Electric Smart Meters

[BOB BLACKSHAW 1Participant @bobblackshaw1]

Hello all, I am with British Gas for electric and gas on a contract with 8 month of the end. When signing up as with all energy companies they state that a smart meter will be installed at some time on the contract. I've had two e-mails stating that your smart meter needs to be installed, if not then I will be put on another tariff, can this be done or is this a gee up,I send my readings every month and my account is well in credit.

I'm not ready for a smart meter and the problem when changing suppliers at the end of a contract.I had a chap from National Grid at my home a two years ago I had a problem with my inverter on the lathe, so the power problem was the inverter, he said at the time do not have a smart meter, he explained and in my opinion quite frightening how your power can be controlled, can't remember exactly but was worrying. So do I given in or just ignore these e-mails.

Bob

[BOB BLACKSHAW 1Participant @bobblackshaw1]

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I personally will not have a 'smart meter', it doesn't save any electricity as the ads state, if you don't realise switching on an appliance costs money you really do have a problem.

Tony

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

The fear with smart meters seems to be that the suppliers will be able to vary the rate with demand, it seems unlikely to me that not having a meter will only allow the lowest rate to be charged. In the real world unless you have a smart meter you will be charged premium rate all the time. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Mike

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

After we had solar panels installed we were visited by an inspector to ensure that the system was installed as it should have been and we were happy, conversation got round to smart meters and his advice was don’t touch them with a barge pole, they save you nothing and can be a source of problems. I am not in favour of Big Brother being able to remotely control my usage.
Dave W

[Don CoxParticipant @doncox80133]

I've long thought that electric smart meters will only be of real benefit if we have them paired, and able to communicate with, smart appliances, eg washing machines, dishwashers, electric car charging systems etc so as to make use of the lowest price energy when it is available. I've not seen any progress towards that….yet.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

My daughter lives in Ontario, Canada, the price charged varies according to the time of the day, so to pay less you can choose to run your appliances at the cheaper time.

If the supplier wish to monitor usage they could fit metering to the substations. It is a not so smart meter, it has nothing to do with where the power comes from. Fortunately so far, not all suppliers force you to have one. Just one more thing to go wrong. From my address they would have difficulty remote reading it because the phone signals around here are appalling, I live in a hollow.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Posted by bsp on 13/10/2020 09:27:56:

The goverment have recently stated that in event of power supply problems, then properties with smart meters can be disconnected if required.

Enough said with the current state of affairs.

bsp

The indiscriminate power cuts of the crisis in the 1970s hit everyone regardless of need, in the unlikely event of smart meters being used for load management then I would have thought there would be a good case to maintain the supply to the vulnerable and let the fit and able take the pain. The power saving blurb is nonsense but believe It or not there are people who don’t realise that a heater costs more to run than a phone charger and a the monitor might just make them aware. Many people will be surprised that you can easily have a 200W background load from all the devices sitting in standby mode.

Mike

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

I heard from a mate of a mates cousin that they are mind control devices.

More mindless scaremongering from otherwise intelligent people. I'd have no problem with having a smart meter.

[BOB BLACKSHAW 1Participant @bobblackshaw1]

Thanks for the replies. I think that energy is cheap but its what goes with the meter, control over me in my house. The general public think nothing of spending £3.00 for a cup of coffee, how much energy is £3.00, it will go a long way.

My father is 93 and has a smart meter, a few months ago my wife was vacuuming , the kettle was on, I was microwaving his dinner, he was watching the smart meter with concern as it is on his shelf in the living room.

Bob.

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

I posted a few days ago about the problem we are having at our church with a new electricity supplier.

They insisted we have a Smart Meter fitted before the contract begun but that was fine with our Treasurer as it would mean we wouldn't have to send in the readings every 3 months.

The meter was installed by the company but they admitted that they couldn't read it as their software was incompatible! The company has been an absolute nightmare to deal with, with monthly bills that are higher than the 3 month bills from our previous supplier. and they cannot supply us with usage bills.

They are now saying that as they cannot get the Smart Meter to work then we have to pay for an accredited meter reader to read our meter every month at about £80 a visit!

You couldn't make it up!!

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

We had one fitted just over twelve months ago. The not so Smart Meter is currently "waiting for current information", ie, it is not working.

This is the second time in a month this unit has gone into this mode. I have tried all the "recommended Fixes" but it has made no difference, this time. Time to contact the supplier, and there-in lies another story.

Regards

Gray,

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

My suspicion is that smart meters are for the benefit of the supplier, not the user!

