British Gas Smart Meter

SallyD

I am due to have smart meters installed. My gas and electric meters are set in the wall of my bungalow. Do they actually replace the whole meter or just make an adjustment? I realize I will have a small monitor in the house that needs to be plugged in.

Is anyone happy with their smart meter?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

matelodave

They replace both the gas and electricity meter.

There is no reason to be unhappy about smart meters - they measure your gas & electricity consumption in a similar way to dumb ones but send the info directly back to the supplier saving both them and you the time & effort of manually reading them.

You should also get accurate bills rather than estimates. So if you are the sort that ignores the meters you've already got and don't bother to check your bills then smart ones would be of great benefit as you can ignore them as well and hopefully get accurate bills. That said, I'd still check my bills to make sure everything was OK

hannah899

I have a smart meter mines either the same size or alittle smaller. My bills are more on top now although I dont have the handy console on all the time. Although its less hassel as my bills have been accurate my bills have gone down and I dont constantly need to submit meter readings but do always check.

C_Mababejive

I will just add that not all smart meters have data transmission capability activated in the first instance. The end game for smart metering is to charge different rates for gas and electric at different times of day. For eg if its cold and there is high demand,well you will pay a higher tariff. The whole thing is linked into the concept of smart grids.

Imagine having the temerity to want your heating on when its freezing outside? Well if you have the cheek,you will have to pay more.

Better_Days

Interesting article on smart meters here

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/smart-meters

C_Mababejive

Better_Days wrote: »

Interesting article on smart meters here

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/21/smart-meters

In the article Thomas is right,thats what its all about. The DECC are being disingenuous to say the least as they know that if they talk openly about smart meter capability and future plans, there will be public outrage. Instead they give consumers a nice new toy to play with in the form of the in house display unit (IHD) The bottom line is that at peak demand, you will have to pay more to use energy. What will you do? Sit and freeze/turn the lights off? Will they be doing this in the rest of the developed world or just in broken Britain?

Do you have to do it now? No you dont,,so how could it be better for consumers?

The other thing of course is that the smart meter spec must include a valve which can be remote operated. What do you think they will do with that? What if it closes due to a glitch/fault? Who will come and sort it out and how quickly will they do it ?

MeterMan

Sally, I wouldnt worry too much about what the neysayers say. If you where worried about data protection to the extent that you chose not to have a smart meter, you wouldn't own a PC, or a smart phone.

I can not imagine that smart meters mean different pricing plans at different times of the day. The current meters don't even have functionality to turn off your electric supply, Gas meter has a shut off valve but only operates if there is a fault with the meter. New smart prepay meters are coming out shortly, but there is no kill switch, if you run out of money, the meters turn off. (They do come back on between 7pm &7am)

Andy_WSM

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Imagine having the temerity to want your heating on when its freezing outside? Well if you have the cheek,you will have to pay more.

The best the crooks can do right now is put prices up right before the Winter. I can well imagine the temperatures plumett across the UK and electricity & gas prices double overnight. People on low incomes freeze and the Government look on while rubbing their hands together at the increased tax revenue from the higher prices.

[Deleted User]

Smart meters benefit the industry and playing off the installation as a customer benefit has been a mistake. The monitor is a toy which gets quickly forgotton after a few months at the most and most unplug it and stuff it in a drawer.Charging the customer extra for the meters is also not working as word has got around and many are refusing them just for that reason. The meters are not much more expensive than a standard one. I ve seen them for sale at £125 (Landys and Gyr ),so adding the extra costs to the green energy taxes and expecting the householder to pay some of the extra costs has also a created mistrust of them. Other than that they are an excellent way to stop most of the increasing thievery going off of energy especially the ability to switch from credit to prepay modes at a stroke. If occupiers refuse to pay, than they can sit in the dark and cold and not burden honest people keeping them in free heat/electric for years

lindsay031167

Hello this is my first post so be gentle please. I am due to have smart meters installed but have been advised by a British Gas fitter friend that if I were to change supplier in the future the new company may charge anything upto £400 to remove the other companies smart meter, has anyone come accross this. I am currently with OVO and think they are refreshingly great, superb website and clear bills. Is this the right place to post this, sorry if its not.

Andy_WSM

lindsay031167 wrote: »

Hello this is my first post so be gentle please. I am due to have smart meters installed but have been advised by a British Gas fitter friend that if I were to change supplier in the future the new company may charge anything upto £400 to remove the other companies smart meter, has anyone come accross this. I am currently with OVO and think they are refreshingly great, superb website and clear bills. Is this the right place to post this, sorry if its not.

Hello & welcome to the fun house

I think your friend has got it a bit wrong.

At the moment if you have a smart meter fitted it will only remain "smart" while you remain with that supplier. If you switch to a different supplier at a later date the meter reverts to a standard "dumb" credit meter.

This will change in the future if current plans pan out as anticipated.