British Gas smart meter replacement

SailorSam

I've just googled and they are advertising for fitters £27k pa, closing date Feb 2012

SailorSam

So long as that story about them going faster is a myth i'm all for not having to wait in. We had the electric meter swopped a few yrs ago and it use to beep every so often, drove the dog crazy in the middle of the night 'cos he slept near it in the kitchen, they had to give us a silent one,

Joyful

BG can tell me my reads every day so no probs in the future with change of tenancy readings being disputed. If what is being said was true regarding age, remember that you will probably get a new meter anyway if not a smart meter.

chanz4

Changing suppliers will have no effect, its the MAM that controls the metering and so will flag its change to which ever supplier you goto. Its like when people steal they all talk between them.

utility_csa

poppyriley wrote: »

no the meters are read once a month by the supplier, you can see what your using in real time on your electric, but you can only see your gas usuage every 30 mins, it would cost the supplier a fortune to read them every 30 mins, only big factorys get read every 30 mins.

Incorrect.

The meters aren't manually or automatically read every 30 mins. The meter records the half hourly usage and this can then be taken by the Data Collector to pass onto the Supplier.

Usually the meter is only read once every 24 for the TOTAL Period

All smart meters that i use at work have the ability to store you half hourly data. even single phase meters ( homes & small businesses. )

I posted a massive post a while ago answering peoples questions on smart meters that no one seemed to bother with.

@staffyman. smart meters take away and create jobs. I lost my job because of British gas smart meters, but it also gave me the opportunity to join a even better smart metering company

Ask me about them, its my job for Domestic and Commercial Smart metering..

Barneysmom

How long does it take to change the meter when the engineer comes?

And, I presume the reading is taken off the old meter when it's switched off, do you get a seperate bill due to the changeover, or is it carried over as normal to the next quarter?

staffyman_2

Hi utility_csa ,are the smart meters still read then ? Or do they send the reading by for want of a better word by text .

utility_csa

poppyriley wrote: »

What Part Is Incorrect

Yes They Can Upload Data, For The Purporse Of Smart Grid, But We Do Not Read Every 30 Mins, We Read Once A Month. I Do Not Work For British Gas, I Also Work For One Of The Big 6 Company`s Too , My Information Is Correct

Well the data collector that we work with reads every 24 hours, so they can show the customer real time usage. Gas im not so sure off, don't deal with gas metering any more.

@staffyman, the meters are read remotely Change of supplier, Change of data collector and change of meter operator. and every 24 hours (guess some others are doing it once a month as per poppy? )
They then need to read manually as a safety check every two years ? i think.

The data is sent as a text message kinda of, i don't see it like a text message though because when programming, or pulling data off a meter its more of a transfer of data than sending and receiving texts.

poppy is correct on the timings, theirs alot of factors that can affect the exchange. i know for a fact, some other meter operators don't even check that the communication is working on the meters before they leave site, which is utterly pointless they may as well install a dumb meter.

If the meter operators checks for comms before leaving from site, the meters can take between seconds to register on a network to 40 minutes...

bob_bank_spanker

IF it is true that old meters are slower due to age (which I highly doubt), then those that are 'refusing' to switch are quite happy to steal?
Whilst I am not happy at the level of prices, I don't think I'd ever resort to theft

staffyman_2

I don't class it as THEFT .When you go to a petrol station and buy say 50L of petrol from a pump do you really think you get smack on 50L ? Don't you think it will be +\- a percent or 2 ? I Don't know my meter is going slower I just don't want to take a chance that a newer one will go faster