I have a Landis + Gyr 5246C meter that was installed in October 2014 and runs Economy 7 in my flat. There’s no radio teleswitch label on the meter and no separate box with a radio teleswitch label. Does this mean RTS isn’t used to switch between peak and off-peak? I don’t want to upgrade to a smart meter unless i absolutely have to. OVO have sent various letters about upgrading to a smart meter but none of them have mentioned the RTS switch off.
I can’t see any sign of RTS there.
However it is an 11 year old meter, so will almost certainly be out of certification and over due for replacement.
That will be why you keep getting the letters.
Meters are generally only certified for 10 years after which they need to be replaced - Ofgem rules say that a supplier should only supply electricity through a certified meter.
For more information on meter certification see:
New meters are all smart meters (they don’t make any other type anymore) so that is what you will get.
TBH there is nothing wrong with smart meters.
What you may hear about them ‘Not Working’ is misunderstanding, people are blaming the wrong thing.
The meters work fine, what can be a problem in some places is issues connecting with the network that they need to connect to to provide your readings remotely to the suppler.
If you do happen to have connection issues then you can still read the meter and send in readings, just like you do with your old meter.
If you think of it like a mobile phone, you wouldn’t say that your phone itself was faulty because there was no telephone mast nearby.
Or going back further you wouldn’t say a TV was faulty because you only had a weak signal at your house.
Just to add that that particular type of meter has a certification period of 20 years, so there’s plenty of life in the old dog yet:
Schedule 4: UK nationally approved electricity meters
Interesting.
However I wonder if those sending the letters know that it's a 20 years cert, or are just assuming (like I did) that “over 10 years old so needs a new one”
It could also - in some cases - be that there’s too many of a particular meter model that fails In-Service Testing* and/or Meter Accuracy Tests. Those can be grounds to pull ALL meters of that same model off the wall on the basis of losing confidence in the accuracy.
*A random sample of those that come off the wall for any reason get selected for accuracy testing back in the lab. If they all pass, they’re good for a bit longer. If too many fail, it can lead to all of them being yanked from the field.
Hey
Have you had the chance to review the advice above? We’d be interested to hear why you’re against having a smart meter fitted!
If you’d like someone to check your account for RTS also you can reach out to our Support Team. They’ll be able to run a check on your account for you.
Let us know if you have any further questions.
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