First Utility/Siemens Smart Meter. How does it work?

bruckshaw1

I have had British Gas smart meters for a year now and am much more aware of how much energy I am using. There have been no major problems. I am now changing to FU . I am unable to read my meters due to disability but I believe that the BG in-house monitor will still communicate with the meters However what I will lose the "automatic" sending of the readings each month because FU cannot read the BG meters. That is not a problem as I can see the meter readings on the monitor.

Raxiel

bruckshaw1 wrote: »

I have had British Gas smart meters for a year now and am much more aware of how much energy I am using. There have been no major problems. I am now changing to FU . I am unable to read my meters due to disability but I believe that the BG in-house monitor will still communicate with the meters However what I will lose the "automatic" sending of the readings each month because FU cannot read the BG meters. That is not a problem as I can see the meter readings on the monitor.

Make sure the reading given for gas is volume and not just kWh, because that's what you need to provide.
Every suppliers monitor is different, so perhaps the British gas one has that, but not all of them do.

molerat

bruckshaw1 wrote: »

I have had British Gas smart meters for a year now and am much more aware of how much energy I am using. There have been no major problems. I am now changing to FU . I am unable to read my meters due to disability but I believe that the BG in-house monitor will still communicate with the meters However what I will lose the "automatic" sending of the readings each month because FU cannot read the BG meters. That is not a problem as I can see the meter readings on the monitor.

You probably have around a 50/50 chance of the indoor unit continuing to work. If it does still work it will not show accurate costs as it will not be updated with tariff information.

Raxiel

Candy53 wrote: »

Would they check an area's signal strength before deciding whether to fit one?

We live in a village, where our signal is slow, and intermittant. Some days are worse than others. The small masts around here regularly go down. I'm just wondering how that would affect transferring usage data, when we are forced to have one fitted.

They are supposed to check they can get a signal in the meter location before fitting. The data is sent via SMS so it doesn't need a strong data signal.

AlanMcDonald wrote: »

As a dual fuel user a smart meter is of absolutely no use to ME (the customer) as I will still have to go outside the house to provide the gas readings. So I will be selecting the "traditional" meter option.

You can get a smart gas meter too. The gas reports its readings to the electric, which then forwards both to the supplier.

isotonic_uk

Hi

So I been receiving through email, letter and SMS from FU that they want to fit me with a smart meter.

My question is if I move supplier, what features do I potentially lose? This seems a bit silly that every supplier doesnt support all the features.

Wouldnt it be better to wait then until this is more standardised?

Also the portable unit that I receive, can that be situated anywhere in the house? I assume that will need power? if so that will also need power which over a year will cost me a few bob if its meant to kept on all the time? How is that saving me electricity?

Thanks

molerat

The portable unit will cost pennies to run per year, nothing to worry about on that front. The biggest problem is that if you change supplier you will, except in limited circumstances, lose smart functionality on the meter and run a 50/50 chance of the in house unit not working at all. Best wait until the new breed of meters become available.

Nortech

Just had both meters changed to smart versions, as a engineer myself I asked a lot of questions during the installation.
Apparently in 2020 all smart meters will switch to sending info to a common cloud account no mater who your supplier is, it will then take only 24 hours to switch providers and continue using the same smart meters and displays.
Also gas smart meters are run by a battery with a 7 year life span, so when the meter sends the signal "low battery", an engineers appointment will be made to swap out the whole meter, your old one going back for refurbishment, the reason is, it's a sealed unit.

buglawton

There was a Radio 4 You & Yours feature on smart meters a few days ago where it's basically been admitted that the type 1 meters currently being promoted are already obsolete. But the industry is still trying to meet government targets for households installed using the obsolete meters.

People have said that once they become dumb meters again due to a supplier change, they are hard to read manually.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ksc5p

Nortech

Since my smart meters were installed I have been keeping a record of the daily KWh usage for both fuels from the smart display unit.
I have just been to my online account/usage page where I find FU has recorded higher daily KWh usages for Gas than the display, the Elec being the same as the smart display.
It's not just a simple rounding up of a decimal place because the online has a 2 decimal point reading as well as the display.
I purposely recorded KWh and not £'s because the calorific value of Gas fluctuates, anyone else noticed a difference between display and online usage.

EDIT: Worked it out, it's the current Gas conversion rate for expansion, added on to the meter reading.

System

Nortech wrote: »

Since my smart meters were installed I have been keeping a record of the daily KWh usage for both fuels from the smart display unit.
I have just been to my online account/usage page where I find FU has recorded higher daily KWh usages for Gas than the display, the Elec being the same as the smart display.
It's not just a simple rounding up of a decimal place because the online has a 2 decimal point reading as well as the display.
I purposely recorded KWh and not £'s because the calorific value of Gas fluctuates, anyone else noticed a difference between display and online usage.

Information on any IHD (which I assume is what you are talking about) is only advisory. Billing is based on the actual smart meter readings - passed to the supplier by the smart meter. Check bills by reading your meter if you are concerned.