Please tell me about smart meters

Terry98

victor2 wrote: »

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

It looks like that will be next year.

'The Government expects that smart meter installation will accelerate sharply in 2016, when all the common standards come into force'

http://www.smartenergygb.org/national-rollout/how-its-happening

torbrex

Smart meters are not that smart.
I had one installed a couple of months ago and a figure pops up at the start of every day (midnight) estimating the electricity usage for the day, even after this time it still over estimates my usage by about 3kwh every day.

Todays estimate is 8.3kwh on the display unit but I think it will be closer to 4.5kwh, I shall come back later just before I go to bed and update the figure.

Terry98

torbrex wrote: »

Smart meters are not that smart.
I had one installed a couple of months ago and a figure pops up at the start of every day (midnight) estimating the electricity usage for the day, even after this time it still over estimates my usage by about 3kwh every day.

Todays estimate is 8.3kwh on the display unit but I think it will be closer to 4.5kwh, I shall come back later just before I go to bed and update the figure.

I could be wrong but I think the estimated daily figure is calculated by your supplier based on the last seven years usage at your property.

Why don't you ask your supplier how the estimated figures are calculated?

torbrex

Terry98 wrote: »

I could be wrong but I think the estimated daily figure is calculated by your supplier based on the last seven years usage at your property.

Why don't you ask your supplier how the estimated figures are calculated?

I asked the engineer that fitted the meters and he said that the estimate would adjust itself within about a month to the current usage.
The booklet left behind also said the same thing.

I have never been a high user of electricity so even if the figure is taken from the last 7 years it is still way above what my normal usage would have been, I have not changed the way I live just because a smart meter was fitted.

SAHD_Jim

Here's my tuppence worth...

About 12 months ago, Ovo contacted us saying we could have free Smart Meters that would be able to show live energy use info and allow auto-meter reads etc all for no cost to me. Plus, I'd never have to read a meter again. Sounded to me like a decent idea, so I signed up.

Chap came about 6 weeks later and, after some messing about with a duff receiver unit, it was all up and running. Live monitoring of use and daily/weekly etc history was interesting as was the up to the minute costing, although not massively moneysaving to us as we are pretty frugal with energy anyway. Not having to provide meter readings was useful. Monthly bills came and went without any queries or issues on my part.

6 months later, MSE Cheap Energy Club led me to a switch for an end of fix saving and some cashback. It was at this point that I then discovered that my new Smart Meters would now be dumb meters when NPower said I had to provide manual readings again. I also realised that while the installer had showed me how to use the receiver unit in detail, he hadn't actually showed me how to read the meters themselves. Ovo's website was more than useless and in the end I found out how to do it from a 3rd party. So now, I can monitor usage with the receiver but the cost details are no longer valid and of course I am back to manual reads.

So overall, it was a tad underwhelming. As a regular switcher, if I'd known the Smart Meters would become dumb upon switch, I'd probably have waited until that side of things got sorted out.

This seems to me like a very inefficient roll out of "free" equipment, that I can only assume bill payers are subsidising? Surely get your act together industry-wide before rolling this stuff out?

Terry98

torbrex wrote: »

I asked the engineer that fitted the meters and he said that the estimate would adjust itself within about a month to the current usage.
The booklet left behind also said the same thing.

I have never been a high user of electricity so even if the figure is taken from the last 7 years it is still way above what my normal usage would have been, I have not changed the way I live just because a smart meter was fitted.

My IHD isn't as smart as yours and it doesn't give me a daily usage estimate.

However my supplier gives me a monthly estimate of usage, online, and even a year after the smart meter was installed they are still estimating double my actual usage!

When I pulled them up on this they quoted the seven year usage average. It's absolutely bonkers if you ask me.

As Jim said they should have got their act together industry-wide before rolling this stuff out because I will have to have new meters installed again before 2020 to meet the industry standard.

[Deleted User]

Terry98 wrote: »

It looks like that will be next year.

'The Government expects that smart meter installation will accelerate sharply in 2016, when all the common standards come into force'

http://www.smartenergygb.org/national-rollout/how-its-happening

Pipe dream !! accelelerated installation , target 2020 ! make that 2030, and the same for smart switching in my opinion.The speed they are installing them is unbelievably slow.A friend of mine who works for Eon fitting them is driving all over the place doing one or two a day.Last week on one day he drove over 50 miles, round trip of 100 miles to fit just one smart gas meter.
Left to suppliers who run their own businesses so badly that the billing side is a shambles, then asking the same bunch to organise the logistics of meter installations, it is doomed to failure. With seemingly more and more people declining them anyway, the government have made sure it will fail.

windup

SAHD_Jim wrote: »

It was at this point that I then discovered that my new Smart Meters would now be dumb meters when NPower said I had to provide manual readings again. I also realised that while the installer had showed me how to use the receiver unit in detail, he hadn't actually showed me how to read the meters themselves. Ovo's website was more than useless and in the end I found out how to do it from a 3rd party. So now, I can monitor usage with the receiver but the cost details are no longer valid and of course I am back to manual reads.

Should still be able to get a reading without visiting the meter by following post#17

for anyone else wondering how to read the meter, press 9, and try not to blink

the lack of industry standards and coordination for such a big project is laughable, couldn't have been more amateurish, bit like going back to the days when every railway company wanted a different rail gauge. Hard to believe whoever sat around the table and decided how to proceed didn't think it would be useful and cost effective to impose a standard, manage it properly, and roll out a street at a time

torbrex

torbrex wrote: »

Smart meters are not that smart.
I had one installed a couple of months ago and a figure pops up at the start of every day (midnight) estimating the electricity usage for the day, even after this time it still over estimates my usage by about 3kwh every day.

Todays estimate is 8.3kwh on the display unit but I think it will be closer to 4.5kwh, I shall come back later just before I go to bed and update the figure.

I am about to shut down for the night and the reading on the display unit is 4.0kwh.
It will probably rise by about 0.5 by midnight by the time I have had a shower and the freezer running.