Smart Meters - Ask me anything!

System

"Hello, this is the British Electricity Smart Meter hotline. You are number two million, four hundred and sixty eight thousand, two hundred and twenty three in a queue. We’re sorry your smart meter has disconnected you and that you have no electricity. We are working to upgrade the firmware in all of our smart meters and hope to have your power restored sometime in the next six months. Thank you for your call.”

If this has got you intrigued, the full article is here. The author used to design UK smart meters; is an expert in wireless devices and has given evidence on smart meters to MPs.

http://www.nickhunn.com/smart-meter-update/

Rubidium

Hengus wrote: »

"Hello, this is the British Electricity Smart Meter hotline. You are number two million, four hundred and sixty eight thousand, two hundred and twenty three in a queue. We’re sorry your smart meter has disconnected you and that you have no electricity. We are working to upgrade the firmware in all of our smart meters and hope to have your power restored sometime in the next six months. Thank you for your call.”

If this has got you intrigued, the full article is here. The author used to design UK smart meters; is an expert in wireless devices and has given evidence on smart meters to MPs.

http://www.nickhunn.com/smart-meter-update/

An interesting article with some valid points well made but I'm sure that we all know that our resident smart meter evangelist will dismiss it as absolute rubbish, even if he doesn't understand what is being said.


I particularly liked this extract:

Post Brexit, there is no mandate for smart metering which the UK will have to follow. DECC interpreted the EU mandate predominantly to provide climate friendly sound bites for successive flavours of Government ministers, not for any financial or technical reasons. An evidence-based review in Germany has recently concluded that it makes no sense to install smart meters for the bulk of domestic homes, so they are not. There’s no reason we can’t make the same decision.

System

Fake news alert ! absolutely pathetic effort in scaremongering by Hengus. Shame on you , you should be above utter tripe like that.. I m not even going to waste my time wading through your unproven "expert " ( you re big on the word "expert " ) and his/her crap. Hengus , go and join your natural website Stop Smart Meters UK. That is the place for you and leave the energy forum in peace from your ravings and your anti smart bias.You are like the losers in the EU vote who backed the wrong horse, you just wont !!!!!! about losing the vote and you can t accept that smart meters will take over completely in the end Like they will in the rest of Europe ( Germans excepted ). Please can you button it ! and stick to the stuff you are good at. Germany is the only country in Europe indecisive about smart meters.The rest are going for it completely and 50% will be smart by 2020. Italy has long been a smart grid with no reports of hacking.Using the possibility of smart hacking is like trying to say we had better not have online banking or online anything for that matter.Hengus knows he winds me up with this blether and Rabidiman tags along for the ride to get a few crafty digs in. There are no "personal " insults " , I respect Hengus usually in most of his advice but the anti smart stuff has got to stop.
I m a massive smart meter fan.They will bring down the cost for the poorest once smart prepayment meters get in full swing and suppliers get confidence in the new system.That has been proven in Northern Ireland where smart prepay has taken off and can offer lower tariffs. They were the lowest prepay electric rates in the UK when I checked last year.

fredandwilma

House_Martin wrote: »

Fake news alert ! absolutely pathetic effort in scaremongering by Hengus. Shame on you , you should be above utter tripe like that.. I m not even going to waste my time wading through your unproven "expert " ( you re big on the word "expert " ) and his/her crap. Hengus , go and join your natural website Stop Smart Meters UK. That is the place for you and leave the energy forum in peace from your ravings and your anti smart bias.You are like the losers in the EU vote who backed the wrong horse, you just wont !!!!!! about losing the vote and you can t accept that smart meters will take over completely in the end Like they will in the rest of Europe ( Germans excepted ). Please can you button it ! and stick to the stuff you are good at. Germany is the only country in Europe indecisive about smart meters.The rest are going for it completely and 50% will be smart by 2020. Italy has long been a smart grid with no reports of hacking.

Please could everyone 'play nicely?'

It's a shame to see the energy forums go the same way as the comps forum and resort to personal insults?

There are some well informed members on the energy forum, who put a lot of time and effort into helping others on a practical level, for whatever reason.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion whether you agree or not and whether that opinion is wrong, or not?

Just my two-penneth.

To everyone - Keep on posting. :A

System

I do not recall saying that I agreed with the author of the blog; however, given his experience and post-graduate qualifications, he has an opinion - based on his experience of working in the smart energy sector - that needs to be taken seriously. I am sorry if posting informed material causes HM such personal angst; however, qualification for qualification, I believe that Mr Hunn knows more about smart meters, and their cost, benefits and risks than HM or I will ever know.

Mr Hunn has an MA in Physics and Material Science from Cambridge University but, more importantly, he was also awarded a Blue Peter Badge, Anyone with a Blue Peter Badge clearly knows his stuff.

lstar337

Hengus wrote: »

Thinking back to my schoolboy Physics of 50 years ago, I think that what you are experiencing is what is known as the Power Factor. It's a fact that people who use clamps on wiring to see total usage get a totally different reading to what is shown on the meter. Some energy monitors - such as Smappee - address this issue. As I recall, errors creep in when low power items such as chargers are in use. I may be wrong but it gives you something to investigate.

