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May 5, 2025
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RTS switch off - is the Landis + Gyr 5246C meter affected by the turn off?

  • May 5, 2025
  • 12 replies
  • 1722 views

I have a Landis + Gyr 5246C meter that was installed in October 2014 and runs Economy 7 in my flat. There’s no radio teleswitch label on the meter and no separate box with a radio teleswitch label. Does this mean RTS isn’t used to switch between peak and off-peak? I don’t want to upgrade to a smart meter unless i absolutely have to. OVO have sent various letters about upgrading to a smart meter but none of them have mentioned the RTS switch off.

 

    Best answer by Nukecad

    I can’t see any sign of RTS there.

    However it is an 11 year old meter, so will almost certainly be out of certification and over due for replacement.
    That will be why you keep getting the letters.

    Meters are generally only certified for 10 years after which they need to be replaced - Ofgem rules say that a supplier should only supply electricity through a certified meter.

    For more information on meter certification see:

    New meters are all smart meters (they don’t make any other type anymore) so that is what you will get.

    TBH there is nothing wrong with smart meters.
    What you may hear about them ‘Not Working’ is misunderstanding, people are blaming the wrong thing.
    The meters work fine, what can be a problem in some places is issues connecting with the network that they need to connect to to provide your readings  remotely to the suppler.

    If you do happen to have connection issues then you can still read the meter and send in readings, just like you do with your old meter.

    If you think of it like a mobile phone, you wouldn’t say that your phone itself was faulty because there was no telephone mast nearby.
    Or going back further you wouldn’t say a TV was faulty because you only had a weak signal at your house.

    12 replies

    Show previous replies
    Ben_OVO
    Community Manager
    Ben_OVO
    Community Manager
    April 23, 2026

    ​@Our Friends Electric as it stands, smart meters aren’t mandatory, so you can by all means leave your current meter in situ, if that’s what you’d prefer. 

     

    At some point, as you’ve outlined in your initial post, your current meter will reach the end of its lifespan, and will need to be replaced by a smart meter. If you ever decide to have one fitted earlier than this, by all means send some photos on the Forum showing your metering setup, and we’ll be able to see what extra work m ay need doing before the installation is possible.

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    Firedog
    Super User
    FiredogSuper User
    Super User
    April 23, 2026

    … it was SSE that informed me, that as my meter was the same as featured in the OP [Landis+Gyr 5246C] with it’s own built in contactor to switch on my heating/hot water at off peak times, if I had a smart meter fitted it would require an extra separate timers/contactors and wiring changes and for that there would be a cost to me, 
     

    When was this? SSE stopped supplying domestic customers several years ago, and the information was wrong anyway if it was given after about 2015.

    The meter pictured in the OP has five tails, numbered 1-5. The last, L5, is the one that feeds the switched circuit to deliver power to storage- and water heaters during offpeak hours only. A smart meter would have exactly the same arrangement (although if it were a Landis & Gyr meter, the fifth tail might come from a switch bolted on to the meter). As I said earlier, it’s possible (but not likely) that the water heater has a timing device that wouldn’t work well with a new meter. 

    One further little misunderstanding: “… just so the electricty company can get instant readings”. Yes, the electricity supplier could take a meter reading remotely at any time. In the ten years since I first got a smart meter, there has been one occasion when OVO did this, at my request. The normal procedure is for the supplier to send a request once a day to have the meter return the readings it stored the preceding midnight - nothing instant about it.

    A smart meter also keeps records of consumption each half-hour. Unless you ask them not to, the supplier will normally retrieve these usage data once a day. Other users can also retrieve them with the customer’s consent. Again, there’s nothing instant about this process (except, of course, that the data are normally returned within half a minute or so of the request being received). 

    The half-hourly data harbour a wealth of information which you can’t possibly appreciate until you see what can be learned from them.   

     

    Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
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