Smart Meters - Ask me anything!

Deejayay

Hi,


My daughter has just been refused a smart meter as the supplier is saying that the board the meter is fitted to is made of Asbestos and changing the meter may disturb the board and contaminate the area.


Is the supplier allowed to reject the meter request and if not, who is responsible for the costs associated with replacing the board?

wavelets

Becki62 wrote: »

Hiya,
SSE saud they couldn't fit a Smart Meter back in September due to possible asbestos in a box that belongs to Western Power. We were told that a notification would be sent to Western Power and we would be contacted about when it would be removed. We have phoned SSE today to ask about the progress and were told that we were told the wrong information and we need to pay to have it removed. Do we need to pay? I thought thecomany who owned the box were the only people allowed to touch it?

Any help much appreciated!

Deejayay wrote: »

Hi,


My daughter has just been refused a smart meter as the supplier is saying that the board the meter is fitted to is made of Asbestos and changing the meter may disturb the board and contaminate the area.


Is the supplier allowed to reject the meter request and if not, who is responsible for the costs associated with replacing the board?

What a coincidence :cool:

Anthorn

Back to the topic and here's a question: Why is my smart meter which turned dumb when I switched supplier still a smart meter. Surely it's a dumb meter.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Laafet wrote: »

I have told my electric/gas company that I do not want a smart meter, they are now actively pursuing me to have it, calling to arrange an appointment etc, sending emails.
I don't own the home.
I have no problem taking meter readings ever 3 months from outside my house and entering them online.
I turn off everything at night apart from my fridge/freezer and internet box, I live on my own, I only light the room I am in. I can't see how a box which I guess I would need to plug in (ergo costing me more money than I am currently using) is going to help?
Do I have to have one, my meter is relatively new so there is no problem there. Eon are making out like I have to have one now.
I can't see it saving me any money at all. I never miss sending a meter reading so never have an estimated bill and feel bullied.

Hello Laafet and welcome to the Forums.

To confirm what others have said, smart meters are optional and you can refuse to have them at any time.

I'm sorry you feel bullied by our emails/phone calls. Please follow gsmlnx's advice and register a formal complaint. You can do this through our website if you wish by using the email link or our Live Chat service. There's more information about how we look after complaints on our website too.

Thank you for letting us have meter readings so regularly.

Malc

MaudeLebowski

Should my smart meter display anything? I'm not referring to the IHD, but the actual meter itself. They both appear to have blank displays.

We had an Eon Smart Meter fitted in November and as far as I can see on my online Eon account, it hasn't been sending meter readings in -= not sure if this is a coincidence!

mac.d

The meter(s) might be in an energy saving mode so if you press a button on the meter it should light up.

Does the IHD not display any warning or alert? I know the British Gas IHD shows an alert when its lost connection (an exclamation mark in a triangle) and when you cycle through to the alerts menu it tells you network connection has been lost and if this continues to contact them).

sevenhills

MaudeLebowski wrote: »

it hasn't been sending meter readings in -= not sure if this is a coincidence!

It was like that with my smart meter for my electricity with Scottish Power, I guess they don't want to waste money/time on these issues when you submit readings anyway.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

MaudeLebowski wrote: »

Should my smart meter display anything? I'm not referring to the IHD, but the actual meter itself. They both appear to have blank displays.

We had an Eon Smart Meter fitted in November and as far as I can see on my online Eon account, it hasn't been sending meter readings in -= not sure if this is a coincidence!

Hello MaudeLebowski and good advice from mac.d. Thanks mac.d.

As advised, please try pressing any buttons on the meter to re-activate the display.

Following a meter exchange, it can take 2-3 weeks to update our systems. Also, unless you've told us differently, we'll only take readings once a month. As your meters were fitted in November, it's likely we'll not be looking to download readings until later this month or next month. After that. we'll take them monthly.

Hope this helps MaudeLebowski.

Malc

RishiF

Firstly, thanks to beeringo for creating this topic!

I have three questions for you:

1) Are there any noteworthy technical differences between SMETS1 and SMETS2 of interest to consumers OTHER than the supplier portability/switching issue? Are SMETS2 meters capable of doing things SMETS1 meters cannot and vice versa? There's talk about export tariffs being introduced for energy companies, can both types measure electricity export accurately? Are both types capable of accurately recording solar and other generated electricity and separating this from import energy without causing any problems? (There were reports of issues some time back.)

2) The property I moved into last year was built back in 2012/13 and has an L&G E470 smart meter. However, the previously owners were never provided with an IHD and it's never sent automatic meter readings to E.ON. It is, for all intents and purposes, a 'dumb' smart meter from day one. I also pushed some buttons trying to see if i could find details of exported energy (couldn't), but did seem to get a screen where it asked me for a PIN. I couldnt seem to exit this menu and entered 000000 and it let me into another menu where it was asking for import and other figures. I seem to have stumbled unprotected into the part of the meter - where I expect the commissioning is supposed to be done? I'm guessing this shouldn't have been the case and is further evidence of it never being set up correctly...

3) I've since switched suppliers so I guess the meter is no longer E.ON's problem, but having never worked, I guess the process would be to have it replaced by my new supplier? Octopus rep told me they'd be happy to install a new smart meter once I'm on supply with them, I'm assuming it won't be an issue they are replacing a (non functioning) 'smart' meter?

Many thanks in advance!

Sterlingtimes

The Smart Meter measures gas in Units and kWh whereas the IHD only presents kWh.

Therefore to read the meter from inside the house, I have the conversion factor written down on a piece of paper:

Multiple kWh by 0.08595748 to give Units

Units x1.02264 (Correction Factor) × 39.3 (Calorific Value)
× 1 (Metric Conversion) ÷ 3.6 (Conversion Factor) = (kWh)

Question: does the Smart Meter intelligently convert from Units to kWh? Are the variable conversion factors downloaded to the meter?