Smart meters are not so smart after all FYI

Netexporter

The accuracy wasn't all that important on the old electromechanical E7 system as there was not half-hourly to check against. As long as it was dark, that was good enough. I think the tolerance was +/- 2hours, before it was considered to be wrong.

squirrelpie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114063#Comment_82114063

Yes, but I want the dash to show clock time, even in summer!

Ildhund

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114332#Comment_82114332

I think the point is that those timers did both jobs: switched the power on and off and changed the register that usage was recorded on. We've seen cases here where the clock is so far out of kilter that the heaters were charging up in the middle of the day. It made no difference to billing but a lot of difference to comfort. The ones who missed out were suppliers, who would be charged premium rates for electricity they were selling at cheap rates. SMETS2 meters separate the two functions, giving each its own timetable, with all sorts of bother if the timetables don't match.

Scot_39

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114235#Comment_82114235

Ive maybe naively thought that was a one off or initial setting after a power outage only thing, and an indication thing to check for drift not an actual device timing need.

Why do you need to adjust it ?

naively set 14 summer at summer, set 13 winter at winter both 1pm gmt - and the set switch levers on cog mean still needs to rotate 11 hrs until midnight gmt say for e7 cheap rate activation.

I dont adjust my mechanical light timer - it then still switches at dusk - before and after clocks change. And if i adjust the time to single marker - i would have to adjust the pins. My later digital timers have a mode to enable or disable gmt / bst as well.

Ildhund

You may both be right, so sorry about that. It looks like there is always a bit of slippage between timezone changes, so the dial does indeed need resetting twice a year. It might actually need it more often, but I don't remember moving it more than an hour. ISTR the actual switching times are hard coded into the switch and supposedly not user-configurable.

Scot_39

@Ildhund -

I think you can make out the orange on cam position marker in that photo - around midnight - and blue just if zoom in - maybe centred at back of 6. But you have to open the beast to get to adjust them according to this version of installation "manual".

https://www.eterna-lighting.co.uk/manuals/ELEC7Q_IG.pdf

Reading that - if thats your version it doesnt sound like its a completely simple thing to open the E7 timer up to access the cams - as talks about final connections to be made when put the front on at installation time - they might just stay connected - but its probably not worth the risk for something thats basically working.

But the times are configurable during install within limits (in part the min maybe need for mechanical separation of cam levers I guess).

Some old plastics get even more horribly brittle with age - like the old bakelite terminals used on terminal rails - on clients sites.

So its one I'd definitely file under "it it aint broke, dont try to fix it" - and leave well alone.

Also note from the top lhs of that install "manual" - the clock is driven by a battery - not direct from mains - and that is designed to last for upto 150 hours - over 6 days in event of a power failure (at least when new).

dunstonh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680780/smart-meters-are-not-so-smart-after-all-fyi

You have created a thread basically complaining that you didn't know and you didn't read the information and made an incorrect assumption and its somehow got to four pages. Well done!

This is what it says on the EDF website: