THTC / Separate Radio Teleswitch and Meter- Can I get a smart meter?

Gotcha, then THTC probably wouldn’t be suitable anyway. It doesn’t play well with any other heating type outside of Storage/Immersion Heaters. Remember that ALL usage on THTC other than Heating is Mega Expensive, whereas E7/9/10 makes it so ALL usage during Off-Peak hours is charged at the cheaper rate so it balances out much more easily.

Migrating to modern tariffs also allows more flexibility and choice in what tariff you pick, so that’s another thing to consider - you can’t really do that with THTC!

Hey ​@HuntWalker73, 

There have been updates for everyone who have been affected by the RTS/THTC shut down. We worked with ​@Blastoise186 to create a guide to all the changes happening which you can read below

When customers are changed onto new smart meters when available they’re giving options on what tariff would suit them best. This is normally decided based on individual circumstances like having an immersion heater or storage heaters. Hopefully this helps and if you have any more questions let us know and we’ll find answers for you. 

Just had an update from the team behind the scenes. It sounds like THTC is now totally deprecated and pending full withdrawal. I’ve updated the main thread accordingly, but it may take some time to decide whether to fix all other threads.

There are several versions of THTC, but the one currently available to OVO customers in Northern Scotland appears to be a two-meter arrangement: one for heating/hot water and the other for everything else. Heating is thus available all the time, charged at 21.51 p/kWh while other usage is at 26.56 p/kWh. This isn’t be possible with a smart meter. 

The alternatives are:

• the Standard Variable Tariff (SVT), where all usage is charged at the same rate of 24.07 p/kWh
• Economy 7, which gives 7 hours of cheaper electricity overnight at 17.44 p/kWh while the other 17 hours are charged at 27.07 p/kWh
• Economy 9, which gives a total of nine hours of cheaper electricity at 20.32 p/kWh in three slots: 3am - 6am, 12pm - 3pm and 7:30pm - 10:30pm. The other 15 hours are charged at 26.91 p/kWh.
• Economy 10, which gives a total of ten hours of cheaper electricity at 20.14 p/kWh in three slots: 4:30am - 7:30am, 1:30pm - 4:30pm and 8:30pm - 12:30am. The other 14 hours are charged at 25.91 p/kWh.

If the only form of heating is electric radiators, it’s likely that these take the lion’s share of all electricity. It should be possible to see whether this was the case by comparing the usage recorded by the two old meters, if the old lady still has her old bills. I’ve seen examples where 80% of a customer’s consumption was for heating. In cases like this, an acceptable balance has to be found between comfort and cost. Economy 7 can be ruled out, unless your mother could consider buying and installing a storage heater or two. Otherwise, you’d have to find out how she’s been heating the house. A frugal customer might only have the heaters on when the room temperature falls below the comfort level; another might just leave them on all the time and trust to their thermostats to turn them off when it’s warm enough. 

The smart meter can see to making the heaters (and water heater perhaps) run only during the offpeak hours on an Economy tariff. It would be possible (but probably not straightforward) to turn them on at other times by means of the meter’s boost function. If the existing radiators have any sort of timing controls, it might be possible to use those instead of having the meter do it. 

It’s really not easy to make suggestions without knowing the situation in detail, so you may have to step in to make some observations and calculations. 

Hi everyone,

I have a smart meter installed at home, but I’m using it alongside a THTC (Total Heat Total Control) system for my heating. It seems like there’s some sort of compatibility issue between the two. The smart meter is not tracking my energy usage correctly when it comes to the heating portion of my bills.
Is there a way to resolve it? I’m not sure if it’s a technical issue or something with the way the systems are set up.

Thanks!

Hi ​@SidDrake ,

We need to see photos of your setup for this one. Please post them when you can

​​​​​Hey @SidDrake 

I’m sorry for the issues you’re having. 

Please upload some photo’s & I’ll ask a THTC expert internally for their advice. 

Got it! Give me a moment, I’ll upload it shortly 😊

I am just jumping on the tail end of this thread. I too have the old SSE THTC heating system. 

A long story, but I had an 'erroneous transfer'. It took months to sort.  I was switched to 'Simply Energy' plan. This proved to be an expensive way on heating/hot water for a one bedroom flat!!! 

I will be upgraded to a new meter before the switch off in June. But before all that I have to choose a new plan. Any recommendations for a small property??? I was thinking Economy 7 would be enough. Will a smart meter be compatible with my new meter???

Any answers greatly appreciated. I have found 'utilities' to be a veritable minefield! 

That all depends on what sort of heating you have. With night storage heaters, Economy 7 (E7) is usually the best option, so long as they keep you warm all day. With any other sort of heating, like electric radiators or other forms of direct heating, E7 may not be best. In an all-electric household, space- and water heating uses the lion’s share of your energy, so it’s vital to reduce its cost as much as possible. 

The big difference between THTC and plans currently available is that there is no longer any cheaper 24-hour heating tariff. With a smart meter and a dual-rate tariff (like E7 or E10), the cost of the electricity you use depends only on when you use it, not what you use it for. 

If you told us more about your heating arrangements, including details of the types and ratings of your space space heaters, and also gave your location (the first part of your postcode should be enough), we might be able to make more suggestions.