Octopus Smart meter.

[BQW]

Just had a very patronising email from Octopus, informing me my Electric meter`s calibration date has expired and needs to be replaced. ( I would hazard a guess it was installed about 10 years ago, very small digital type ) It then goes on to say it will need to be replaced with a smart meter as they are the only type of meters being manufactured of refurbished these days. Is this true ?

 

[jj4091]

As the government say you don't HAVE to have a smart meter I find that difficult to believe. Is your current meter labelled saying it has to be calibrated after a certain date. A new one on me to be honest. I thought they were only supposed to need doing after 25 years if ever. I also would have thought that any meter could be made dumb by not inserting a sim card.

 

[aveatry]

My supplier has tried many different tactics to get my dum meter changed. They use very carefully written letters that on first glance sound reasonable but read it again and its not so cut and dried.
They have also sent fake "booked dates" with an option to contact them to change the "date" if not convenient. I ignore it and surprise surprise no one comes on the "booked date"

 

[ericmark]

I did not want a smart meter, and I resisted, until not having one was going to cost me money.

I do believe they can be fitted in a dumb mode, and my smart meter came in two parts, the top part does the coms work.

But I still can't read the smart meter direct. Two buttons control the display, and I need three readings, export, peak and off-peak, the rest is really of little interest. But I have been told what it should say, and I have found one or the other every so often, but I pressed buttons many times and still not a clue how to get the readings.

I can with smartphone or PC see what I have used or exported, and the in home display says if importing or exporting, and without one I will not be paid for export, so I need one.

So if you have an EV, solar panels, off-peak heating, no option, but otherwise, can't really see any advantage. And when I wanted one, September 2023 it took until February 2024 and three visits to get it fitted. And I had to get the solar installers back to move their consumer unit to make room for the larger meter.

As to if the deals with weekend free power etc, make it worth while I don't know, my annual bill is around £100 to £200, due to solar panels, so never used the offers.

 

[BQW]

Thanks for the replies, no off peak or PV Panels here also virtually no phone signal... think I will tell em to poke it !

 

[JohnW2]

Just had a very patronising email from Octopus, informing me my Electric meter`s calibration date has expired and needs to be replaced. ( I would hazard a guess it was installed about 10 years ago, very small digital type ) It then goes on to say it will need to be replaced with a smart meter as they are the only type of meters being manufactured of refurbished these days. Is this true ?

I very much doubt that it is literally true. However, if they are buying 'smart' meters 'by the million', but 'dumb' ones only occasionally in very small batches, the latter might be much more expensive for them.
However, the main issue is undoubtedly the silly government-imposed 'targets' for installing 'smart' meters.

 

[JohnW2]

As the government say you don't HAVE to have a smart meter I find that difficult to believe.

As I often say, although it's a long time since I've read one, my recollection is that the Agreements/Contracts that we are deemed to have signed (even if we've never seen them!) usually include our agreement that the supplier can install whatever 'metering or other equipment' that they see fit in order to be able to provide an electricity supply.

Is your current meter labelled saying it has to be calibrated after a certain date. A new one on me to be honest. I thought they were only supposed to need doing after 25 years if ever.

I'm not close to my ('dumb' electronic) meter to look for any labelling, but the manual says this:

if the readings are only 'certified' (I presume 'to be accurate') for 10 years, I'm not sure what the 15 year 'Product Life' means!

I also would have thought that any meter could be made dumb by not inserting a sim card.

Indeed. I'm not sure that they necessarily use SIM cards, per se, but the comms module is usually a separate entity which can be removed (or not installed) - so, even if it were true that they could only get (or only wanted to get) 'smart' meters, they would certainly not have to use them as such..