Should I get a smart meter?

SailorSam

I suppose a by-product of a smart meter that couldn't be bypassed would be a reduction in cannabis farms.
When you see the Police raiding them on the Tv news there's always loads of lights heating the place. I don't think they'll be paying for all that power.

[Deleted User]

SailorSam wrote: »

I suppose a by-product of a smart meter that couldn't be bypassed would be a reduction in cannabis farms.
When you see the Police raiding them on the Tv news there's always loads of lights heating the place. I don't think they'll be paying for all that power.

The Pro growers, the Vietnamese etc will find a way round smarts but I think most of the 200,000 thousand house growing cannabis growers are amateurs growing enough plants to make an excellent living. Smarts are much more difficult to bypass than the typical prepay electric which is virtually set up for an easy bypass. It costs approx £900 to grow a typical room crop for the 12 week growing . period. everyone can read in the local papers how common it is, its all over the place now,even 2 in my own street . We can smell it on a still summers day on the last two weeks of the growing period it stinks

GingerBob_3

sacsquacco wrote: »

Wrong, ( as usual ).. Smarts will eliminate the casual non professional meter bypasser at a stroke. I have found 20 year old women savvy enough to easily bypass the electric prepay key meter.. Its so easy.Once the prepays are made to operate in smart mode, not only will it stop all the hundreds of thousands of bypassed prepays in the UK it will stop the professional "renter " who moves into a property with credit meters with no intention whatsoever of paying any energy bills until the supplier moves in with locksmith and warrants to fit prepays. Smarts will stop all the idiots hacking away attempting to bypass the meter and burning the house down. People like Gingerbob live in a strange world back in the 1930 s when he has the cheek to complain about wifi as he merrily taps away his guff on his laptop

No. Right ( as usual ). You need to get the terminology correct, especially since you're a meter reader. The discussion relates to bypassing the meter, i.e. tapping into the cable on the supply side of the meter. Please explain how smart meters will stop this. I assume you're talking about meter tampering, a somewhat different thing which no doubt you can spot now and also with the smart meters. So to claim reduced meter bypassing as an advantage is just rubbish. I don't know if it would reduce tampering - I guess so, but given the previous comments about the cost to the consumer of electricity theft (i.e. they won't reduce the price whatever), then that's another potential advantage gone west.

As I see it, the smart meter might be good for meter train-spotters (of which there are loads on this board), but for the majority with better things to do they'll be no use at all.

GingerBob_3

sacsquacco wrote: »

...People like Gingerbob live in a strange world back in the 1930 s when he has the cheek to complain about wifi as he merrily taps away his guff on his laptop

Please show me where I've complained about WiFi.

applepad

Sounds like I've opened a can of worms!

I don't work, I'm disabled so I'm home and my hubbie reads the meter- I can't reach! And emails it to FU every month, so my bills, when I get one, just had 1 for the first time in 7 months but that's another story! Are up to date.

O2 signal my be a problem, very hilly were I live and mobile signal can be hit and miss.

Take it they would replace both the gas- very old meter and electric- about 18 mth old meter?

Looks like I have more reading to do, looks like I can put it off but it the end I will have to have one.

Thanks again

Tamsy

Definitely no

GingerBob_3

applepad wrote: »

Sounds like I've opened a can of worms!

I don't work, I'm disabled so I'm home and my hubbie reads the meter- I can't reach! And emails it to FU every month, so my bills, when I get one, just had 1 for the first time in 7 months but that's another story! Are up to date.

O2 signal my be a problem, very hilly were I live and mobile signal can be hit and miss.

Take it they would replace both the gas- very old meter and electric- about 18 mth old meter?

Looks like I have more reading to do, looks like I can put it off but it the end I will have to have one.

Thanks again

Absolutely not. The government has made it clear that there will be no compulsion in the matter. However, it could be that some companies will offer preferential rates to those with smart meters, and maybe only if you permit half-hourly uploads, but this is all years away and may never happen.

joncombe

matelodave wrote: »

So you can't see any disadvantages then - you just don't want one.

Personally I think in the longer term it will lead to peak and off-peak pricing which will most likely mean that I will end up paying more.

MABLE

I'm happy to read the meter myself and keep a record. Others do need the nanny state to spoon feed them.

matelodave

GingerBob wrote: »

Absolutely not. The government has made it clear that there will be no compulsion in the matter. However, it could be that some companies will offer preferential rates to those with smart meters, and maybe only if you permit half-hourly uploads, but this is all years away and may never happen.

I'm sure you've lived long enough to know that what a government lays down as a law can easily be amended by a subsequent one, so don't expect that you'll be able to stave it off for ever.
Likewise the energy firms might start to insist that you have one so you may have to keep swapping supplier to find one that doesn't. There might not be a legal compulsion to have one but the suppliers might make a condition of supply.
In the end if you want gas or leccy in your home you'll have to accept it via whatever metering the company requires.