Smart Meters - is it true?

rogerblack

Every 10 years?
I haven't looked at the date on mine, but I know it's older than 20 years.

jarthurs

keystone wrote: »

You are supposed to have a new meter every ten years irrespective and they have the right to enter your property to change it as has already been observed.

Cheers

Mine is dated 1985, and our local supply is about to be relocated from overhead cables at the rear of the house to an underground supply at the front. They fitted a new enclosure on the front of the house and when I asked if we'd be getting a new meter they said that they would be moving the 26 year old meter into the new cabinet.

Go figure...

Boxman

If I had smart meters would EdF manage to get my statements up to date and correct?

They certainly can't at the moment even though I keep them advised of the readings at regular intervals.

Goldensock

Electric meters aren't changed every ten years. When they need to be changed depends on the lifespan of that make & model, anything from 5 years to 35 years. Ofgem produce a document with the lifespan of all electric meters which all metering companies have.

Swipe

They make it up as they go along. On Stream made me change a meter that was just 12 months old that had only racked up 2500 units and they swapped it for an identical one. What was that all about? I ignored them a few times and they got really heavy so in the end I just let them swap it.

spiro

Swipe wrote: »

They make it up as they go along. On Stream made me change a meter that was just 12 months old that had only racked up 2500 units and they swapped it for an identical one. What was that all about? I ignored them a few times and they got really heavy so in the end I just let them swap it.

That could be down to 2 things:
1) First meter exchange did not get recorded, or
2) The found out it was a fautly batch of meters.

david39

Rogerblack:

Why do you think that a utility company would be interested in knowing what time someone does their ironing, makes a cup of tea or has a shower?

In particular, out of all their millions of private customers, why would they want to know the time at which, specifically, you did it?

I'm all for taking care over personal security, but what on earth would be the value to anyone of knowing what time you performed all these acts?

spiro

david39 wrote: »

Rogerblack:

Why do you think that a utility company would be interested in knowing what time someone does their ironing, makes a cup of tea or has a shower?

In particular, out of all their millions of private customers, why would they want to know the time at which, specifically, you did it?

I'm all for taking care over personal security, but what on earth would be the value to anyone of knowing what time you performed all these acts?

Also given the meter only registers consumption in 30 min intervals how are they going to detect most of the things he mentioned?

rogerblack

david39 wrote: »

I'm all for taking care over personal security, but what on earth would be the value to anyone of knowing what time you performed all these acts?

Data is data.
The fact that the current meters sample every 30 min - if that is accurate - makes this a lot less intrusive. If it's not, it won't be at the rate which would allow some of the above snooping, unless it's remotely commanded to a higher rate - which would be unusual.

The problem with data is that it tends to persist, leak, and be used for things it wasn't intended for when originally collected.
I have no issue at all with the power company knowing my second-second power usage.

The fact that in principle this data can be used for other things in future does concern me a little.
My memory and sense of time is unreliable, I'll often be a day or several off, and a few hours out in my recollections.
The discrediting of a legitimate report of mine, with a fuzzy time, would be a problem for example.
Or being refused insurance at cheap rates, as the property had been empty for several weeks in the last couple of years, despite circumstances changing and this no longer being true.

Data leaking also causes issues.
If you're a burglar, for example, a massive data leak would be really quite nice, as you can now see when homes are likely to be unoccupied.

The original post was mostly addressed at what can technically be done with a smart meter, if it samples fast enough, based on my own energy meter, rather than any concerns i have about my data.

spiro

rogerblack wrote: »

Data is data.
The fact that the current meters sample every 30 min - if that is accurate - makes this a lot less intrusive.

The reason that they are measuring in half hours is how the wholesale market settles. Currently only very large sites have half hourly meters, all others have there useage converted to half hourly by applying a 'profile' to your consumption. Eventually and given enough bandwidth it may be possible to settle every meter in the UK half hourly. But you need to consider that means 32m meter readings to be processed every 30min 365 days per year. If that ever happens tariffs would need to reflect this which may mean much more complex tariffs in terms of the number of rates per day otherwise there is no benefit to the industry of doing it.