The short answer - No. You are not legally required to have a smart meter but...
a/ You may get cheaper tarrifs or occasional rewards/ cheaper short term tarrifs if you do have a smart meter.
b/ If you do get solar panels and wonder why your old non smart meter is whizzing backwards you should hopefully decide to have a smart meter so you can get paid through am export tariff for your surplus energy. There are conditions though, too lengthy to list here.
c/ If you are lucky you wont get the installation engineer who likes to lecture about health and safety for 30 mins. If you had him you know what I mean.
d/ Is there any alternative to a smart meter (particularly as you may have to send a photo of your not too smart smart meters read out to obtain your payment).
Well here is the answer I got but from Eon but I am certain there are stories out there as the ground rules seem to change regularly !
Received today from Team Radiance
'To apply for SEG you would need a smart meter at the property to record your export reading. In cases where a smart meter is unable to be installed as a working smart meter, we would review this on individual circumstances to find a work around.
To apply to SEG you would need an approved meter that records export, there are also standalone export meters. But you would need to purchase/discuss this with a separate company.'
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- Everything is on a journey to somewhere - Gerald diPego
Edit - From The community team/Team radiance - we have in the past suggested that if we were not able to get a working smart meter then we'd install it as what we would call a non working smart meter (dumb mode) however we no longer offer this as a solution as it will be non compliant for us to install a smart and not set it up as a smart meter and is against OFGEMS requirements. We are working on all the issues with anyone who has a smart meter but is not working as a smart meter and working on signals that sometimes prevents an install of smart meters so there are lot's of work arounds now and each circumstance will be looked at on an individual basis - I've passed on feedback as a reminder an apologise for any confusion that this may have caused. Anasa - Community Manager - Team Radiance.
Last edited by Anasa_EONNext; 6 Days Ago at 19:10.