British Gas Energy Smart (plus - what is a smart meter?)

The_Boss

Hi all,

Strongly considering signing up to the British Gas energy fix til July '15. We've been asked during the application if we'd like an Energy Smart meter for free - we would, but the meter is an Economy 7 meter and we'd like to move to a single rate tariff. Can we still do this?

It also says on their website that this is not available to Smart Meter customers. I assume, from research, that these are the new next generation meter readers and do NOT refer to Economy 7 type meters. Is this correct?

SwanJon

Energy Smart is a billing option, offering monthly bills/statements instead of quarterly - it will ask for reads every month.
Along with this you will be sent an Energy Monitor. This comes in two parts. One clips around one of the wires at your meter and sends information to the other part which is a display to show you how much you are using.
However, if you are on E7 and have seperate wires for Day & Night (which is likely) you will only be able to monitor one of these.

A smart meter is the next level up. It is able to send readings directly to your supplier, and communicate with a display on its own (so you don't need the monitor).

Moving to a single rate tariff is a seperate issue. So long as you are no longer using storage heaters or a night rate immersion it is probably worth doing - if you put up your day/night consumption it should be easy enough to work out.
To get the meter changed, phone your supplier and they should be able to book a job. Some suppliers charge for this, so make sure you check.

MillicentBystander

Don't be swayed too much by the energy smart monitor - these things can be picked up for £30 online (John Lewis sell them for this amount and include a 2 year warranty) so don't pay over the odds for a tariff that includes one 'for free'.

[Deleted User]

So far no Eco 7 dual rate smart meters are in use, at least I havent seen one. I think they are not long coming as prepay smart meters are in use . The energy monitors are a bit useless compared to a proper smart meters excellent info.If you do not need an eco 7 meter ( no night storage heaters ), get rid of the eco 7 and be billed single rate then aply for a smart meter. If you are set on an energy monitor ,simply get one off ebay, some suppliers have been giving them away free (EON ) so should be around for a fiver

ollski

Pretty sure the bg energy meters are free too you just sign up to energy smart or something. God knows what the difference is but I'm sure there is no difference in cost.

The_Boss

Cheers. The application for the fixed single rate tariff was submitted to British Gas today by my OH without her knowing it may not be possible..got her to email as a follow up asking if we could switch to a single rate tariff while having an economy 7 so may need to cancel during the 14 day cooling off period depending on what they say.

nickj_2

i can't see the point of energy monitors, unless you have no money worries then you know that light bulbs tv's etc don't use much juice an things that either heat or cool do - these are things that you need , you can't switch the freezer off to save cash , after the novelty's worn off does anyone actually use them

MillicentBystander

nickj wrote: »

i can't see the point of energy monitors, unless you have no money worries then you know that light bulbs tv's etc don't use much juice an things that either heat or cool do - these are things that you need , you can't switch the freezer off to save cash , after the novelty's worn off does anyone actually use them

We've had this argument so many times that I can't believe I'm responding but suffice to say users of these devices (as opposed to people who have read about them) tend to state that they are very useful if you actually WANT to save on your bills due to them always showing how much you are using as a household at any given time (anf giving you the opportunity to moderate your usage accordingly).

I've long held the view that if every household in the UK was put on pre-pay meters overnight the gas and electricity consumption in the UK would experience a steep decline. that's because most fuel meters in the house are in places no human regularly visits let alone thinks to check on usage. Hence the pathetic belly aching we get on here and review sites when they get that all important catch up bill.

MillicentBystander

nickj wrote: »

i can't see the point of energy monitors, unless you have no money worries then you know that light bulbs tv's etc don't use much juice an things that either heat or cool do - these are things that you need , you can't switch the freezer off to save cash , after the novelty's worn off does anyone actually use them

We've had this argument so many times that I can't believe I'm responding but suffice to say users of these devices (as opposed to people who have read about them) tend to state that they are very useful if you actually WANT to save on your bills due to them always showing how much you are using as a household at any given time (and giving you the opportunity to moderate your usage accordingly).

I've long held the view that if every household in the UK was put on prepay meters overnight the gas and electricity consumption in the UK would experience a steep decline. That's because most fuel meters in the house are in places no human regularly visits let alone thinks to check on usage. Hence the perpetual posts on here and other review sites belly aching at the catch up bill and erroneously apportioning the blame on their energy company.

datlex

I have energy smart billing. I find it works really well. They set up an amount for you to pay each month. If paying by DD you get a discount. You simply login an give them your reading each month. They send you a reminder when it is due as well. It quickly lets you see whether your DDs are too low, too high or just right. You can then adjust them accordingly. For example my elec DD was reduced and I got a refund with a few days.
I also got a free electricity monitor. It is helpful for seeing how much energy things use and the benefit of switching things off at the wall.
I don't know about smart meters. I've asked about one but they don't have them in this area yet.

PS. Don't forget to link your nectar card to your BG account. Might as well get some for free eh?

The_Boss

British Gas have advised that we can just submit readings for both the day and eco 7 rate and be billed on a single rate. However, the electricity box has two live leads coming out of it - one for the 'economy' rate and the other for the day rate. Am I right in saying that we would not be able to really use the monitor since we'd effectively need two to measure the two different outputs? Our meter is in a cupboard under the stairs of the flat on the ground floor and we are on the top floor - so it's not too much hassle to get a reading before heading up after work, but it means the monitor is a bit pointless if it's only detecting one rate.