Ecomony 7 with mechanical rate changer

ababhb

HI there,

Not sure whether or not this question has been asked in this forum. I have economy 7 with mechanical rate changer rather than RTS. Am I correct in my view that shutting down RTS will not affect me and therefore there is no reason to change to smart meter as the electricity supplier are constantly asking me to change the electricity meter to a smart meter?

Thanks in advance.

Spies

It's not just about the switch off of RTS, your meter likely is near or past its certification date so the energy provider will want to change it based off that

Scot_39

Not sure of your description- does it look anything like the setup shown here

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/8767-What-kind-of-meter-is-this/

If so that's a electro mechanical time switch that actually switches the restricted feed and the meter rate in many systems.  Even so.e early digital e7 meters used external timers / switches for those with restricted circuits to control kit and the rates.

There is a very good chance both the meter and what sounds like a pre rts system mechanical time switch are well beyond end of life as far as suppliers are concerned.

But other more modern meters well within certification are also being caught up in rts emails.

These timers have a tendency to drift and the backup for power outages been known to fail so go well out of sync after a power outage.

Some with them have drfinitely posted here been told will need to replace or lose their e7 dual rate.  So forced onto single rate only until do.

If they do not expect the meter timings accurately controlled they can switch out at any time.

So I'd also expect your going to need to change it pretty soon anyway - for end of life - and if not you might struggle to retain your e7.

It's your suppliers meter and they can swap out at any time even within certification period.

sheenas

I am not sure why you would want to keep an old meter. They are hard to read and others have said they will drift over time. 

Scot_39

It can lower bills if timing wrong and say shift heating to when home in use rather than heating overnight.

And the headlines aren't full of 10% old meter fault headlines.

The govt and industry doesn't help by not giving real clarity about the nature / breakdown of such faults  - from minor (like no ihd - many with them dont use at all) to serious (like failure to record consumption at the meter itself so cannot read and report yourself)

SAC2334

These old 24 hr timer switches have been robbing the users for decades .The cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere in the 24 hrs . Nearly everyone I looked at as a meter reader was way off the published times around midnight to 7 am. 
Apparently  they have an internal spring inside which when there are power cuts will supposedly keep it on time . Not in my view they don t.
One I looked at the cheap rate was coming on early  afternoon to 8 pm with the occupier fuming when he told me he had been waiting till gone midnight for his shower . 
I have one in my garage so today I will take it apart to see if it's true about an internal spring .

MWT

Scot_39 said:

It can lower bills if timing wrong and say shift heating to when home in use rather than heating overnight.

It can just as easily increase them though.

The one certainty with my old timer switch was that it was always wrong.

It would stick on high or low rate at random, sometimes for days at a time...

QrizB

MWT said:

It would stick on high or low rate at random, sometimes for days at a time...

I've mentioned once or twice before that my parents mechanical E7 time switch got stuck on low rate for several years!

MWT

QrizB said:

MWT said:

It would stick on high or low rate at random, sometimes for days at a time...

I've mentioned once or twice before that my parents mechanical E7 time switch got stuck on low rate for several years!

I was with Bulb at the time and couldn't get them to do anything about it, which prompted my move to Octopus to get a smart meter and then after a short period on 'Go' I was able to move to the TEP until that vanished.

Never regretted moving to a smart meter and an EV + home battery. Haven't paid more than 8p/kWh for years now, and mostly less than that.

dunstonh

SAC2334 said:

These old 24 hr timer switches have been robbing the users for decades .The cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere in the 24 hrs . Nearly everyone I looked at as a meter reader was way off the published times around midnight to 7 am. 
Apparently  they have an internal spring inside which when there are power cuts will supposedly keep it on time . Not in my view they don t.
One I looked at the cheap rate was coming on early  afternoon to 8 pm with the occupier fuming when he told me he had been waiting till gone midnight for his shower . 
I have one in my garage so today I will take it apart to see if it's true about an internal spring .

my previous 2 digital non-smart meters both drifted as well.   They would periodically lose time and the time would jump several hours every few months.    Our off-peak devices were all on timers and whilst having off peak rates in late afternoon to evening for a while was great, it wasn't as much fun when the clock moved and I hadn't spotted it.    I would check once a month but if it happened not long after I checked, it could cost more than I gained.

Moving to smart meter fixed that issue as the timers have been accurate since.

MWT

dunstonh said:

Moving to smart meter fixed that issue as the timers have been accurate since.

Oddly enough, smart meters can also drift, I had to request a resync of the time on my first (SMETS2) meter as it was a couple of minutes out and still getting worse.

Wouldn't have mattered except I was on a ToU tariff and switching some large loads which were ending up in the wrong HH segment.

The interesting aspect of this was that the time is not automatically synchronised...