Depends where you live. North uses a different system run by Arqiva, south uses the mobile phone network.

First thing is why does your supply need upgrading. Your DNO will be responsible for that and it could be pricy, but not if you are having a heat pump and car charger installed and ripping gas out. Homes have either a 12 kW or 16 kW supply. Some are on a looped circuit where two houses, normally a pair of semis share one supply where it isn't possible to run a heat pump and a car charger at both houses. The DNO is obliged to upgrade the power connection for free. It is a moot point that you would get a free upgrade if say you had a 5 bedroom house and needed a supply for a heat pump, big supply for cooking (induction hobs can benefit from a 3 phase supply) and 2-3 car chargers. If you are driving the big batteried swanky cars they will often have the ability to charge at 11 or even 22 kW on 3 phase chargers. If your home has a cable capable of delivering 16 kW which is standard large size then a fuse of 100 Amps may need to be installed. This would need a standard meter. Three phase smart meters have been in short supply but 3 phase would solve problems in providing enough power for 3 car chargers and a 14 kW heat pump which often have 3 phase motor options.

Aerials are available or smart meters, Eon are being difficult or stupid. For up north you can make your own yagi array (mini tv aerial) and there are videos on youtube showing how to do it. It isn't hard. Copper wire or coat hanger stuff! Down the south aerials can be supplied, I have one which is mounted clear of silver foil insulation. It looks like a plastic door wedge which has a screw hole by which to hang it and about 1 meter of wire.

 

Depends where you live. North uses a different system run by Arqiva, south uses the mobile phone network.

Not entirely true, 'the south' uses the O2 mobile network only rather than the Arqiva long range radio thing. Yes it depends on where you live which system the smart meter comms module is using. (the old SMETS1 smart meters used any mobile signal).

As stated by @Brian G, external aerials are available for both types of meter to help improve connectivity in weak signal areas. these are provided by your supplier as part of the smart meter install process. It may be worth asking neighbours if they have a working smart meter to see if it is possible in your area.

 

You’re right - the DNO has responsibility for my power supply. My current fuse board is only rated at 63amp and my installer recommended that it gets upgraded to 80 or 100 after reviewing the demand from my consumer unit and the charger which I’d like to be installed (just a 7kw). The installer said they can de-rate the charger if need be but what is the point if I’m investing ££££ in the infrastructure!

Yes I think EON are being uncooperative. I will give them a call and push for alternatives.

 

Octopus refused to install a smart meter here as we have no WAN signal, nor does our entire village. So we can't have an EV charger at the EV rate making EV's a no-go. We have no mobile signal (it's a National Park) and BT have stopped our copper landlines, so no emergency calls in power cuts, which are common in bad weather (overhead lines). No aerial was offered for the smart meter so no workaround. Many in our village have storage heaters in Economy 7 and this will cease in July as LW is turned off. No smart meter means they will have to pay electicity at peak rate all night. It's a disgrace. If you live in the countryside, no-one cares and life leaves you behind! Miraculously we DO have fibre broadband to premises - but only because an ex-Prime Minister's Dad lives nearby and the security people needed access!!!

 

Welcome.

FWIW we also live in an area with no signal, so cannot have a smart meter. We are not in an NP, but are in an AONB and conservation area (so one step down from the NP planning nightmare, but still onerous). We barely have broadband, let alone fibre!

We have two EVs and charge them overnight at the off-peak rate, currently 6.308p/kWh. This is, if anything, cheaper than a lot of smart tariffs, plus the off peak period lasts for 7 hours every night, so it's very simple to set things to run during that time, either with a time switch or the built in timer that many dishwashers and washing machines now have. Same for our hot water, that is on a timer and heats up overnight at the cheap rate.

You could have this tariff on request, it's still available from most of the major suppliers. It does require a meter change, but in our case that was free. The meter we have just has a fixed time switch to change from peak to off peak and has two sets of readings, one for peak, one for off-peak, so it is easy to keep track of consumption. Our meter was fitted after our supplier couldn't get a smart meter to work, at their suggestion.

 

thanks for your comments Jeremy. Annoyingly, Octopus tell me I cannot have a 2-rate meter and read it manually (like we all used to with E7) in order to access the EV rate or anything near to it. E7 is being phased out (starting with the switch method you mentioned being turned off on June 30th). Octopus told me it must be via a smart meter so that it can give readings every 30 mins. This is ridiculous; the EV period is fixed!! Of course, the REAL reason they want us all to have smart meters is so that can bring in "dynamic pricing" i.e. they'll charge us the most when we really need power. So, for those of us without smart or non-working smart meters, we'll no doubt be charged the highest rate ALL THE TIME!
I can feel my blood pressure rising and there's NOTHING we can do about any of this - DCC tell me they "might" be some way of using 5G (that's a laugh) or our wifi in the future. ...............

