Stealing gas and electricity

PollySouthend

I_have_spoken wrote: »

No doubt this is why the providers are wanting customers to pay ££ billions for smart meters to deter tampering - nothing to do with being 'green'.

Agreed. This is just the latest propaganda to push smart meters on people. The preview said that 30 pounds a year per bill is from theft. How long until they say smart metres will save people money...

The Germans looked into smarts and made the obvious conclusion that the end users will just get higher bills.

[Deleted User]

PollySouthend wrote: »

Agreed. This is just the latest propaganda to push smart meters on people. The preview said that 30 pounds a year per bill is from theft. How long until they say smart metres will save people money...

The Germans looked into smarts and made the obvious conclusion that the end users will just get higher bills.

So you would prefer the status quo where approx 200,000 and climbing fast, electric meter bypassers feeding the home grown cannabis market to remain. The Daily Mail ( their figures ) say it amounts to one house in every 44. Giving these thieves the chance to refuse a harmless technology , which YOU are using now with no problems, is a huge mistake by a few Liberal MPs. They have already been given the right to refuse a smart meter, which, of course, they obviously will

[Deleted User]

sacsquacco wrote: »

So you would prefer the status quo where approx 200,000 and climbing fast, electric meter bypassers feeding the home grown cannabis market to remain. The Daily Mail ( their figures ) say it amounts to one house in every 44. Giving these thieves the chance to refuse a harmless technology , which YOU are using now with no problems, is a huge mistake by a few Liberal MPs. They have already been given the right to refuse a smart meter, which, of course, they obviously will

Energy theft affects every utility customer, including you. in raised prices, at least smart meters will mostly stop it. With gas meter bypassing a simple and cheap plastic meter lock could be installed every time a new meter is installed or a previous tamperer is caught. This is nt even done at the moment. That reminds me to go and check one bloke who substituted his meter for 4 years ( with virtually no payback by Scottish Power ) to see if hes up to his tricks again.

Moto2

I just open the curtains and steal the light from the street lamps


Many years ago, I was doing some work in a house that had been abandoned by the tenants.
One of the jobs on the list was to read the meters - however - the gas meter couldn't be read as it was facing the wall.

Long story short, it appears the tenants had turned the meter round, not only were they getting free gas but the meter was going backwards.
The gas board fella [yes, it was that long ago] said that lots of folks did it for a few weeks at a time.

shark99

Noticed some mention of smart meters but don't really see how they stop theft?

Smart meters don't need anyone to come and read them, do they?

So without a meter reader coming round, who will notice if someone has bypassed the meter?

I mean, I can imagine a smart meter that detects if someone tampers with the meter - but I can't see how it would detect someone connecting a length of wire / gas pipe before it even gets to the meter.

lstar337

shark99 wrote: »

Noticed some mention of smart meters but don't really see how they stop theft?

Smart meters don't need anyone to come and read them, do they?

So without a meter reader coming round, who will notice if someone has bypassed the meter?

I mean, I can imagine a smart meter that detects if someone tampers with the meter - but I can't see how it would detect someone connecting a length of wire / gas pipe before it even gets to the meter.

They still need to be safety checked, probably every two years.

PollySouthend

sacsquacco wrote: »

Energy theft affects every utility customer, including you. in raised prices, at least smart meters will mostly stop it. With gas meter bypassing a simple and cheap plastic meter lock could be installed every time a new meter is installed or a previous tamperer is caught. This is nt even done at the moment. That reminds me to go and check one bloke who substituted his meter for 4 years ( with virtually no payback by Scottish Power ) to see if hes up to his tricks again.

look we always have the same conversation.

You think smarts are the ONLY way to stop theft, I don't.

Ich_2

You think smarts are the ONLY way to stop theft, I don't.

Totally agree, the favourite, especially with the Canabis Farms, is to joint a new service onto the existing cable before even the cut-out!!
Smart meters cannot prevent this and considering they can be using around 100amps (23kW) continuously they are responsible for a large proportion of the lost revenue

SailorSam

I don't think the programme is just about fiddling, when the Bbc said it would show you how to reduce your bills i think they were talking about insulation and solar etc. They showed one house in the trailer that cost approx 25% extra to build but had heating bills of only £20 per year.

[Deleted User]

safety checks get abused by a lot of the suppliers. they dont comply with Ofgems ruling. I find that the majority of bypassing , and its the easiest, is done by electric prepays. Get free electric and in most cases they can heat their homes without using gas at all, in effect stealing gas indirectly. The electric smart meter would stop the majority of that. It would be able to detect a bypass before the meter as well as at the meter..
An agressive deterrent program is needed to energy theft. a US survey said that 10-15% of customers would steal energy. I spoke to a policeman who said it was a civil matter between the supplier and customer so they could nt do anything despite people nicking thousands of pounds endangering themselves, family and freinds.
It was an interesting headline in the Mail last week accusing the police of deliberately downgrading all crime and hiding a lot to artificially reduce the crime figures and make them look good with a 10% reduction overall. The theft of energy wont appear in any crime statistics. We have a ludicrous situation now where someone growing 14 cannabis plants and earning over 40 k a year faces nothing more than a police caution and it doe snt even go on record as a crime. Its a career prospect now according to my next door but one neighbour who said he made more than any 40k when he was doing it. There was a news report on Sky last week which said we were exporting our home grown cannabis now to Holland, this is all done because of the free energy they re using now with very little to stop them