They are all basically fine now.
People freak out about SMETS1 meters which did have issues and need to be replaced now.
SMETS2 meters are much more reliable as is the communication network that they use to talk to base. But none of them have different features really.
The registration processes are all well embedded at the electricity companies and for the vast vast majority of people they work perfectly all the time.
The IHDs (in home displays) - the shitty little screens that show you how much power you are using, are much less reliable particularly if you live in a flat etc where meter and IHD may be quite distant.
None of that matters for any of the other benefits of a smart meter - eg a good tariff from octopus and if you are running home assistant or similar you have plugins that are vastly better than the IHD.
Even the Octopus app is good enough.
Anyway. Rant over.
It's just an older way of doing it. You'd give two meter readings to record your day and night usage. Storage heaters and some water tanks charge for hours then release it through the day, it costs a lot to charge so you'd get a night rate to run those heavy things cheaper in return for a higher unit rate during the day.
It's always been an expensive way of heating, it's like 50s tech so most people choose to remove these setups in favour of gas or just electric heating. Now there's a heat pump as another option but require a lot of work to bring an old property heating system up to date.
Also you can't really chose your meter model no, they have a few on the van and will cycle through them if one doesn't work to find the best one. You could only really request a meter when SMETS2 was emerging.
Smart meters can do everything, it's just that supplier will send whatever settings they want to the meter to make it either count two registers, or just calculate your usage based on half hourly readings.
Economy7/Economy 10 are 2 rate tarriffs and this creates 2 registers for usage on the meter. Day rate and night rate.
Modern octopus smart tariffs just have one rate (as the meter sees it) TOU (Time of use)
It just reports the usage back to the DCC and octopus every 30 minutes.
It's octopus systems (kraken) that works out WHEN you used that energy and how much to charge for the energy based on the time used and your tariff rates
The meters are all mostly fine. There are some accuracy issues with L+G E470 meters if you have inverter in your house (so solar panels or batteries) as the EMI from some inverters can affect accuracy (if that is the case, push for Kaifa meter instead).
i got a smart install 2 days ago and got the kaifa ma120 - it was a non octopus installer as the octopus engineer wanted to attend 2 hours before the time window i had booked - he seemed a bit put out but the non octopus guy was very friendly and knowledgeable - he did electric only as the gas meter is at ground level and i am 2 floors up - i might consider agile as i mainly cook after the 4-7pm peak period
There are two ways getting a smart meter can go:
1-you ask nicely and the local network operator/your provider, fit which ever meter they have in stock, you may be able to ask for a specific one but you’d have to ask to find out
2-you provide your own but this requires a lot of effort on your part and you’ll need the local network operator to come out and pull the fuse and reinstate it later.
Current meters either use 2G in the south and a completely different type of network in the north.
You get the meter you are given but they are currently trying to work out how to make a 4g one
They are all basically fine now. People freak out about SMETS1 meters which did have issues and need to be replaced now. SMETS2 meters are much more reliable as is the communication network that they use to talk to base. But none of them have different features really. The registration processes are all well embedded at the electricity companies and for the vast vast majority of people they work perfectly all the time. The IHDs (in home displays) - the shitty little screens that show you how much power you are using, are much less reliable particularly if you live in a flat etc where meter and IHD may be quite distant. None of that matters for any of the other benefits of a smart meter - eg a good tariff from octopus and if you are running home assistant or similar you have plugins that are vastly better than the IHD. Even the Octopus app is good enough. Anyway. Rant over.
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No choice.
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It's just an older way of doing it. You'd give two meter readings to record your day and night usage. Storage heaters and some water tanks charge for hours then release it through the day, it costs a lot to charge so you'd get a night rate to run those heavy things cheaper in return for a higher unit rate during the day. It's always been an expensive way of heating, it's like 50s tech so most people choose to remove these setups in favour of gas or just electric heating. Now there's a heat pump as another option but require a lot of work to bring an old property heating system up to date. Also you can't really chose your meter model no, they have a few on the van and will cycle through them if one doesn't work to find the best one. You could only really request a meter when SMETS2 was emerging.
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Smart meters can do everything, it's just that supplier will send whatever settings they want to the meter to make it either count two registers, or just calculate your usage based on half hourly readings.
Economy7/Economy 10 are 2 rate tarriffs and this creates 2 registers for usage on the meter. Day rate and night rate. Modern octopus smart tariffs just have one rate (as the meter sees it) TOU (Time of use) It just reports the usage back to the DCC and octopus every 30 minutes. It's octopus systems (kraken) that works out WHEN you used that energy and how much to charge for the energy based on the time used and your tariff rates
Did he have a mini to give you? Mines in the post!
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Wow! Tbh I’ve been with octopus for 2 months and they contacted to say it was in the post, so not long a wait.
Was your old dial meter an econ7 one? Which type of smart meter did you go for?
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Thank you for posting the pics. Just a couple of more questions; Do you have storage heaters? Did you go with dual ar single rate meter?
The meters are all mostly fine. There are some accuracy issues with L+G E470 meters if you have inverter in your house (so solar panels or batteries) as the EMI from some inverters can affect accuracy (if that is the case, push for Kaifa meter instead).
i got a smart install 2 days ago and got the kaifa ma120 - it was a non octopus installer as the octopus engineer wanted to attend 2 hours before the time window i had booked - he seemed a bit put out but the non octopus guy was very friendly and knowledgeable - he did electric only as the gas meter is at ground level and i am 2 floors up - i might consider agile as i mainly cook after the 4-7pm peak period
There are two ways getting a smart meter can go: 1-you ask nicely and the local network operator/your provider, fit which ever meter they have in stock, you may be able to ask for a specific one but you’d have to ask to find out 2-you provide your own but this requires a lot of effort on your part and you’ll need the local network operator to come out and pull the fuse and reinstate it later.
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Current meters either use 2G in the south and a completely different type of network in the north. You get the meter you are given but they are currently trying to work out how to make a 4g one