Loss of Economy 7.

[Don Vosper]

Firist to introduce myself as i have just joined the forum.
I am a retired electronics service engineer living in a 3 bedroom terraced house in a village on the outskirts of Bristol.
Although I am a keen DIY enthusiast by necessity I am well aware of the regulations regarding electrical work needing to be carried out by qualified electricians.

I received a letter from my supplier, EDF, as did many others, that due to the closing down of the BBC longwave transmitter my Radio teleswitch would stop working and I would pay the full rate unless I agreed to have a smartmeter. This I reluctantly agreed to.
However, I have an old, but fully functional, installation with two consumer units, the second one with a separate digital meter and teleswitch for night storage heaters and water heating. The main meter is an old analog one.
I had great difficulty when I telephoned EDF in reponse to this letter to get the lady who answered to understand the situation. When I asked to speak to the department that carried ouut the work she said that was in-house only.
I have fears that someone , within the next six months or so someone will appear and say that they wern't prepared for this and would have to return, probably in another few months.
Just so that I can be prepared, I wonder if anyone can advise as to how this work might be done.
Regards
Don

 

[littlespark]

Your set up appears to be the same as tens of thousands of others across the country, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to the meter installers

Would you mind posting a photo of all the equipment in your house? Meters, teleswitch and the fuse boards… just so we can check there’s nothing unusual about it.

 

[westward10]

Took my in-laws five visits to get this right from EON. They have no smart meter to facilitate this so they have a standard meter which switches the E7 without the teleswitch.

 

[Don Vosper]

Hi. Thanks for the replies.
This is the set up.
Eventually I'd llike to get new consumer units installed.
EDF say they will fit an isolator at the same time.
I know that later Economy 7 installations only had one meter but this predates those. Both meters have been replaced within the last 20 years. I originally had a Horstman electromechanical time switch.
Don

 

[7029 dave]

Took my in-laws five visits to get this right from EON. They have no smart meter to facilitate this so they have a standard meter which switches the E7 without the teleswitch.

Must be a mechanical time switch with a flag wire to the meter which switches over to the nite rate reading at the off peak time normally 12AM to 7AM

 

[westward10]

Is a preprogrammed meter no mechanical time switch.

 

[Don Vosper]

I emailed EDF to ask if they were going to still charge me full price for off peak power even though the Droitwich transmitter was still transmitting and my RTS still changed over. I also suggested that as there was a French station, ALS162, still transmitting on 162 KHz they could synch their meters with them, being French.
I just received a reply saying my smartmeter would be fitted on the 24 July and my cheapest option was Economy 7 with the smart meter.
They also said I was due £276.00 compensation that was being paid into my account.
However, they have not mentioned my proposed changeover to the French transmitter. Can't think why.
Don

 

[littlespark]

If you used the French transmitter, it would switch on an hour earlier being in a different time zone…..

(Yes, I know… I’m being daft)

 

[UKMeterman]

That installation needs some urgent work. Do I spy a voltage operated earth leakage detector? These were unreliable at the best of times and have been taken out of regulations for about the last 30 years.

 

[Don Vosper]

That is in hand. Having the second meter and time switch removed will give me the opportunity to have the installation tidied up and brought up to spec.
Don

 

[Don Vosper]

That is in hand. Having the second meter and time switch removed will give me the opportunity to have the installation tidied up and brought up to spec.
Don

 

[Don Vosper]

EDF man turned up on schedule, looked at it, scratched his head and said"They didn't tell me you had two meters, I'll have to report back and make another appointment"
Don

 

[Don Vosper]

At he time of his visit the electrician said that I had to ask National Grid to move their cut out a short distance to make way for the new meter and isolator. National Grid, in response to my phone call at that time, told me that it was up to EDF to send them a data flow to ask for this otherwise I would be charged. So back to EDF who then informed me that they have now done this and NG would contact me. Nothing heard so far.
Yesterday I received an email from EDF to say that my Off-Peak tariff is being re-instated.

What I understand so far: EDF cannot touch the main cut-out. National grid probably won't want to know about the Smart Meter. The electrician says he cannot wire any tails into my consumer units.
BBC is still broadcasting on 198 and my RTC still clunks at 0800.

 

[littlespark]

Is this starting to look like the smart meter pushers are scaring the general public into getting rid of RTS, but the signal isnt actually being cut off?

 

[snowhead]

The RTS signal was due to be switched off in areas starting from June 30th 2025.
The switch off was due to start in areas where there has been a large take up of "Smart" meters to give the Energy Suppliers more time to CONvince people in low take up areas, like me, to change.

When I last checked mine was still counting on both readings.

Just in case THEY are watching, yes I do have an RTS meter, BUT as they well know I'm on a single rate tariff with combined readings, the switch off won't affect me, other than when I supply the 2 readings one of them will always be the same.

 

[Don Vosper]

Eventually the BBC want to switch of the Droitwitch transmitter as it is old and allegedly getting more difficult to maintain but there is some opposition to this as a significant number of listeners still need to use it.
It was scheduled to switch off at the end of June but it is still going and as far as I know there isn't another deadline yet.
Don

 

[brianmoooore]

Just in case THEY are watching, yes I do have an RTS meter, BUT as they well know I'm on a single rate tariff with combined readings, the switch off won't affect me, other than when I supply the 2 readings one of them will always be the same.

I intend to add a few units to the stopped one (when, if ever, it does stop) occasionally, just to see if they're paying attention.

 

[littlespark]

I intend to add a few units to the stopped one (when, if ever, it does stop) occasionally, just to see if they're paying attention.

take a few units off... i bet theyll notice that