Is my meter an RTS meter?

LL123LL

Thank you all for your very helpful comments. To answer a few of the queries raised:

@Ildhund the information is:

MPAN 200016666470
MTC 805

Region is Southern you are correct, I’m in West Sussex. If you are able to use the above info to look it up I would be extremely grateful!

I have already sent Octopus the data sheet for the meter (thank you for having provided that link @Scot_39 ) but they’ve seemingly ignored it. I haven’t yet contacted l+g themselves though. That’s a good idea.

Im not sure when RTS meters stopped being installed… can’t find anything about that online.

I appreciate what you all say about just getting the smart meter but, as petty as it sounds, it’s come to a point of principle for me now as they are refusing to acknowledge that it’s not an RTS meter and they are saying that’s the only reason it needs replacing (they have acknowledged it’s not at end of its life etc). They’ve seen the meter and if they are supposed to know what they are doing, surely they should be able to see they it’s clearly not RTS despite whatever is on their records. 

nickgoldman

Ildhund said:

I'd echo what some others have said - get the meter exchanged for a smart one. It will have to be exchanged at some stage, so there's no need to delay the inevitable. The benefits far outweigh any perceived disadvantages.

How good are Octopus on sorting out the situation when a "smart" meter goes "stupid" and (e.g.) gets stuck at the not-the-cheapest rate?

Because I have a meter that has worked fine for many years without RTS, and they want to change it to a system with a well-publicised quite high failure rate.  That's quite a large perceived disadvantage, with no benefit (to me) on offer.

FWIW if someone can confirm any of this:  my MTC is 810 (which I think *does* indidate RTS) but my meter has no sign of RTS (picture earlier in this thread, at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81274458/#Comment_81274458).  I am Eastern England (distributor ID is 10).

nickgoldman

nickgoldman said:

FWIW if someone can confirm any of this:  my MTC is 810 (which I think *does* indidate RTS) but my meter has no sign of RTS (picture earlier in this thread, at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81274458/#Comment_81274458).  I am Eastern England (distributor ID is 10).

D'oh, I broke the link and I'm too much of a newbie to be allowed to edit.  It should be https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81274458/#Comment_81274458 

Ildhund

nickgoldman said:

  ... the situation when a "smart" meter goes "stupid" and (e.g.) gets stuck at the not-the-cheapest rate?

This is just one of many misunderstandings about smart meters. All the meter does is report how much energy you're using. They do have the ability to store tariff details - unit rates and standing charges - but only so that the In-House Display can give an indication of costs over a specific period. The meter isn't involved in working out how much you should be billed: that's all done back at the supplier's headquarters, using the figures either reported by the meter or by you, if the meter isn't sending them as it's supposed to. The tariffs stored in the meter have to be updated each time they change, and this doesn't always happen as you'd hope.
  

nickgoldman said:

... they want to change it to a system with a well-publicised quite high failure rate.  

It's a meter's job to measure, and I've not heard in several years of a smart electricity meter that has failed to do this. The well-publicised failures are mostly irrelevant to this core requirement, e.g. containing out-of-date tariff information, or failing to communicate with the In-Home Display or with the smart meter network that carries data back to the supplier. If this were to happen to your meter, you'd be in precisely the same situation as you are now - no handy display in your kitchen, and a monthly scrabble around the meter cupboard to take readings for submission to the supplier.  

nickgoldman said:

my MTC is 810 ... I am Eastern England (distributor ID is 10).
  

That looks like just the same situation as LL123LL is in. MTC 810 gives a unique SSC (0188) in Eastern region, with switching times just the same (offpeak 00:15-07:15 GMT). So, this was at some stage an RTS system and its TPRs (01191 and 01192) will probably - and just as wrongly - flag it up as such in the same way. 

At least LL123LL's meter was still certified to be accurate. Yours passed its best-before date almost twenty years ago, so there's no knowing how imprecise it's become since then. Has its clock perhaps slipped so much that you're paying offpeak rates for seven hours during the day? How long will it be before its lithium battery explodes?

QrizB

I agree with @Ildhund.

nickgoldman said:

Ildhund said:

I'd echo what some others have said - get the meter exchanged for a smart one. It will have to be exchanged at some stage, so there's no need to delay the inevitable. The benefits far outweigh any perceived disadvantages.

How good are Octopus on sorting out the situation when a "smart" meter goes "stupid" and (e.g.) gets stuck at the not-the-cheapest rate?

In my four years on this forum, I don't recall reading a thread where a smart meter got stuck on a specific TOU rate.

I've heard of some suppliers completely messing up the smart meter provisioning (looking at you, BG, and your E7 shambles a couple of years ago) but not of the meters having this fault intrinsically.

nickgoldman said:

..  a system with a well-publicised quite high failure rate. 

Examples please?

Phones4Chris

QrizB said:

nickgoldman said:

..  a system with a well-publicised quite high failure rate. 

Examples please?

Exactly, I echo the same.

nickgoldman

Well, for example, this: https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/23/almost-a-third-of-household-smart-meters-not-working-properly-says-citizens-advice 

And this: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smart-meters/article/smart-meters-explained/smart-meter-problems-and-solutions-a32nQ4f3LKV8

But it's reassuring to know if the meters generally work fine and it's just the built-in tariff info or the ability to send readings up to HQ that goes wrong.

Ildhund

Whilst you're wondering whether or not to accept the offer of a meter exchange, please consider this proposal published by Ofgem yesterday: "... after support for RTS meters ends ... the licensee cannot supply electricity to premises that rely on RTS technology."
Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS): Electricity Supply Licence changes | Ofgem 

QrizB

nickgoldman said:

Well, for example, this: https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/23/almost-a-third-of-household-smart-meters-not-working-properly-says-citizens-advice

Roughly 10% of meters aren't working in smart mode for one reason or another. This just means that you need to submit readings manually, just like you do at the moment.

The other ones mentioned in that article are where the in-home display (IHD) isn't connecting to the network, or where it is connecting but is giving misleading information. This doesn't affect your billing in the slightest, but worries some people as they think the IHD is the smart meter.

nickgoldman said:

But it's reassuring to know if the meters generally work fine and it's just the built-in tariff info or the ability to send readings up to HQ that goes wrong.

Yes, exactly that.

LL123LL

Purely out of interest, does the smart meter display screen tell you “live” when it switches between day and night, the way you get the light and the “pop” sound on my current meter?