Being pushed into a smart meter ? can I refuse .

rossiboy001

Hi Im pay and go on electricity , I keep seeing a notice that my electricity cars is being phased out , on the printed receipt when I top up .
Thing is reserching it seems to be those smart meters , that invade privacy they are rolling out . I dont want to be tracked all over my house , by realtime information feedback , which can follow me room to room by what sockets i switch on and off , Also what time I go to bed , what time I get up , ect , But more importantly when im in and out .
I know how much im using the meter anyway , you see the credit click down .
Is there any alternatives I can get to having this intrusive technological spyware ?

utility_csa

rossiboy001 wrote: »

Hi Im pay and go on electricity , I keep seeing a notice that my electricity cars is being phased out , on the printed receipt when I top up .
Thing is reserching it seems to be those smart meters , that invade privacy they are rolling out . I dont want to be tracked all over my house , by realtime information feedback , which can follow me room to room by what sockets i switch on and off , Also what time I go to bed , what time I get up , ect , But more importantly when im in and out .
I know how much im using the meter anyway , you see the credit click down .
Is there any alternatives I can get to having this intrusive technological spyware ?

No a smart meter doesn't do half of what you've said.

If you have an exchange it will most likely be for a standard dumb meter. If you on pre-pay you almost definitely wouldn't be having a smart meter.

Inspectorman

They will change your current card meter to a key meter because as your receipt says, they are being phased out.

mac.d

Inspectorman is spot on, if you have a pre-payment meter that uses a card it'll just be getting changed to a meter that uses a plastic key instead (card meters are now obsolete).

Apart from the fact that information is transferred to and from the key back to your energy supplier when you top up (the electric reading, changes to your tariff etc) there's no real difference. It might show you a little more information on the display, and you'll have a key instead of card to top up with, but it's certainly not a smart meter in the way you are thinking.

rossiboy001

Thanks for the replys , Its just that this meter is fairly new m and replaced a key meter when moved in , strange ?
But i notice as soon as the last government said they were going to spend billions of our money replacing all meters , within weeks , letters from all companys started to arrive saying my meter is out of date , I just ignored em , as im never around in the day to sort it , obviously ill have to get it done when I cant top up prob as an emergency call out , hopefully they can sort it in the evening or weekends .
So there is no connection between this story and this replacement meter ?

[Deleted User]

I am very surprised you had a card meter as they were withdrawn completely from sale at least 3 years ago in my area..I do see the odd one around which has been converted to a credit meter and also very rarely now one which has been bypassed and no ones got in in years, like the one I happened upon on Will and Kates wedding day,he did nt expect the meter man to be about on a Saturday lol

rossiboy001

Cheers , yeah that fits cause it were installed about 4-5 yrs ago , So I wouldnt have thought that were old , since I know people with ones will mechanical wheels and mines digital , Iv had the odd letter from time to time from different companys saying iv got to ring for an appointment , cause they other companys and obviously just trying it on to nick the contract and switch me over .
Often wondered why someone comes read me meter , when they know my usage , since I pay in advance .

utility_csa

rossiboy001 wrote: »

Cheers , yeah that fits cause it were installed about 4-5 yrs ago , So I wouldnt have thought that were old , since I know people with ones will mechanical wheels and mines digital , Iv had the odd letter from time to time from different companys saying iv got to ring for an appointment , cause they other companys and obviously just trying it on to nick the contract and switch me over .
Often wondered why someone comes read me meter , when they know my usage , since I pay in advance .

A visual inspection is required every now and again, Companies only install a meter if they have been appointed the meter operator for your supplier, just because you have a certain companies meter doesn't restrict who you can be supplied by.

Terrylw1

Smart power metering by any chance? The local meter operator has been changing them for key meters as the technology has been rendered obsolete. Ofgem have forced all suppliers to set projects up to swap them.

The projects have been ongoing for a couple of years but there have been a lot to change over and many issues in getting at them. In some cases, some idiot engineers have even swapped key meters back to smart power or swapped smart power to smart power!

There isn't much difference in the technologies, you will most likely get an Actaris KBD which are similar. Actaris offer a range of services but it depends whether the supplier is paying for them, but at a minimum, they are not much different.

Don't worry about smart metering, that's a long way off for most residentials.s.

treac

I have just had a call from EDF asking me if I want a Smart Meter. I pay by direct debit.

Would anyone be able to tell me what this means for D/D customers?

The person who rang said that this will be compulsory in future but that I would be one of the first batch of people in the area who would be getting one.

I have asked them to call back after the Easter break so that I can look into it.

Thanks in advance.

penrhyn

No more estimated bills, and an energy monitor which reads both gas and electricity consumption.