My in-laws have had them for about 4+ years (SMETS 1 BTW) with Shell Energy. Taken over by Octopus and remarkably the readings have continued to be automatic as they were previously with Shell. No need for me to ring them up to ask them for a manual meter read that I used to do ages ago. They don't need to provide them at the CAP changeover dates as they are automatically lifted at these dates in addition to the normal schedule of automatic readings pulled. 👍
I myself moved into a different home and inherited SMETS 2 smart meters. Now trundling along to 3 years with very few hiccups in the smart readings pulled. They are accurate and agree with my own monitoring. I even have a fuctioning IHD which also provides me with the actual meter readings should I need to submit any manual reads. 👍
I see no downside to having smart meters installed for your circumstances and very probably they will make your energy situation much easier to cope with. The worst situation (i.e. a smart meter that is 'dumb' that does not connect to the system automatically) would see no change with being unable to read your present analogue meter.
Ultimately the MOP (Meter Operator) such as Morrison Data Services would be very unlikely to schedule 3-monthly manual meter readings to coincide with the change of CAP dates anyway. 😟
Changing supplier won't make the situation any easier I fear as you would still need to provide a changeover meter read. 🧐
Sorry if this is not what you wish to hear 🤔 but wish you well in getting sorted.
Last edited by Mailman; 15-07-24 at 17:00.