You have my sympathy.  I can see why 'no meter' is raises concerns with the supplier, as they have no idea then what you have used, and it is your supplier who bills you, and needs to OK an unmetered connection, not the DNO alone, who only own up to the company fuse,  but the safety points are not really correct. It is however typical of folk who are not sure what they should do or are allowed to.

The meter has no current limiting function - as and aside nor does the fuse really more of a time/ total damage energy limit.

Actually also 2nd hand analogue meters are still around, but ones still in calibration are getting quite rare.

But I'd be shocked if all models of electronic meters do this to you - I think you have a bad model with an SMPS design that radiates a combination of conducted EM and supersonic acoustic energy, but I'm not sure which is your trigger or if it is the combination.  (generally anything more than 70dB relative to 20uPa RMS is considered too loud for ultrasound, though the HSE limits are quite a bit higher but there are very few devices that can measure this in a well calibrated way.)

Are their any neighbour's or friends houses where your symptoms abate, and if so what meter type do they have? Or do you know someone well enough to run an extension lead from them for a few lights, and then pull your company fuse for the night ? (or even battery lights and pull the company fuse )

(I realise this idea too may attract some opprobrium but I am suggesting it more as a diagnostic test to be taken with some forethought and care).

Mike

Thanks as always Mike for your interest and your response.

I think we had better not consider running extensions between houses when there's a possibility, however big or small, of running unmetered for a while. Our average electricity consumption is 4.6 units a day which at 19.43p per unit is somewhat less than £1 a day. I would be more than happy to pay £1 a day if the meter can be powered off until it is replaced. If someone offered me £1000 per day to have this meter in my house I would turn them down. That's how bad this problem is for anyone who is wondering. In fact no amount of money would be acceptable to live with the symptoms being caused.

Yesterday was yet another stressful day with the Ombudsman and Octopus. As well as writing a technical paper about what I have experienced, I could write a book on the whole saga. However, let me take the opportunity to say a big thank you to the people in these two organisations who are understanding of my situation and are helping (or have helped previously) in trying to sort out replacing the meter. With their help, I'm hoping the saga is going to come to an end very soon. There's work to do afterwards to get this issue recognised and I hope the messages I have been writing to various organisations, including the IET, will help prevent others suffering similarly in the future. I had no idea this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. The problem is going to get worse with more noisy devices, not just meters, becoming more commonplace if nothing is done.

Octopus have never replied about taking a second hand meter that is in good condition that has been replaced during the smart meter roll-out, re-certifying it and installing it here. Their fitters told me they all get thrown in a skip when they get back to the depot whatever their condition. I know the meter that was installed prior to 9 February had a certification date expiring in 2024, so I'm about 2 years earlier than I need have been in swapping it, but would it be worse in 2 years time to be in this situation? Maybe others would have blazed the trail for me. I'll never know, but I do know I am not first in suffering at the hands of a meter. I found a case mentioned in Parliament in 2019 of a couple living only 15 miles away from my house where the meter was replaced at a time when it would have been much easier than now to source an old style replacement meter. According to Hansard: "Once that happened, their health dramatically improved".

I have a friend with a house with a SMET2 meter installation that doesn't seem to induce any symptoms. The meter doesn't emit noise in the LW and MW bands and there's no background ultrasonic noise when I check with my sound analyser app. I'm hoping to get chance to go back and put the oscilloscope on his mains soon for comparison, but unfortunately my friend has recently had Covid and the last thing I need is another health problem at the moment. Asking energy companies if they still fit that particular meter resulted in nothing but negative responses even with the company that fit it. Other friends with smart meters fitted in their houses which appear to be safe have older SMET1 meters. This all fits in with the Norwegian research document (copy in my post: RE: Severe Tinnitus Following the Installation of New Electricity Meters) that states noise suppression is getting less and less with newer generations of meter.

Have just joined. My wife and I are suffering exact same issue. Had new Landis +Gyr E470 fitted few weeks ago. Major house renovations. Moved in for months before final electrics and heating finished -no problem. All new systems (lights, smoke alarms, underfloor heating) and new meter came online -terrible tinnitus. Inside head now at all times. Sounds like superhigh TV static. Wife less affected (we think maybe because she works with headset on) bad in morning for her but fades away. Mine 24/7 reduced outside house to low hum. We turn everything off -only kitchen sockets on- to get some sleep. With earplugs. No problem with previous meter. Have boxed in new meter and packed around layers felt/polyurethane/carpet but still bad. British gas agreed to move meter outside house have to do that first then replace after. Thankyou for your post it has been a beacon of sense in an ocean of unhelpful nonsense. 

