Hi!
I can answer this one, but there's actually two parts to the answer here. I'll address both for you, one at a time.
Firstly, Smart Meters don't make any more noise than any other meter and are usually silent unless there's a valid reason for them to make noise (such as beeping to warn you of a low battery or low PAYG credit for example). However, as with anything mechanical, they can start making other noises if they develop a fault - which is more likely in a gas meter than an electric meter - but isn't unique to Smart Meters.
As for the issue you're having right now... It sounds to me as if your current gas meter might be wearing out and reaching the end of its service life - based on the date stamp it's almost certainly going to be up for recertification soon anyway, at which point it really would reach the end of service life. The most likely cause I can think of, is probably a bearing or the diaphragm being worn down to almost bare metal as a result of long term use and/or just regular wear and tear. You're not expected to have to deal with fixing that or put up with the noise however - this is considered a meter fault and action can be taken to resolve it, especially if it's proving to be a nuisance.
That's my diagnosis, and I can recommend two solutions. Feel free to pick either of these (or the third one, if you really want to):
- Request a Faulty Meter Exchange - this is free because of the noisy meter and is the most likely one to simply replace the meter with a traditional (non-smart) meter if you don't want Smart Meters right now
- Book a Smart Meter Upgrade - this is also free and like the option above, would resolve the noisy meter issue. I'd recommend going for this option directly if you're planning to upgrade anyway, since it would get both tasks done at once
- Stay put and keep things as they are - Probably not the option you're after, but apparently some people do choose this. If the noise isn't too disruptive, you could choose to leave it alone for now. In your case though, there's only a year or so left on the service life of that gas meter before it needs to be replaced anyway.
Feel free to pick any of these options based on what you'd like to do. You're welcome to have a think about them first of course.
Hope this helps
