - i.e. your supplier not getting readings from the meter, in which case, you just have to do as you do now, send them a regular meter reading. And related to this, the wee display unit you get with a smart meter (In House Display - IHD), not working correctly either, as it's not getting the data from the smart meter either. 

SMETS1 meters were the first lot of smart meters installed, and the problem with them was that while they worked with your supplier at the time, if you switched to another supplier, the new supplier couldn't get any readings. Since then, they have been working to fix this issue with older SMETS1 meters, and many now work with different suppliers.

SMETS2 meters are just the newer version that should work with any supplier you switch to in future. All smart meters fitted now and SMETS2 meters.

pearb34

As the previous post says you wont have issues with supply but the meter itself and reading might not get updated, we have this with our meter, we have to manually send readings even though we have a smart meter because the signal is terrible.

lohr500

As @pearb34 says, the worst case scenario is that the smart meter can't communicate with the network, so you have to keep submitting your readings manually.

If it can communicate with your network then it opens up the possibilities for all sorts of different deals depending on your electricity usage profile. As a high electricity user, I am literally saving nearly £1000 a year by having a smart meter!! 

One important question though. Are you currently on a single rate electricity tariff or do you have Economy 7?
If you are on Economy 7 it is really important that EDF arrange to have a suitable meter installed.
Please let us know and we can help guide you with the questions to ask!!!

Supatramp

lohr500 said:

As @pearb34 says, the worst case scenario is that the smart meter can't communicate with the network, so you have to keep submitting your readings manually.

If it can communicate with your network then it opens up the possibilities for all sorts of different deals depending on your electricity usage profile. As a high electricity user, I am literally saving nearly £1000 a year by having a smart meter!! 

One important question though. Are you currently on a single rate electricity tariff or do you have Economy 7?
If you are on Economy 7 it is really important that EDF arrange to have a suitable meter installed.
Please let us know and we can help guide you with the questions to ask!!!

I'm currently on Standard Variable

lohr500

OK that should make the switch to a smart meter straightforward.

powerful_Rogue

lohr500 said:

As @pearb34 says, the worst case scenario is that the smart meter can't communicate with the network, so you have to keep submitting your readings manually.

If it can communicate with your network then it opens up the possibilities for all sorts of different deals depending on your electricity usage profile. As a high electricity user, I am literally saving nearly £1000 a year by having a smart meter!! 

One important question though. Are you currently on a single rate electricity tariff or do you have Economy 7?
If you are on Economy 7 it is really important that EDF arrange to have a suitable meter installed.
Please let us know and we can help guide you with the questions to ask!!!

Smart meters can be E7 or single rate. There isn't a specfic meter that needs to be fitted.

dunstonh

But I hear alsorts of stories re problems with them. If I go ahead with them, and have issues, will I ever have an issue with supply, particularly as it's now coming into winter.

I have just left them yesterday as their pricing is no longer competitive for economy 7.

However, since they moved to the new software, their billing was so much better and it ran smoothly.   The smart meter they installed for me was a liberty 101 which is one of the most common models and it's been as good as gold.  The IHD didn't work but that didn't bother me as i wanted a better third party IHD anyway and that worked.

lohr500

If a smart meter is replacing an existing E7 meter, there are several configurations and it is important that the correct 4 or 5 wire smart meter is fitted to avoid the customer having issues. 

This forum is littered with reports of where smart meters have replaced older E7 meters and functionality has been lost.

All of this is irrelevant to the OP as they have a single rate meter anyway.

Supatramp

Went for the Essential 1 year tariff, and now waiting for new meters to be fitted.  Although they'll probably have fun, the existing ones are on opposite sides of the house.