I think this issue deserves at the least a short article in E&T. That might do a number of things: (a) get it to be taken seriously, as distinct from cranks who "suffer" from "electrical pollution" around them; (b) make it clear that some key stakeholders (installation companies; suppliers;...) are not taking the issue of sound/ultrasound emissions seriously; (c) encourage other people who may well be affected to get in touch.

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. You and your wife do have my utmost sympathy though in not just having tinnitus but what you are now up against in getting a remedy sorted out. Very interesting you have the Landis+Gyr E470 which I couldn't bare any longer than the 5 days it was in my house and the type in my neighbour's house which may have have hugely affected her health.

I'm afraid that moving the meter outside may only have a limited effect as the noise is carried around the house on the cabling - hence the improvement when you turn off the circuits at night except for the kitchen. Direct RF emissions from the meter itself may improve with distance, don't have the meters put on the outside wall of your house near bedrooms or living room etc. For now, felt, polyurethane and carpet will not be effective. You need to put the meter in a Faraday Cage and I can only recommend doing that if you have had the communications hub removed otherwise it will up its power levels when trying to make contact with the external network, the wireless usage display and gas meter if you have one and loss of contact may raise concern from British Gas. You can test the effectiveness of your screening with an AM radio which will pick up the RF noise on the LW and MW bands. My grounded aluminium foil Faraday Cage makes a very significant difference and has stopped me abandoning my house until the meter is replaced, though it is arguable I should have done that already, the tinnitus over the last 36 hours or so has been close to what I rate as severe again.

I find earplugs make tinnitus worse as they block out background noise leaving me with just the tinnitus to listen to. If earplugs lessen your tinnitus then you may be hearing something audible in the mix. The L&G E470 made an annoying noise when it was fitted for 5 days in my house but didn't make it outside the cupboard where the meters are housed. The current meter, a Kaifa MA120, makes an even more annoying noise but again it is hardly noticeable outside the cupboard. I could not put up with either of these meters solely for their audible noise if I had been able to hear them in any where else in my house. Strangely that noise has had more credence with my Ombudsman case than the more harmful LF noise. There is a complete lack of understanding about the harmful effects of LF non-ionising radiation which the ICNIRP admits in its current guidance interferes with human biological functioning. (https://www.icnirp.org/en/frequencies/low-frequency/index.html) Took two goes even with them to get any recognition of what I am going through. All other organisations contacted have so far stated: "Smart meters are safe, read the government guidance backed up by the ICNIRP".

If your new lighting is all LED, then be aware some people are blaming LED bulds for being a source of electrical noise. I can't comment on that as currently we are still using up stocks of various older style light bulbs, but I sincerely hope they are not a problem as that's all the stores are now allowed to stock. (Some are still selling off old stock.)

Please keep us informed how you get on with British Gas. Keep pushing them, as the longer you are exposed the more your health effects will increase, as I have unfortunately been finding out.

Andrew

I emailed the IET's Engineering Safety Panel a few weeks ago. I'm not entirely sure if that was the right part of the IET to raise the issue, I asked to be advised if not, but alas I have not yet heard anything back.

I will certainly consider your idea of contacting the magazine, certainly bolstered with another similar case being reported last last night. (Thank you Mark.) We also have Dan in Perth WA as a third tinnitus afflicted member. I appeal to any other members reading this who have experienced or know of people who have experienced health effects following meter installations to post their experience to this discussion. The more evidence of this from members the better chance of the matter being taken seriously even within the IET. As for outside the IET, yes indeed what a crank I am. I can tell you CEng MIET doesn't stand for much with lots of people I have contacted.

But if you do move the meter outside it would make it easier to separate the effects of acoustic, electrically conducted, and directly radiated emissions. If you can get your problems to be dominated by just conducted effects then in-line filtering where it enters the house becomes possible.
Note that turning things off  at the circuit breaker usually only breaks the live core, not the neutral or earth, (main switch and RCDs are normally L and N )so if doing  that helps (and the improvement is not just due to reduced loads) then in-line filtering of the live cores also ought to work. It also suggests that shielded wiring may also help you . (does not have to be earthed conduit, but there are wiring types that ought to be a lot better than twin and earth.)

