[Sceptical]

Hi. Just spoke to EON about this today. EON Help are clear that for me to get EON Economy 7 would involve:

1st getting EON Economy 7 meters fitted, cost £157.
2nd then getting new smart meters fitted, though I already have brand new SMETS2 fitted last week.

Seems bizarre but that was the EON Help advice today.

[retrotecchie]

@Sceptical

Doesn't sound right to me. I'll have to check the specs again, but I'm sure SMETS2 spec meters have to be TOU compatible and can just be set remotely to be dual or single rate. @theunknowntech may know a little more and I think he'll be around at the end of the week.

[Sceptical]

Thanks. I started the conversation with EON Help today by saying that I have just had a new smart meter fitted, and wanted to change to E7.
They replied that this cannot happen without Economy 7 meters being fitted, cost £157, and advised firmly today that after fitting E7 meters then new smart meters would also have to follow.
Have given up on EON Help and am looking elsewhere.

[retrotecchie]

@Sceptical

Right, they are talking nonsense. To the best of my knowledge, looking through the SMETS2 command set, there is an instruction to switch between single rate and dual rate tariffs.

5.5.3.28 Set Tariff

A Command to accept new values for Tariff Type(5.6.3.47), Tariff TOU Price Matrix(5.6.3.46), Tariff Block Price Matrix(5.6.3.43), Tariff Switching Table(5.6.3.44) and Tariff Threshold Matrix(5.6.3.45).

So the Single or E7 tariff type can be sent to the meter as well as Day Rate and Off Peak Rate prices.


The commands and tariff information can be sent remotely by DCC on request from your energy supplier. This includes enabling or disabling E7.

This is the whole point of standardising to SMETS2...to make meter swaps or engineer visits un-necessary and to make them non-supplier specific.

[theunknowntech]

Seriously? This issue again??????

DO NOT pay the £157 fee. You shouldn't have to with SMETS2 meters. I will notify the community team about this.
@Beki_EONNext @HannahD_EONNext @PeterT_EONNext @Han_EONNext @Bennie_EONNext @DebF_EONNext @Anasa_EONNext this seems to be a constant issue. Any chance of asking people to stop giving the advice that you have to pay £157 for Economy 7?

[retrotecchie]

@theunknowntech

I know, right?! Costs nothing to push the change to an SMETS2 setup

[Beki]

@theunknowntech @retrotecchie

I know and totally understand this is so frustrating. Basically, whilst the meters are capable, our system is not. They are working on adding this feature into the system though... Just not quite sure when that is yet, and so at the moment, it is a necessity to change the entire meter set up, twice, to get to a smart E7 from a smart single rate...

I know... I don't like these processes either at the moment and it is one that I have been fighting for a long time.
@Sceptical This doesn't solve your issue right now, but the functionality on our side will be there... in the (hopefully) near future. To avoid the additional cost, I would recommend waiting it out.

[retrotecchie]

@Sceptical

Alternatively, you could possibly switch to any other supplier who's systems do support this capability, if you just cannot wait. Then once it's done, switch back again. Or not.

[Sceptical]

Thanks for that update. Pending resolution, a Calor gas heater will have to help keep the house tolerably warm.

PS it may be of interest to EON and other energy companies that off-grid, portable solar-battery power stations seem to be selling well, some have sold out.

Am speculating that such alternatives to mains gas and electricity will increase as public and business concerns increase re over-priced, unpredictable mains supplies and potential power outages.
While US, Canada, Australia and EU have a lead over UK in partial or full off-grid alternatives, UK will no doubt follow their lead as Winter 2022-23 takes hold.

Yours Sincerely

[Sceptical]

Thanks. Yes am actively looking at alternatives.
As for many others, full or partial off-grid options (eg Ecoflow, Bluetti Solar/ batteries and Calor gas etc) begin to look increasingly attractive.