Please tell me about smart meters

footyguy

Petra_70 wrote: »

Hubby wants to swap to them as his buddy at work swears by them... 'you can see how much it costs to boil your kettle and how much you're using when you have the fan on!' Etc etc...

But I saw on watchdog last night that people have been having problems. Not sure why, or what problems. Or if it is any particular energy provider that has the most problems.

Can people please help/advise me?

Are smart meters good? Bad? Anything else?

And what 'problems' could are people having?

And is it with any particular provider?

We are with British Gas.

Many thanks. .

Are you sure the programme didn't explain all this?

Try watching again on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06h7jlg

The main issue as I see it with smart meters at present is that they are not smart enough to let any other supplier other than the one who put it in use it as a smart meter ... so it will be used as a dumb meter if you switch supplier.

If you just want to see how much it costs to boil your kettle, get yourself an energy monitor.
( I think many libraries even have them available to lend out. Afterall, once you know how much it costs to boil your kettle you don't really need it anymore.)

footyguy

Petra_70 wrote: »

...So if you do have one, you pay £215 for it! And so it's £430 if you have both meters changed....

I never saw the programme, but am pretty sure they never said that.

The government wants (hopes?) everyone to have a smart meter by 2020. There should be no cost to the individual for having a smart meter installed.

Petra_70

Thanks everyone and I am sorry to keep on...

But I am a bit confused now.

So do you only have one smart meter then? And is the smart meter added alongside your existing meters then? Rather than being there instead of them?

Also is it not true then that you will end up paying more with smart meters?

I keep seeing and hearing so many different things; it's so annoying lol.

footyguy wrote: »

I never saw the programme, but am pretty sure they never said that.

The government wants (hopes?) everyone to have a smart meter by 2020. There should be no cost to the individual for having a smart meter installed.

Hi Footyguy.

No, I got this off the internet. It's on the link I put above. ^^^

[Deleted User]

Two smart meters.The main one is the electric meter.That is the one which connects with the server.The gas meter only connects to the nearby electric meter sending off its reading every day to the electric meter using very short range wifi, whilst the electric meter sends its readings off every two hours.Many people just have the electric smart fitted to begin with and the smart gas meter fitted later. The smart gas is a small e6 siemens meter about half the size of a metric g4. The electric meter BG use is the Landys and Gyr mk2 , taller than a normal electric meter and sometimes gives problems fitting the extra length on the backboard
As I said earlier I am not being billed any extra for my smart meters which I ve had for a couple of years. British Gas installed them, then I went Eon for a while when they became dumb meters and back to British Gas again this year when I joined Sainsburys Energy when they regained their smart status. I would nt be happy at all if I was paying as much as £43 a year to help boost BGs profits but I appear not to be paying anything at the moment.

Petra_70

Thank you.

So does that mean that the original gas meter and original electric meter stay then? And the smart meters are added alongside, somewhere else on the property?

windup

the original meters go

it's not true you will end up paying more, unless the original meter was under reading

the cost of meter replacement is and always was ultimately paid for by the customer as part of the normal supply costs.

The person with a bill 5 times what it was it likely to have a logical explanation, totally unconnected to the fact it's smart
--
bg's profits per customer are tiny compared to every other retailer you are likely to deal with
---

poppellerant wrote: »

be prepared to be underwhelmed by the display unit supplied with OVO's smart meter. I thought it might at least show my current meter readings, meaning it would be easier for me to take readings. No, I still have to go to where the meters are and read them.

.

Assuming it's a Secure pipit 500
press

menu

history, hour, day, week
note the Cuml figure (electricity reading)

press electricity
note the Cuml figure (gas reading in kwh/Mwh unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view)

Petra_70

Thanks Wind up.

tdw197

Ebico fit Elster smart meters, similar to Secure in that the Gas is an older diaphragm meter (despite being older and bigger has plusses vs the E6). The Electric meter is slightly neater than the L+G in that the comms hub is made by Elster and fitted directly in the meter

The Secure meter, despite the above, are proving to be as reliable as L+G (though thats not a particular high bar to meet), the IHD is awful for prepayment as mentioned above - though this is only needed if there's no GSM signal at the electric meter.

First Utility and others besides Ovo are fitting Secure meters now too.

Missus_Hyde

We're being pestered by EDF to have a smart meter installed; they've emailed me several times and so far I've ignored them.

I'm not keen to have one; they strike me as far too intrusive and frankly I'm not interested in how much energy I use to boil a kettle etc. Apparently, they report back through the mobile phone system? Good luck to EDF for that; we can never get a decent signal where we we live!! Also I don't do estimated electricity bills; every month I read our meter and submit the figure on line, it tells me how much I owe and I pay it there and then. That way I pay for exactly what we use (no more, no less).

As I understand it, there's no legal obligation to have one fitted, although they can replace our meter with another one of the same type if they absolutely must.

victor2

Petra_70 wrote: »

Hubby wants to swap to them as his buddy at work swears by them... 'you can see how much it costs to boil your kettle and how much you're using when you have the fan on!' Etc etc...

But I saw on watchdog last night that people have been having problems. Not sure why, or what problems. Or if it is any particular energy provider that has the most problems.

Can people please help/advise me?

Are smart meters good? Bad? Anything else?

And what 'problems' could are people having?

And is it with any particular provider?

We are with British Gas.

Many thanks. .

The tin-foil hat brigade will probably be along shortly to tell you how harmful they are to your health.
I probably would accept them if my supplier offered them, but given I quite frequently change supplier, it would be of only a short benefit to me. I know an elderly person who had them installed by E.On and is very happy not to have to attempt to read her meters any longer, and not to have estimated bills. She would stay with E.On for the comfort of not having to read the meters, even if the price is not the best available.

It's inevitable we'll get them eventually, but until a standard is established, their benefit is limited.