Anyone else getting pestered with increasing frequency by EDF about having a smart meter installed?
I see that my EDF MyAccount preference of "Never having a smart meter" had been changed to "I want a smart meter". I've changed it back, although they don't make it easy to do so.
Yep. I doubt it would stop them almost doubling my monthly direct debit though.
I didn't know there was such a setting. Can I set it to 'I had one installed by a factory tenant, it was nothing but trouble and I will make an appointment only after hell freezes over'?
If they reset your 'Preference' once without consulting you, I doubt if it will make much difference.
P.S. The calibration period for gas & electricity meters is 10 years. How old are your current(sic) meters, and what will you do[1] when they fall out of calibration?
At the moment, you can still request non-smart replacements and you either get re-calibrated, older meters or new smart meters, with the comms inactive.
10 is the limit for new approvals under the national scheme but it can be extended in the light of experience; and is extended in practice with some meters having 15, 20 and 40 years.
Then there's meters approved under the European Measuring Instruments Directive for which there's no set period.
The electric meter was replaced about 6 years ago (it's a static one - no dials). The gas meter is at least 10 years old. If I can get a old meter, that's what I'll do. I understand that a "smart" gas meter cannot exist without a smart electric meter, as it requires that for communication. So if I don't replace the electric meter, the gas meter will be "dumb" even if they try to put in a smart one.
No doubt lie by saying I have no choice and have to have a smart meter. If there really is no dumb meter available, I'll probably have to go with a smart meter but insist it remains uncommunicative with the supplier. The problem is that I doubt anyone could confirm that it is not communicating.
In message <tvd8pd$9ff0$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 21:49:33 on Tue, 21 Mar
2023, Jeff Layman snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid remarked:
I'm not sure that's entirely true. Each of the two smart meters needs a mains-powered "hub" to communicate back to base. AIUI, for convenience many electricity smart meters have an integral hub, which the gas meter is also paired with. But you could still have a free-standing hub.
Thanks for the clarification. I've just been reading up on hubs - including the newer dual-band ones, and DCC. I see that a lot more money is due to be wasted on smart meters in the south of England. From
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: "The government and UK mobile network operators have agreed to phase out
2G and 3G mobile networks by 2033 in order to free up bandwidth for 5G and future 6G services. This includes Telefónica (O2) who provide the Smart Meter communications for the Central and Southern regions of the UK.
This change will require the replacement of communications hubs on the Smart Electricity Meters in the Central and Southern regions of the UK. To this end the DCC plan to have 4G single band Communications Hubs available in 2023, with dual band to follow in Q2 2024."
So all SMETS2 hubs installed in the southern half of the UK are effectively already obsolete! Wasn't the original cost of smart meter installation supposed to be around £11billion? I wonder what the final figure for this apparently bottomless money pit will be! Far from saving us money, smart meters will continue to cost us all a fortune for many years to come.
Our meter is well past 10 years and I've had one prompt to change to a smart meter which claimed 10 years was the limit. However I told them I don't want a smart meter and I've heard nothing more so our 'old' meter soldiers on! :-)
It's a convenient ruse for them in many cases, similar to the "we need to do a gas safety check" ruse, which in most cases is just a way to let the meter reader have access ...
It seems their argument is that if the meter reads too high the customer won't be able to claim anything back as a "correctly operating" meter had been offered and rejected.
Well, that argument works the other way too. What happens if it reads too low? Or stops working completely. Does the utility company then conjure up an estimate based on previous usage? If so, why shouldn't that be used for a too-high reading from a faulty meter? And perhaps someone here can help explain how an old analogue (dial) meter could read too high, whether gas or electricity? I would have thought it far more likely to fail by the gears playing up or getting jammed and giving too low a reading.
Yep, its arse covering. There has always been a rolling meter replacement scheme with a target of around 10 years for the exchanges, although this target probably hasn't been met for the past 50 years. It's more to do with guaranteeing some accuracy and calibration of the meter(s). People may have had letters 20 or 30 years ago asking for them to make an appointment for a meter check or exchange. By not replying or refusing their utility company collective arses are covered because they have offered a replacement and you can no longer claim money back for
10/20 years of the meter reading incorrectly.
In the past the replacement may not have been a new meter but a reconditioned meter or one that had just been checked/calibrated for accuracy.
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