Smart meters. SSE

Mines fine, why dont you want one?

I'm glad you mention about this as I've been thinking about getting one just not sure on the pros and cons yet.... time to get reading up on it

matelodave wrote: »

Mines fine, why dont you want one?

Mine too. I really don't understand what all the full is about I had dire warnings from friends to avoid them at all costs Why?

badmemory wrote: »

My main reason is that, until they start fitting the new smart meters, if you change suppliers they stop working and some of them are much more difficult to read manually than the old ones AND you seem not to be able to use the in house display for meter reading as it does the gas in Kw & does not seem to work for long AND will not be replaced when it stops working.

Is that personal experience or are you regurgitating hearsay

matelodave wrote: »

What's to read up.

It's a meter that gets read remotely and saves you the effort of reading it and ensures that your bills are up to date and accurate. If you swap suppliers at the moment it wont be able to be read remotely so you'll have to read it yourself like you do at the moment.

It's not a big bogey man sitting in the cupboard - its a meter, just like the one you've already got that measures your energy consumption.

By refusing to have one, you wont save any money, neither will the rest of us but by having one your bills should be up to date and spot on which means you'll not end up with big over or underpayments - surely that's worth having.

In the end it's up to you

Well, for what it is worth my understanding and reasoning is as follows...

It seems to me utterly crazy that "smart" meters are still being installed that are not fully compatible between all suppliers.

Yes, you still have a "dumb" meter capability if you change supplier but, as I understand it, you are then well down the list to get your meters changed again so any advantage has gone for several years at least.

So, although you can still change supplier the loss of functionality is an obvious disincentive to do so. Little wonder therefore the suppliers are so keen to keep installing the first generation meters.

Everybody I know who has had one admits that once the novelty has worn off they actually pay less attention to their monthly consumption than they did before! I get an email once a month asking me to submit my readings. It takes a couple of minutes but that concentrates my mind on reviewing my usage.

I am old enough, sadly, to remember to conversion from town to natural gas and the poorly trained "engineers" that were sent to people's houses to convert appliances. In a later life I worked with somebody who did that job and he was the first to admit that what was going on was downright dangerous. I do worry that is maybe happening again as it seems people with minimal training are apparently considered safe and qualified to work on both gas and electricity at its most critical point.

Apparently, according to the letters, these same people will conduct "safety checks" on your gas appliances as part of the meter installation process. Even if we assume (charitably) that they are competent to do so the largest supplier in particular has a terrible reputation for falsely claiming that appliances are obsolete or unserviceable.

Although I take many of the scare stories with a pinch of salt, there are plenty of them about so some at least must be true.

So, overall, that is why I have said no and that I will not have them installed until they are fully compatible will all suppliers and the teething problems have been ironed out.

Despite the misleading information being put about by some suppliers, the OFGEN website makes it very clear they are not compulsory. Again this makes me question their real motives.