Guide
Your tariff and your meter configuration are not the same thing.
Almost every argument about whether you can go back from a smart plan comes down to this distinction. Once you separate the two, the contradictory accounts people give usually turn out to be compatible.
The two things
One is what you pay. The other is what the meter records.
The tariff is a commercial arrangement with your supplier: a 24-hour flat rate, a day/night split, or a three-band smart plan. You choose it and you can change it.
The meter configuration is a technical setting held by ESB Networks, identified by a Meter Configuration Code. It determines which registers exist and what gets recorded. That is network infrastructure, not a billing choice.
Why they get conflated
Smart hardware does not always mean a smart configuration.
A smart meter can be physically installed and configured to record as a day/night meter. That is a genuine configuration, not a halfway state or an incomplete installation. Plenty of households have smart hardware on the wall and a two-register day/night setup behind it.
Equally, 24-hour flat-rate tariffs are available to households whose meters are configured for smart tariffs. So “I have a smart meter” tells you very little about what someone is being billed on, which is why two people can describe apparently opposite experiences and both be right.
Going back
Changing tariff and changing configuration are different requests.
Moving from a smart tariff to a 24-hour tariff is a supplier conversation. Changing the meter configuration is a request to ESB Networks and, per the regulator, carries a fee.
You will see it stated that certain smart configurations cannot be reverted. We have not been able to find that in an ESB Networks document we could point you at, so we are not going to repeat it as fact. If it matters to a decision you are about to make, ask ESB Networks directly with your MPRN rather than relying on any secondhand account, including this page.
What the regulator says
No rule stops suppliers offering smart day/night tariffs.
The CRU’s position is that there is no regulatory barrier preventing a supplier from offering a smart day/night tariff, but that suppliers generally limit these to customers who already have day/night meters, and there is no obligation on them to offer one.
In other words, if you cannot find the tariff you want, that is a commercial decision by suppliers rather than a rule you can appeal.
Finding yours
The code is printed on your bill.
Your Meter Configuration Code appears on your electricity bill, usually in the same block as the distribution group code. It is worth knowing before any conversation with a supplier about which plans you are eligible for, because it is the thing that actually determines the answer.