Can't get a smart meter installed

Flumoxed

8 appointments so far. It has been resolved that we need a meter that connects by 4G, but we need a meter that shows us whether we are on day rate or night rate economy 7. It needs to show us even when we are not drawing any power.
We have batteries, solar panels and a wind turbine and have not used day rate since May 2024 and want to keep it that way. Our old (35 years?) Meter has a physical indication of which rate is currently being used. Surely someone makes a smart meter that displays this information? Our provider can't find one.

Help!

QrizB

This thread would be better in the Energy forum. I've asked that it be moved.

Flumoxed said:

It has been resolved that we need a meter that connects by 4G, but we need a meter that shows us whether we are on day rate or night rate economy 7. It needs to show us even when we are not drawing any power.

If you're in the southern half of the UK where the Telefonica network is used, any model of currently available smart meter will do all of that.

If you're in the north where they normally use Arqiva's LRR network, its slightly more complicated but still routine.

If those are the only complicating factors, it should have been solved in 2-3 visits.

Our provider can't find one.

Who is your energy supplier? Because some of them are less competent than others.

Rodders53

???  Provider will tell you what times the rates apply and you have a clock/watch to tell the time.  Simple to set up automations based on that.  (Some summer time / winter time adjustment may be needed for some suppliers - but not all).

5-wire smart meters will operate a relay to energise E7-only Consumer Unit circuits and you could fit your own lamp to tell you when that happens...  Smart meters send half-hourly measurements to the DCC and then to the Provider for billing.

Even 4-wire meters have the necessary multiple Registers to record peak and off peak consumption separately and the smart ones record the 30 minute readings for billing so a clock-timer could be used by you.

My smart meter is used via the 30 minute readings to give me a 7-hour cheap rate overnight for EV charging (or 6 when I renew the fix) - I just ensure that the car is only allowed to charge in that window. 

MattMattMattUK

Why do you need the meter to have a physical light? 

QrizB

Here's OP's pevious posts (all part of this thread):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80702650/#Comment_80702650

It seems they have an RTS meter but were confused when the RTS changed the times their meter switched at (which is precisely what the RTS system was intended for).

I can only guess that it's a case of "once bitten, twice shy" and they don't want to be caught out by this again.

In my opinion, with Tesla batteries they'd probably be better off on one of Octopus's smart tariffs rather than Economy 7.

Newbie_John

If you have sockets that are connected to night circuit just plug a lamp that goes on.
The times are the same so it makes no difference and you can use your watch.

Really strange request and I'm really trying to understand how would that be beneficial? Saving money? If that's the case than you should move away from E7 to some cheap EV tarrif like Good Energy EV with 6.5p rate at night - that way you will have your costs.

And have a lamp connected through smart socket that goes on at 0-5am for indication.

Flumoxed

Part of the problem is that we don't trust the meter to change tariff at the expected times.
At present with the radio signal we have been told that the low rate is midnight until 7:00am. What actually occurs is 21:27 until 23:27 and 01:27 until 06:27. When the clocks changed last it altered by 2 hours!
So we would like to be able to see evidence of which tariff is being used and will decide whether to import electricity to the batteries.

Ildhund

Flumoxed said:

Part of the problem is that we don't trust the meter to change tariff at the expected times.

Is 'the meter' the smart meter you haven't yet got? If so, then the meter will change tariff at precisely the times it's instructed to by the supplier, with the proviso that all the times in the 'tariff switching table' will be subject to a delay of up to 30 minutes. The amount of the delay is unique to the specific meter and immutable, so once you know what it is, you can rely on it. Your trust has perhaps been undermined by stories of customers whose supplier hadn't yet worked out just how to configure the tariff switching table, even though I suspect it's easy when you know how.

There's also the question of the times at which the meter switches power on to a specific circuit, e.g. for storage heaters or a battery. That is governed by a different set of timings; they should normally be identical to the ones in the tariff switching table, but again, some suppliers seem to have difficulty implementing that.

Neither of these failings, which affect only a few customers and which should in any case be short-lived, amount IMO to justification for not wanting a smart meter.