Mike

I had a second and hopefully what was going to the final appointment to get a traditional analogue meter installed last Monday. I checked and checked that it was going to be analogue meter like the one I had before the smart meter was installed and as requested in my second doctor's letter. When the fitter arrived he came with a digital meter to install not an analogue one as promised. It was an AMPY type 5246C approximately 15 years old. So as it was older and therefore potentially better at noise suppression than the Kaifa meter currently installed, I allowed him to install it. What a mistake; the tinnitus is even worse.

Complaining the next day after yet another awful night's sleep I got told it was a traditional digital meter and therefore as it was traditional the requirement was met. The Ombudsman told me she was closing the case accusing me of being the problem not the meters - after all the evidence I've presented to them, how can it be anything other than the type of meters installed unless they are reacting to something already on the mains which Western Power don't care about. (I asked them multiple times to check and they won't, nor could they do much about it is the feed was distorted and noisy.) The lady I have been speaking to at Octopus said she would carry on trying to find a analogue meter that could be installed but I have not heard back for two days. The fitter on Monday actually had these meters on his van, he waved one in front of me at the door. These had been taken out of homes but wasn't allowed to fit one of those as they needed testing and recertifying. No one explains why that cannot be done even as a stop gap measure. It seems tinnitus inducing meters have more right to be in my home than I do, providing I want electricity from the grid. The house is not in a position where it could generate all it's own power off grid.

The end I thought I had has been cruelly taken away twice now, the light at the end of the tunnel has gone. I have contacted my MP asking for help with the policies of Ofgem and the only company I know that has analogue meters in stock - these are reserved for people who wish to remain analogue and cannot be used to return people who have gone digital back to analogue no matter how their health is being affected.

Peter - I have taken your advice and contacted the technology editor of E&T providing a summary and a link to this discussion. I hope they can highlight the issue and someone somewhere can suggest or make something happen to bring my suffering to an end. It is truly awful and it is no simple matter to move house.

I have a doctor's appointment tonight after the events with the Ombudsman on Tuesday and after Monday's worsening of the tinnitus literally putting me on the floor. I have to admit I am now struggling with this matter very badly. Why should I have to seek medical attention for the sake of having an electricity meter in my house?

Hi Mike, Andrew & co. Thank you for all your helpful advice.

Had UK Powernet around this morning to quote for moving the mains supply outside the house to move the meter outside. We also have an appointment with our supplier British Gas to change the meter in a month. That was soonest they could do. I was very specific with the British Gas person I spoke to and she took down in the notes to change it to an "analogue meter because of tinnitus". I thought it was important for them to have that against the issue.

We have had confirmation emails/text that say 'all booked in for changing up to a new smart meter' which doesn't bode well, but we're hoping that's just stock communication.

In meantime we have possibility of someone with appropriate equipment to test for radio waves so if that pans out I will post any results here.

Also going to speak to new electrician next week about the internal wiring, lighting,etc to see what we can do about that. I have printed out this thread so will discuss your suggestions Mike with him so thanks for those.

We have been running the house (internet hub, tv) off only the kitchen ring for about a month now with all lights, underfloor heating and fire alarm system off. So we've ruled them out as primary tinnitus cause. Which leaves only the meter as possible cause.

I have tried to stay out of the house as much as possible, working in the garden and even sleeping in the shed the last couple of nights. Which gave me a full nights rest for the first time in around a month. My wife has been sleeping with earplugs in but not well and is going to try room furthest away from the meter tonight. Her tinnitus is strongest at night and early morning and for both of us, even with only the kitchen zone turned on, unfortunately it seems to be getting slowly worse. 

Thanks, Mark. 

For some reason I got a notification which drew my attention to this thread once more.

Let's get something clear: electricity does not stimulate the cochlea unless it is applied directly by a cochlear implant. The same goes for radio waves, 5G masts, etc. That also goes for the auditory pathways and the cerebellar cortex.

You might just as well blame the wearing of red clothes as blame the electrical installation - both would be equally valid.