[marjan]

I got a letter in the post saying my meter is at the end of life . Can I be forced to take a smart meter the one I have is only 11 years old

[retrotecchie]

@marjan

All conventional meters are being replaced with smart meters. New conventional meters are no longer manufactured and certified for installation as replacements. However, you are within your rights to allow them to fit the smart meter itself, but to insist it operates in 'traditional mode' by the simple expedient of not installing a communications hub.

To be fair, there isn't much benefit to doing that. But it is theoretically possible.

[meldrewreborn]

@marjan

If you continued to refuse then the only way the company could gain access to replace the meter would be via a court warrant. These though seem to be waved through in bulk without much debate, so the advice of @retrotecchie holds good.

[wizzo227]

Nobody should be forcing you onto a SMETS2 meter (I refuse to call them "smart" because they have no decision logic other than lots of tamperproofing switches and code stuff for remote disconnect). My own plain old electricity meter is 14 years old, 21000 on the clock, and nobody has told me that It's "obsolete". I'm aiming to skip the SMETS2 generation of billing meters and get one which really is smart enough to present an advisory message within my own home sufficient thay I'll be running interruptible appliences during the cheapest minutes while my local street transformer has told it that my street has net renewable surplus. Nobody has that yet so I'm in no hurry to get SMETS2.

You should check that you've uploaded your meter numbers and paid for what you have used. My strategy this winter is to aim to use < 4kWh/day, so that at the end of the month, the government 66 pounds free has already paid my bill.

[meldrewreborn]

@marjan

You could ask for documentary evidence that the certification period for your meter has expired. That should take them years to dig out!

[marjan]

@meldrewreborn Thanks for your advise ,we moved in here June 2013. I feel if the life of a meter is only 10 years energy companies must have a hell of a job trying to replace meters up and down the length of the UK

[retrotecchie]

@marjan

They will always try to replace an older meter with a new smart one if they get the opportunity as it counts towards their quota for rollout, but it's rare they know a particular customer's meter is out of certification. They usually only find out when one of the third party meter reading companies comes round to read a meter and they make a note and pass it back to a supplier. The meter in my last house was 'end of certification' in 2003, but no one ever said owt. My current meter was installed in around 2001 when the house was finally connected to electricity but doesn't have a certification date on it. It's 'type approved' for a fifteen year lifespan but still working just fine today. From comparing it against my check meter, it's over reading by about 0.2% but still well within regulation tolerance, so no reason to worry about it.

[Han_EONNext]

Hey @marjan 👋

We send out communication to replace your meter once the meter passes a time period whereby it may not be working as well as it should do.
Think about it like a use by date - if you use it after that then it's probably not going to be the best!

Have you had a chat with customer services about the meter and what options are available?

[EmmaN]

Hi @marjan 👋

It's been a while! Just wanted to check in, did you manage to get in touch with one of our energy specialists about this? If so, do you have any questions or feedback? We would love to hear more from you 😊