Power Factor - the ratio of the actual electrical power dissipated by an AC circuit to the product of the r.m.s. values of current and voltage. The difference between the two is caused by reactance in the circuit and represents power that does no useful work.

Smart meters do not use clamp monitoring, so power factor isn't a factor.

Rubidium

House_Martin wrote: »

Fake news alert ! absolutely pathetic effort in scaremongering by Hengus. Shame on you , you should be above utter tripe like that.. I m not even going to waste my time wading through your unproven "expert " ( you re big on the word "expert " ) and his/her crap. Hengus , go and join your natural website Stop Smart Meters UK. That is the place for you and leave the energy forum in peace from your ravings and your anti smart bias.You are like the losers in the EU vote who backed the wrong horse, you just wont !!!!!! about losing the vote and you can t accept that smart meters will take over completely in the end Like they will in the rest of Europe ( Germans excepted ). Please can you button it ! and stick to the stuff you are good at. Germany is the only country in Europe indecisive about smart meters.The rest are going for it completely and 50% will be smart by 2020. Italy has long been a smart grid with no reports of hacking.Using the possibility of smart hacking is like trying to say we had better not have online banking or online anything for that matter.Hengus knows he winds me up with this blether and Rabidiman tags along for the ride to get a few crafty digs in. There are no "personal " insults " , I respect Hengus usually in most of his advice but the anti smart stuff has got to stop.
I m a massive smart meter fan.They will bring down the cost for the poorest once smart prepayment meters get in full swing and suppliers get confidence in the new system.That has been proven in Northern Ireland where smart prepay has taken off and can offer lower tariffs. They were the lowest prepay electric rates in the UK when I checked last year.

House_Martin wrote: »

"Fake news alert ! absolutely pathetic effort in scaremongering by Hengus. Shame on you , you should be above utter tripe like that."

In your opinion it is fake news. Only you "think" that it is scaremongering

House_Martin wrote: »

I m not even going to waste my time wading through your unproven "expert " ( you re big on the word "expert " ) and his/her crap.

Be honest, you don't understand a word of it so yes it is "crap" to you.

It is simply not possible to have a reasonable discussion with anyone who resorts to posting abuse like Shut The F**k Up and "your anti smart bias" and "the anti smart stuff has got to stop" and "Please can you button it"

You can't tell anyone what they can and can't post on a discussion forum, if you don't like it here, find somewhere to post your fantasy thoughts and opinions because you won't silence our opinions which are based on fact!

House_Martin wrote: »

I m a massive smart meter fan.

That is simply your simplistic opinion and those with more knowledge have a totally different view.

System

brianposter wrote: »

Just come across this thread and maybe you could solve a problem for which I have been unable to find an answer elsewhere. We are in Spain.

We have a smart meter installed, and the electricity supplier is kind enough to provide an hourly analysis of electricity consumption on their website. The hourly consumption figures (kwh) appear to reflect what we use, but the daily total (also kwh) on which we are billed, appears to be an entirely different (much higher) figure.

Can you explain how this could happen ?

More research indicates that the issue might be contract related and nothing to do with the smart meter. It would seem from various Spanish supplier websites, that there is a maximum demand exceed penalty.

Quote In Spain, depending on the maximum demand value, the penalty can involve a significant bill increase. If the maximum demand value exceeds 10% of the contracted power, the user will pay a 20% increase on the maximum demand term. However, if the maximum demand exceeds 20% of the contracted power, the user will pay 50% increase on the maximum demand term Unquote

The maximum demand value is the average from the instaneous power (in kW or kVA) during a defined time interval, usually every 15 minutes.

And we think that the U.K. Energy market is difficult to understand.

Source: circular.com

tesst432901

Everyone please see the post:
Sorry can't post link, so this is after the moneysavingexpertDOTcom
/showthread.php?t=5594328
Energy Bills, Can We Be Smarter? Thursday 2nd February ITV 7:30pm

Cardew

Hengus wrote: »

Quote In Spain, depending on the maximum demand value, the penalty can involve a significant bill increase. If the maximum demand value exceeds 10% of the contracted power, the user will pay a 20% increase on the maximum demand term. However, if the maximum demand exceeds 20% of the contracted power, the user will pay 50% increase on the maximum demand term Unquote

The maximum demand value is the average from the instaneous power (in kW or kVA) during a defined time interval, usually every 15 minutes.

And we think that the U.K. Energy market is difficult to understand.

Source: circular.com

This is similar to France where the owner contracts with the electricity company for a ceiling consumption, say, 8kVa, 12kVa 14kVa etc(might be kW - not sure).

A pal lives in central France and rents out two Gites. Heating is with two wood burners. He found to his cost that a foreign family couldn't be bothered with the wood burners and had brought their own electric heaters!