Expired Meter FAQs
Domestic electricity meters have an expected lifespan, usually between 10 and 40 years. As a supplier, we’re mandated by law to exchange meters that have expired (or are soon to expire) with new ones to prevent the meter from becoming faulty or affecting your energy bill.
You can contact us in the usual way, either via live chat, by email to hello@goodenergy.co.uk or call us on 0345 034 2400.
We will contact you via email to let you know if your electricity meter certification is expiring and it needs to be replaced. If you have a smart meter, your meter is unlikely to be nearing the end of its certification. Contact us if you’re unsure.
It’s more an issue with recording accuracy, but the older the meter is, the more prone to technical and health and safety issues it becomes. As a result, we need to replace it as soon as possible.
Each meter nationwide comes with an expiration date, and failure to replace it could pose potential health and safety hazards, along with the risk of inaccurate usage recordings. In accordance with the Electricity Act of 1989, it is our legal requirement to replace meters that have reached the end of lifespan. This requirement is enforced by the Office of Product Safety and Standards.
Electricity and gas meters, much like various other products, are assigned a “best before” date upon manufacturing. This certification date is determined by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). Once a meter surpasses its certification date, it must be replaced with a new meter, and it is our legal requirement to replace meters that have reached the end of their lifespan.
The regulations surrounding the meter certification expiries are enforced by the government via the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Maintaining healthy meters that haven’t expired is a requirement on all energy suppliers.
Yes. The regulations surrounding meter certification expiries are enforced by the Government via the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and affects all energy suppliers.
No. Replacing expired meters is mandated by law (Electricity Act 1989), leaving us with no alternative but to carry out the exchange. We will continue to contact you to arrange a replacement meter until a new one is installed.
The initiative only affects electricity meters. However, if you’re a dual fuel customer, we’ll exchange your gas meter for a new one during the same appointment.
Yes. As traditional meters are no longer readily available in the UK, we will replace your expired meter with a state-of-the-art brand new SMETS2 smart meter. Find out more about smart meters here.
There are many benefits to Smart metering, such as monitoring usage via an In-Home Display or via the Good Energy app. It could automatically send us readings, saving you the trouble of doing so every month. Having a smart meter also means you’ll be eligible for other products and services such as our EV tariffs and Power Pause. However, if you really don’t want a smart meter, we can decommission your new meter following installation, so that it remains unable to communicate with us. It then functions in the same way a traditional meter does. If you change your mind later, you can ask us to recommission your meter.
If you refuse a meter exchange altogether, we will continue to contact you because it is a government regulation that Good Energy must abide by.
No. Your meter will be replaced at no additional charge.
Not unless you want it to. Everything will stay the same, but if you have a smart meter, you may be eligible for time-of-use tariffs such as our EV tariff.
From a sustainability point of view, smart meters enable greater visibility over future green technology performance; such as solar panels, EV charging and associated tariffs. We also recycle the parts of the old meter after removal.
Across our customer base, smart meter health is nearly 92%, indicating that the vast majority are working as expected. The 8% not working includes customers who don’t want their smart meter to operate with smart functionality. We have a team dedicated to ensuring the health of our smart meters.
If you would like a smart meter, we’d recommend that you forward our communications to your landlord to review because we can only communicate with you as the customer with whom we have an agreement with. You are responsible for making your landlord aware and you will continue to receive our communications if you do not arrange for an exchange.
You should advise our team of the necessary work and timeline your property is currently undergoing. We will make a note of this and request updates of your property’s progress. You should contact us if timings fall behind, or if the renovations are now complete.
We will make our best efforts to replace your meter(s) as soon as physically possible.