We already have an energy monitor, at which we glance, occasionally. Lights are gradually changing over to LED, so energy consumption is decreasing slowly. We try to switch off other electrical devices are switched off when not need, as much as possible. So we are helping the hyped drive towards lower emissions from energy provision..

E.o N kept pestering me to have a smart meter fitted, even to the extent of writing that the meter need to be changed (Which events have shown to be untrue!, since no one has insisted that it be changed due to being time expired)

Eventually, called them and told them that I do not want a smart meter, and to stop harassing me. Since then only one pester letter.

Big brother may watch us through our credit cards, but not yet when we turn on a light!

Howard

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

the 1970s cuts were not wholly indiscriminate – if for example there was an old folks’ home on a certain supply that was left on – living a few doors down from a converted alms-house meant I had no disconnects as my small 2up 2down was on the same circuit

Edited By Frances IoM on 13/10/2020 11:27:39

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

Posted by Samsaranda on 13/10/2020 10:01:58:

After we had solar panels installed we were visited by an inspector to ensure that the system was installed as it should have been and we were happy, conversation got round to smart meters and his advice was don’t touch them with a barge pole, they save you nothing and can be a source of problems. I am not in favour of Big Brother being able to remotely control my usage.
Dave W

We had exactly the same, if fact it was one of the first questions the supplier asked.

There are plenty of gas, and electric, suppliers that don't need this so why not switch? We did after appauling service from British Gas at our last house and saved a small fortune. We don't have mains gas here so no problem, we did switch our electricity supplier and we have never been asked if we want one. I can't help but wonder if its just the big inefficient companies that are pushing for this.

[Oily RagParticipant @oilyrag]

Smart metering is for the benefit of the supplier – not the customer. It will allow them to charge a variable rate for every 15 minutes depending on the state of the supply side situation. When the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow expect the kWh rate to reach astronomical levels!

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have been delaying them for quite a few years. A couple of weeks ago I got a strongly worded email from them, nPower, saying they must replace the meter since it was obsolete, out of date. They would be doing this in three days time. I said this was very inconvenient chose a day as far in the future as possible and they accepted this.

I am afraid that they will win. They own the meter and if they say it is "out of calibration" and needs replacing how are you going to prove otherwise?

JA

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

I think you will find that most pressure to install smart meters comes from Central Government.

I have read that there is a Government requirement for UK homes to be fitted with them within a certain time frame (not sure of years etc).

I also think companies may be liable to fines if they do not meet the required timescales.

Just as an aside to this: If you have an Electric Vehicle Charging Point installed at your house it must now be a “smart” one.

Edited By V8Eng on 13/10/2020 12:28:17

Edited By V8Eng on 13/10/2020 12:28:51

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I won't have a smart meter until they get them sorted out so there are no compatibility problems when you change suppliers.

Plus, they don't do economy 7…

Neil

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Plus, they don't do economy 7…

Why not, Neil? They are used for TOU charging at peak rates, so why not for cheap rate periods?

In reply to Oily rag: Octopus Agile cap their increased unit prices at 35p/kWh (peak hours 1600-2000? hours) but also offer 5p/kWh for 5 (I think) hours in the early morning and something like 13p for the rest of the time.

But I don’t remember their standing charge prices.  If I had a smart meter (I don’t like them) it might be worth me changing to them next year.

Edited By not done it yet on 13/10/2020 12:35:31

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Posted by V8Eng on 13/10/2020 12:21:44:

I think you will find that most pressure to install smart meters comes from Central Government.

I have read that there is a Government requirement that UK homes to to be fitted with them within a certain time frame (not sure of years etc).

I also think companies may be liable to fines if they do not meet the required timescales.

Yes central govt has been convinced by someone green that smart meters save money, I think I'm right in saying that obviously we the consumer are paying the billions it will cost? Also I read somewhere that the roll out finish date has been extended more than once.

Tony

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

it’s one of the many problems by voting so many lawyers with no technical understanding to parliament – they cannot either do maths nor science

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Yes I think it amounts to about £200 per customer all paid via your present bills.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 13/10/2020 12:23:21:

I won't have a smart meter until they get them sorted out so there are no compatibility problems when you change suppliers.

Plus, they don't do economy 7…

Neil

Smets2 meters are compatible across all energy suppliers who are DCC compliant (DCC = Data Communications Company, the central hub for 2nd generation smart meter interoperability). This includes all the major suppliers such as SSE, British Gas, EON, EDF and a lot of the smaller ones. I fit for one of the smaller energy suppliers and we can now fit E7 Smets2 smart meters, so it is worth asking your energy supplier if they have them available, things have moved on quite a bit recently, we also have pre-payment Smets2 meters available.

Gray

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