An elderly man from Capel Bangor was told to wait two months for his heating to be fixed by Scottish Power.

Earlier this month 81-year-old Robin Young’s heating stopped working after the energy company switched his Economy 7 storage heater system to a smart meter.

Though the heating system had worked perfectly before, following three call-outs when engineers failed to turn up, Scottish Power then admitted an engineer wouldn’t be with him until 19 November.

After both the Cambrian News and MP Ben Lake contacted the energy company about this delay, an engineer arrived promptly to fix the issue.

Though it is now resolved, Robin and his family are concerned that many others will be left without heating following the nationwide switch-off of the Economy 7 systems.

Robin said: “It’s a scandal that they’ve turned off this radio system before they ensured that everyone had been fitted.

“I was worried, switching on an electric fire is quite expensive.

“No one at Scottish Power asked me if I had any other means of heating the house, even though I am on the priority list.

“Nobody was interested at all.

“The house is old and cold and a bit chilly and damp, I’ve had an open fire on in the evenings, but wouldn’t usually before November.

“The whole point of storage systems is to keep the structure of the house warm and dry.

“I’m fairly sure I’m by no means the only person in this situation - there are probably people worse off who don’t have a fire.”

Economy 7 and similar systems allow meters to switch between peak and off-peak rates, allowing energy companies to charge customers less to heat their homes during off-peak times.

Operated by the Radio Teleswitch Services (RTS) and introduced in the 1980s, the service was phased out this summer with energy companies working to replace all RTS systems with smart meters.

Many households including those in Ceredigion and Powys have only finding out about the switch this month when going to turn their heaters on for the first time since summer.

One household in Machynlleth discovered their storage heaters no longer worked this week, and stated that they have had no contact from Scottish Power at all about the switch.

Scottish Power said that all UK suppliers have been urging customers with RTS systems to come forward ahead of the shutdown on 1 July to get a free meter upgrade.

A spokesperson for the company apologised for the issues Mr Young faced, adding: “Mr Young’s system was linked with the Radio Tele-Switch Service, an industry-wide system, which is being phased out with energy suppliers urging customers to come forward to enable us to replace their meter to avoid any loss of service.

“An appointment should have been made immediately for Mr Young to resolve his heating issue, and we are investigating why this did not happen.

“Our team attended Mr Young’s property last week to install a smart meter and ensure his heating is working again.”