EON want me to have smart meters

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

I don't blame you. Since having a smart meter fitted in May, it hasn't made one scrap of difference to our use of energy, for the government and suppliers to suggest otherwise is naive to put it politely.

It looks likely the meter will need replacing again in order for it to be compatible with the other suppliers, it's currently only being read once a month by E.on. On top of that, being an Economy 7 household, the indoor remote doesn't show night and day units, only a combined total. The meter itself isn't easy to read/interpret...

Total farce and costly for consumers too (it's not free, the install costs will be passed to consumers in the form of higher bills).

Morning Frozen_up_north.

Thought I'd pop on to let you know, our Smart Meters automatically collect readings once a month but this can be done more frequently provided customers agree. Before the meter is installed, customers can choose whether or not readings are taken every half hour, daily or just the whole month. The more often readings are taken, the more accurate the picture of how energy is used. As I posted above to nwc389, it's another way to help raise awareness about usage.

You're right about the Energy Display and Economy 7. It only shows a combined total and not the day/night split. There's more specific detail on the meter itself. There's more information about how to see this in the instruction manual and our website. Or, have a talk to our Smart Meter specialists. They'll be happy to go through the various screens and the data they show. Contact details are on our website or in the documents our technician left.

Hope this is of interest Frozen_up_north.

Malc

Micron

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hello Daz2009

Yes, you can refuse a Smart Meter. There's no legal obligation on customers to have one.

Malc

From the E.on website; Smart meters explained

What if I don't want a Smart meter?

"The Government has stipulated that all properties in the UK must have a smart meter.
The timeframe for this will be between 2014 and 2019"

Can you claify the situation for me please Malc, will I have to have Smart meters installed in my house by 2020 or not ?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Morning Micron.

Smart Meters are optional. We're working to be in a position to offer them to all our residential and small business customers by 2020 but it's down to the individual if they want to take this offer up.

The bit on our website you quote is from the business section. The corresponding piece from residential is a bit better. This says, 'the Government wants to have a smart meter installed in every home and business by 2020.' This is certainly the aim but, as I speak, it's not compulsory. Any change to this would, I suspect, need to come from the Government.

Sorry about the confusion. I'll see about having our online business section amended to match the residential.

Hope this is a bit clearer Micron. Let me know if you need any more details as happy to help.

Malc

sandhika

Hi everyone..
Currently, I am conducting a research for my dissertation project. The topic is related to people's perception towards energy saving behaviour through smart energy monitor utilisation (especially for virtual energy monitor, like app or website).
I would love to have a discussion if anyone here has some opinions about that..
And if you are interested, please kindly fill in my online survey..
Thank you!

Micron

Thank you Malc for the quick reply and for clearing up the misunderstanding.
I did notice that Google search had taken me to the business section of E.on's website but when I read 'all properties in the UK must have a smart meter' I immediately thought that the government had changed their stance and were going to force me to have smart meters installed, but they wouldn't do that, would they?

brewerdave

And so it continues.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37102725

[Deleted User]

@brewerdave
Love these quotes from the BBC article

Another industry executive told the BBC that there was increasing dissatisfaction with how the programme had been handled.
"It's got to be done - we've sunk so many millions into it" he said. "But how good will it be and how reliable will it be?"

No, you've spent millions of pounds of customers money. We're paying for it in more ways than one.

DCC body is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capita

Say no more.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Micron wrote: »

Thank you Malc for the quick reply and for clearing up the misunderstanding.
I did notice that Google search had taken me to the business section of E.on's website but when I read 'all properties in the UK must have a smart meter' I immediately thought that the government had changed their stance and were going to force me to have smart meters installed, but they wouldn't do that, would they?

You're welcome Micron. Glad to help.

Totally agree, the two parts of our website give an ambiguous picture. Sorry about that. I've raised a formal request to have the business bit changed. No timeframe yet. To be honest, this type of change can take a time as they're usually piggy-backed on to other website upgrades. I'll pop this thread in my diary and let you know what happens.

Thanks for highlighting Micron.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Sosumi wrote: »

There would be no sense in installing them (expensively and pointlessly) in properties at which, for reasons of communication interference and inadequate signal reception, they wouldn't work.

Spot on Sosumi. Among other things, it's important there's a strong mobile signal. Sometimes, the area shows as having a strong enough signal but local circumstances water it down enough to make it unusable for smart meters. Things like certain materials situated between the two points trying to communicate can cause a problem. Thick stone and concrete have been known to cause a problem with the signal. Metal has the biggest impact.

Our technicians carry out various onsite tests to see if the signal is strong enough. For example, they use Sniffer Units to test the low power radio signal by placing the transmitter at the electric meter and the receiver at the gas meter and/or Energy Display. If the signal is below a certain level, it's likely it won't be sufficient and the job will be aborted.

Sorry to ramble on Sosumi but hope this is of interest.

Malc

Sosumi

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Sorry to ramble on Sosumi but hope this is of interest.

Malc

No problem at all with that, Malc: it’s abundantly clear that many, even here, have yet to assimilate the facts about this, so you need to keep drip-feeding.

Must say I’m somewhat surprised to learn that to test the inter-communication signal between the two meters your technicians put their transmitter at the electricity meter and the receiver at the gas meter. I would have thought it was more fail-safe to do it the other way round.

I suppose it depends upon whether the electricity meter interrogates the gas meter or whether it simply receives and processes regular signals sent out by the gas meter. Even so...

More generally, I’m also surprised that you don’t call a complete moratorium on installing smart meters until the new SMETS 2 meters are ready. But, perhaps you have a large stock of the older version that you want to unload before they become obsolete? (If that isn't putting it too cheekily. )