What is this meter setup in the MIL's house?

[JohnW2]

She has no knowledge of an E7 tarrif and doesn’t/couldn’t make use of it if she did.

Maybe she doesn't have an E7 tariff. There seem to be plenty of examples of situations in which there was an E7 tariff in the past (hence a duyal-rate meter) but, when the consumer no longer wanted it (and changed to a single-rate tariff), they left the dual-rate meter in place and simply added together the day and night readings to get a single one for single-rate billing.

What I don't fully understand is that if the supplier has told her that she can't have a smart meter because of an E7 tariff, they presumably must believe that she does have such a tariff (and are charging her accordingly)?

Whatever, if she doesn't want/need E7, then does that not solve the problem, since she can presumably simply tell them that she just wants a 'smart' meter and wants rid of anything to do with E7?

Kind Regards, John

 

[flameport]

she has been told that she can’t have a smart meter because of it. Economy 7?

No problem with installing a smart meter there. The same 4 large wires connected to the meter are those which connect to the new meter.
The teleswitch and the smaller size wires connected to it are removed.

If she has a single rate tariff, then nothing else changes.
If she is actually on E7 or similar, then it needs to be changed to a single rate as soon as possible. Absolutely no point in it without substantial amounts of electricity being used overnight.

 

[JohnW2]

As I wrote ....

.... I see no rational reason why they could not simply replace the existing meter with a 'smart' one.

Kind Regards, John

 

[crystal ball]

We need a pic of the bill to see what tariff she is on

 

[JohnW2]

We need a pic of the bill to see what tariff she is on

That would resolve the question - but, as I've said, if she is on E7, she almost certainly should put a stop to that ... and then any argument that "she can't have a 'smart' meter because of E7" would presumably go away.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Mottie]

We need a pic of the bill to see what tariff she is on

I’ll have to try and get a peek at it next time I’m there to see exactly what she is paying for. I know she’s paying over £200 a month for fuel - little old lady living on her own who would rather put on jumpers than turn the heating up!

 

[SimonH2]

What I don't fully understand is that if the supplier has told her that she can't have a smart meter because of an E7 tariff, they presumably must believe that she does have such a tariff (and are charging her accordingly)?

My thought is that they look on database - it says "dual rate meter & teleswitch" and because it's not a standard basic meter then they can't deal with it. She may well only be on a standard tariff, but they probably look at the metering setup to save the hassle of sending someone to change the meter who lacks the capability to do any more than move four big wires to a new box - and hence just walks away having peed off the customer who's taken half a day off work to wait in, and cost them money to get there.

 

[JohnW2]

My thought is that they look on database - it says "dual rate meter & teleswitch" and because it's not a standard basic meter then they can't deal with it. She may well only be on a standard tariff, but they probably look at the metering setup to save the hassle of sending someone to change the meter who lacks the capability to do any more than move four big wires to a new box -

That's possible, but it would not, in itself, explain why it was apparently the supplier who mentioned "E7" (which the occupier was not aware of having). If your theory is correct, and they just looked at a ;'hardware database', they must then have used "E7" as code to mean "dual rate meter".

Kind Regards, John