British Gas Smart Meter Upgrde

mattytun

Hi im with british gas and logged in to look at my bill and it says i can get a smart meter upgrade Free

Should i go for it any help please.

System

Have a read of this and many other threads on this subject:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5437887

Personally, I would wait until the Data Communications Company goes live and suppliers are able to offer a SMETS2 compliant smart meter. Currently, most smart meters are SMETS1 and they revert to dumb meters when you switch suppliers.

mattytun

Hengus wrote: »

Have a read of this and many other threads on this subject:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5437887

Personally, I would wait until the Data Communications Company goes live and suppliers are able to offer a SMETS2 compliant smart meter. Currently, most smart meters are SMETS1 and they revert to dumb meters when you switch suppliers.

Thanks think ill hold back..................;)

[Deleted User]

How come virtually everyone who comes on here supposidly asking for advice whether to accept a smart meter always ends up by saying" no thanks not for me ". I can t remember one whos said I wont listen to the naysayers and accept what the government and the suppliers all want. Are some of these people just set ups for that woeful site of true loonies "stop smart meters uk " ?

Rubidium

Saying no now does not mean that we are naysayers!

The government and suppliers have made a complete dog's breakfast of the introduction of smart meters in the UK.

Their timescales continually slip back, they are unlikely to meet their current targets and there are still various problems to which solutions will need to be found before everyone can have them anyway.

Smart meters can be an advantage but currently for most customers they are best avoided until the pathetic implementation farce is sorted out and this may be a couple of years off yet or longer.

Can they fit smarts for simple multirate tariffs yet? Why not? When these meters are actually smart, then they will be worth having but not before.

victor2

sacsquacco wrote: »

How come virtually everyone who comes on here supposidly asking for advice whether to accept a smart meter always ends up by saying" no thanks not for me ". I can t remember one whos said I wont listen to the naysayers and accept what the government and the suppliers all want. Are some of these people just set ups for that woeful site of true loonies "stop smart meters uk " ?

Because as Hengus so rightly points out, there is no standard widely adopted yet, so a Smart meter installed today is only smart as long as you don't switch supplier.
Nothing loony about that, just common sense.

System

And the evidence of corporate/Government incompetence just continues to grow:

http://www.scl.org/site.aspx?i=ed46148

The 'savings' from this scheme come from the same stable as HS2 and our Government is unwilling to release the calculations for independent scrutiny. Conversely, the cost of the roll-out programme ( now assessed by some to be in excess of £12Bn - all of which will be recovered from consumers) is very real.

Fortunately, the Press are now getting interested:

http://paullewismoney.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/smart-meters-do-they-think-were-dumb.html

FWiW, I embrace new technology when I think it is right to do so. Unfortunately, the industry is saying nothing about the potential for Denial of Service Attacks with these types of meter. At best, this could lead to individual consumers being cut off: at worst, it could lead to significant damage to the National Grid with unbalanced loads. The internet is full of research papers on this subject, and the argument that our smart meters will be different just doesn't stand up. Smart meters are after all just small computers:

http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/29353/security/smart-meters-hacking.html

torbrex

Almost everyone will tell you to wait but I can't see the point in waiting, the more meters that get installed the better no matter if they are not compatible with all suppliers.

It's only by having the meter installed when you switch that you can actively complain about it when you switch.

It's not like it costs you anything to have it and you never know, it might inspire you to save money on your bills when you see instantly what your usage is.

[Deleted User]

torbrex wrote: »

Almost everyone will tell you to wait but I can't see the point in waiting, the more meters that get installed the better no matter if they are not compatible with all suppliers.

It's only by having the meter installed when you switch that you can actively complain about it when you switch.

It's not like it costs you anything to have it and you never know, it might inspire you to save money on your bills when you see instantly what your usage is.

Thank god for some sanity on the subject. Suppliers will run their business efficiently and hopefully all the UKs magistrates will be spared the usual monday ritual of signing off warrants of entry for all the pillocks/thieves and people who can t be ar**d to put a reading in or manage their own lives. Northern Ireland is showing how its done for smart prepayment meters with reductions in tariffs for the poorest stuck on standard/variable. Smart prepay is the future, maybe for us all in 10 years time allowing me to buy , say £200 worth of energy in advance at a discount.
Hengus, please tell me how the UK press is getting involved when you quote some numpty called "Paul Lewis s Money blog " you really are scratching around for any links which have a negative on smart meters. I wont even bother looking at your links again when you come up with tripe like that.Its as if you re a paid up member of the true nutcases at Stopsmartmetersuk. Hopefully you re not as deranged as their founder Dr Elizabeth Evans who says that a smart meter makes her come over in a blind panic causing shortness of breath.

Rubidium

sacsquacco wrote: »

Thank god for some sanity on the subject.................... .

Some of us would say that it is not sanity but stupidity to have a smart installed now and you are very biased and firmly in the for smarts camp!

You must realise that the members advising people to refuse smarts at the moment are not meter fiddlers or loonies from the crank website "stop smart meters UK" but knowledgeable posters who can see the farce as it slowly unfolds over a prolonged period of time.

How long have they been installing smarts? Why have multirate tariffs been ignored? Why is the implementation program in such a mess several years on?

Who do you think is paying for these smarts that are currently being installed that will need replacing with the latest spec ones when the suppliers are all in agreement?

It is not very green to replace a fully functioning standard meter with years of life left, just so that a supplier can say that they have installed their quota to meet some pointless government target!

I read my meters regularly so a 'smart' smart meter would save me time and effort but a real smart meter would allow quick, seamless transfers between all suppliers without the involvement of a third party assessor to check that the meter readings provided are what they think that they should be. Every time that I switch, I have to contest the start/end reads because they do not believe that readings provided are correct. A proper smart meter that works between all suppliers would end this unnecessary farce.

You will not convert those who are knowledgeable on the UK smart meter implementation farce and luckily we do have a choice!

System

We all have the right to make up our own minds on the subject of smart meters. The latest Govt report on the DECC website states that consumers making best use of their IHD should reduce their energy bills by 3% at a cost of £200 per meter per household.

Whether you like my sources or not, the evidence that smart meters will not save consumers money in the long term just mounts up:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-3322658/The-great-smart-meter-rip-UK-energy-giants-use-devices-DOUBLE-cost-power-need-most.html

But as I say, it has to be an individual decision.