 

E7 is not being phased out, in fact they recently introduced 5 terminal E7 smart meters to support it. Octopus are very keen to not have any customers who aren't on smart meters if they can help it, so they tend to push hard to get people to have them fitted. I personally wouldn't trust anything Octopus say, but that may be because I had a really unpleasant run in with them and so would never again use them as a supplier.

Pretty much every big supplier offers an Economy 7 tariff, and around here there are many homes that still rely on this, as we have no gas and when oil and LPG prices skyrocketed people had storage heaters installed. The new storage heaters (which rely on E7 or E10 to work) are significantly better than the older ones, too.

We are currently with Utility Warehouse and the E7 off peak rate at the moment is 6.38p/kWh in this region (SW England), which makes it a pretty cheap tariff for anyone that can switch a fair bit of their consumption to the off-peak rate.

 

@suebrooks185 I understand your frustrations but before writing off getting an EV, take a breath 😀 I've been in your situation with regards to the smart meter signal and I've been running the EV on the Octopus Tracker rates, thanks to a special deal with Octopus that allowed me to give manual readings (typically 4p/kWh below SVR). It is still significantly cheaper than an ICE vehicle per mile. My EV costs 6p / mile while my previous diesel car of similar size would be costing 14.5p / mile with current prices - our little petrol car that does a true 52mpg still costs 11p / mile. It is frustrating to be paying more than others for fuel, but it's not a disaster.

The advice above to get an E7 meter is sound and worth considering. In my experience on this forum @Jeremy Harris gives good and accurate information. I decided not to go E7 for other reasons beside availability.

With regard to no signal coverage for the smart meter, I have been down a long road with this involving Octopus, Data Communications Company (DCC), my Welsh Assembly member, my previous MP, BEIS ministry and any other Tom, Dick or Harriet I thought might help. For smart meter connectivity, what you have heard that a home wifi based solution will become available is true, but this is still at the pilot testing phase at the moment. I missed out on being a tester as my area was not in scope. This will come in 2026 I would imagine. This year, the change is that new smart meters will connect via Vodafone 4G rather than O2 3G. I note you say you have no mobile signal where you live, but letting you know in case you meant no suitable mobile signal.

Finally, I'd say don't give up all hope if you want a smart meter. By sheer chance our village got O2 mobile coverage out of the blue last November, along with Vodafone signal (we already had EE coverage). After a power cut my useless smart meter woke up and connected to DCC and Octopus. I now have an EV tariff. Just saying, things can improve! Best of luck with it!

 

thank you Luckypants, that's very useful info and rather encouraging. Our village, with so many storage heaters on E7, is currently exercised about the BBC's LW turn-off in June. They will have no choice but to accept a smart meter before then so we'll see if the large number of dumb meters further increases the pressure. We (and most of Exmoor) have no mobile signal of any kind, so no WAN and soon, no DTS either! We don't have any overnight usage so we ditched E7 in favour of lower day rates.

 

After complaining to the energy ombudsman about my smart meter not reporting readings Octopus have agreed to fit a “ T2 “ system which is presumably like the one used in the south of England. I live in the Lake District and I think the hills get in the way of the reporting signal. There is no option to fit an aerial to my current comms unit which I think could solve the problem but the T2 has this facility and uses the mobile masts in some way. The engineer who was sent by octopus said the T2 system should work for my meter without an external aerial as he was getting a strong mobile signal next to it. Octopus are now waiting for stock of the T2 gear to arrive. It’s been months to try and sort this out to get reliable half hour meter reporting to use IOG. Octopus compensated me financially for the meter not working.

 

I think they might mean aerial type:

SMETS 2 Aerial Types

Aerial Type	% Installs	Radio Use	Manufacturer	Dimensions (mm)	On which Hubs
T1 Low Gain	6%	Cellular	Panorama	165 x 32 x 20	Toshiba SKU2 (and SKU3 if poor signal)
WNC	128 x 25 x 17
T2 High Gain	4%	Panorama	372 x 33 x 20
WNC	320 x 41 x 17
T3 High Gain	0.5%	Panorama	695 x 25 x 25	Toshiba SKU2/3
Oriel	580 x 100 x 40
M1 Low Gain	0.25%	Mesh	TBA	TBA	Toshiba SKU3
M2 High Gain	0.25%	TBA	TBA
No aerial	89%

Read more at: https://www.smartme.co.uk/smets-2.html © SmartMe.co.uk