Smart Meter Installations

vet8

I had a smart meter installed last November and it has really saved me money, but only because Southern Electric have not billed me once since then. I have emailed them twice and been assured a bill will come but no. So do I assume that smart meters mean the power is free? Oh goody!!

angel_of_dartford

sacsquacco wrote: »

It would be a really good thing for everyfone concerned if a serial debtor or energy thief who refused to pay for their energy or someone who is dangerously bypassing the meters, could just have their supply shut down automatically. Everyone would agree to that."

If the meter has been bypassed, operating the disconnection relay will have no effect

spiro

angel_of_dartford wrote: »

If the meter has been bypassed, operating the disconnection relay will have no effect

No it won’t but it will make it easy for Revenue Protection to know that's happened without even seeing the meter.

frankie

I inherited a smart meter for EDF electricity when I moved into my current property. I still regularly enter my readings on line and cannot for the life of me see how these devices can @save money'. You still use the same amount of electric, all these devices do is show how much you use in a convenient way instead of having to look at the meter reading.

My concern is that if a smart meter is installed by one company, how does this affect you if you want to switch suppliers?

System

frankie wrote: »

My concern is that if a smart meter is installed by one company, how does this affect you if you want to switch suppliers?

At the moment most smart meters go dumb on supplier switch. SMETS2 meters will start to roll out later this year ( and some existing SMETS 1 meters may be suitable for a SMETS 2 upgrade). SMETS 2 protocols allow the meter to communicate with the new Data Communications Company with customer meter information available to any supplier that you are signed up to.

reeac

frankie wrote: »

I inherited a smart meter for EDF electricity when I moved into my current property. I still regularly enter my readings on line and cannot for the life of me see how these devices can @save money'. You still use the same amount of electric, all these devices do is show how much you use in a convenient way instead of having to look at the meter reading.

My concern is that if a smart meter is installed by one company, how does this affect you if you want to switch suppliers?

The glib argument is that with the accompanying in house display you'll be more aware of how much leccy your're using and will switch things off. This will probably be the case with the oblivious masses but all good MSE people will already be operating economically ....hence no saving. The whole project seems like an expensive way to save money.

Bark01

The other side of the arguemnt is that having acurate bills will reduce the amount of bad debt the industry has to write off each year. The cost of bad debt write off is spread across all customers.

reeac

Official figures are £11Bn. to convert 26 Million homes I.e. £450 per home which sounds a believable figure. I don't know how much bad debt there is per annum. As the fitting is optional, not compulsory, can habitual debtors opt out of such installation?

GingerBob_3

reeac wrote: »

Official figures are £11Bn. to convert 26 Million homes I.e. £450 per home which sounds a believable figure. I don't know how much bad debt there is per annum. As the fitting is optional, not compulsory, can habitual debtors opt out of such installation?

I sincerely hope so. Bad debtors can be handled via pre-payment meters. No need for "solution-looking-for-a-problem" technology here.

[Deleted User]

GingerBob wrote: »

I sincerely hope so. Bad debtors can be handled via pre-payment meters. No need for "solution-looking-for-a-problem" technology here.

You are condemning prepay users to traipsing down to the corner shop just to put a bit of lekky on ! its 1990 s technology and they all should be binned for smart prepays. They constantly break down with people ramming keys and cards in them, they re p*** easy to fiddle and they are totally inconvenient to use and cost the earth to run and they are even subsidised down to standard/variable tariffs by the rest of us.
The latest smart prepays are now in use, no slots for keys/cards and have easy ways of top ups via phone/internet. They are much more reliable, super hard to fiddle and promise much lower tariffs once the suppliers get confidence in them. Over in Northern Ireland smart prepay is the norm and are attracting lower than standard tariffs in the few years they have been in use.Smart prepay may even be the future for everyone eventually.