Hello all. I'm just looking for a bit of advice regarding our meter.
EDF keep badgering us to have a smart meter fitted, and they recently changed tack and said our current meter needs replacing as they are duty bound to make sure our meter is reliable.
I know a smart meter is not mandatory, but I don't really have a problem with the idea. I also accept a new meter is likely to be more reliable and/or accurate than an old one, so in principal I don't really have an issue with the meter being replaced at all. The problem I have is that our meter is an old English Electric analogue meter that I have every reason to believe has been in our listed cottage since electricity first came to our village back in the 1950's. I'm really reluctant to give it up, but EDF are adamant it belongs to them and if we have a new meter fitted they will take away our old one and not let us keep it.
I've done a fair bit of research and I accept that the general rule is that the electricity supplier owns the meter, and as that is EDF in our case I have to accept they 'own' it. But to the general outside world it has no intrinsic value. I don't expect anything will be done with it other than thrown in a skip or recycled some other way, so it seems a bit jobsworthy to not let us just keep it.
So I'm just putting the question out there in case there is someone here who can put me straight if that's what's needed. Is there an afterlife for these old meters I know nothing of (other than the antique market) or am I right, it's just going to get dumped if I let them take it? And if the latter is the case, can you offer any tips as to how we might be able to bypass the usual red-tape nonsense and convince them to just let us keep the meter.
As a point of note, I'm not proposing they let us keep using it. I get that they want to replace it and we're OK with that, we just want to keep it.
Many thanks in advance.
EDF keep badgering us to have a smart meter fitted, and they recently changed tack and said our current meter needs replacing as they are duty bound to make sure our meter is reliable.
I know a smart meter is not mandatory, but I don't really have a problem with the idea. I also accept a new meter is likely to be more reliable and/or accurate than an old one, so in principal I don't really have an issue with the meter being replaced at all. The problem I have is that our meter is an old English Electric analogue meter that I have every reason to believe has been in our listed cottage since electricity first came to our village back in the 1950's. I'm really reluctant to give it up, but EDF are adamant it belongs to them and if we have a new meter fitted they will take away our old one and not let us keep it.
I've done a fair bit of research and I accept that the general rule is that the electricity supplier owns the meter, and as that is EDF in our case I have to accept they 'own' it. But to the general outside world it has no intrinsic value. I don't expect anything will be done with it other than thrown in a skip or recycled some other way, so it seems a bit jobsworthy to not let us just keep it.
So I'm just putting the question out there in case there is someone here who can put me straight if that's what's needed. Is there an afterlife for these old meters I know nothing of (other than the antique market) or am I right, it's just going to get dumped if I let them take it? And if the latter is the case, can you offer any tips as to how we might be able to bypass the usual red-tape nonsense and convince them to just let us keep the meter.
As a point of note, I'm not proposing they let us keep using it. I get that they want to replace it and we're OK with that, we just want to keep it.
Many thanks in advance.
