Smart Meters - Ask me anything!

Gerry1

ProDave wrote: »

you can look forward to an electricity rate of about 30p per unit if you are audacious enough to want to use the oven to cook your dinner at 6PM

Of course nobody trying to persuade us all to have a smart meter is telling us this.

Why do you think this important aspect of smart meters, and arguably the reason behind the rollout is being kept quiet?

About 30p per unit? It's already 41.94p in the South East England ! :eek:
The other real reason for smart meters is the Kill Switch. If 41.94kWh doesn't make you switch off, the remotely operated Kill Switch will make sure your home goes cold and dark if you're a refusenik.

Gerry1

fewkeste wrote: »

It depends on how the meter administration was first set up - there seems to be no hard and fast rule.

Therefore you cannot assume anything - you have to ask your supplier who can check the administration details for your meter to see which way round it was set up.

Mine turned out to be Rate 1 = day, Rate 2 = night.

So, don't assume anything - check with your supplier!!

Another Ofgem triumph... '1' and '2' mean whatever I want them to mean, said Alice.

What's wrong with labelling them Day and Night?

fewkeste

Gerry1 wrote: »

The other real reason for smart meters is the Kill Switch. If 41.94kWh does make you switch off, the remotely operated Kill Switch will make sure your home goes cold and dark if you're a refusenik.

Can you explain/expand on what you mean here please?

Gerry1

All smart meters have a switch can can be used to disconnect the supply remotely (see 7.1.1.63 of the specification). There will be a shortfall in generating capacity as old power stations are decommissioned, so to avoid widespread blackouts (cf. the three day week?) the demand has to be 'managed'. That means Time of Use tariffs which will be prohibitively expensive at peak times (rather like the Congestion Charge) and load shedding when ToU doesn't do the trick.

Why do you think we're having to pay £450 for smart meters when a £30 energy monitor would tell you how much you're using? That's the hidden agenda: if you don't turn something off, you'll have your own personal power cut.

mac.d

The ability to remotely disconnect smart meters will most likely never or very rarely be used, as suppliers still have to go through the same rules to obtain warrants as they currently have to do so to force entry.

Time of use tariffs on the other hand, they could well be used to pretty much force you not to use any energy at certain times of day when demand is high.

The day and night rate is a bit of a farce. Our default was always rate 1 day, rate 2 night. But can you imagine if they had day or night rate shown on the meters yet they had them set up the other way round.

Gerry1

mac.d wrote: »

The ability to remotely disconnect smart meters will most likely never or very rarely be used, as suppliers still have to go through the same rules to obtain warrants as they currently have to do so to force entry.

Dream on ! Along with nasties such as Time of Use etc, load shedding is the raison d'être for smart meters. Why else would these massively expensive devices be rolled out instead of £30 energy monitors?

Highland76

ProDave wrote: »

Can I ask the question about "half hourly metering"?

As I understand it, the main driving force in the rollout of smart meters is their half hourly metering feature. To those that have not heard about this, it means they can store the amount of electricity used in each half hour of the day and can if they want charge each half hour at a different rate.

The speculation therefore is that at some point in the future, half hourly metering will be forced on all of us, whether we like it or not. If so you can look forward to an electricity rate of about 30p per unit if you are audacious enough to want to use the oven to cook your dinner at 6PM

Of course nobody trying to persuade us all to have a smart meter is telling us this.

Why do you think this important aspect of smart meters, and arguably the reason behind the rollout is being kept quiet?

Well I've just booked an appointment for a new smart meter(s) installation (SMETS2 hopefully) through EON and was asked whether I would like readings to be sent every 30 mins, once a day or once a month. I chose once a month and EON were perfectly happy with my choice

RelievedSheff

Robin9 wrote: »

Was the IHD supplied by BG ?

Pretty sure it was. It is a new build and everything is badged up BG.

Delboy

Can anybody comment on this ? Trying to switch from OVO to Green Energy copy of email received from OVO GRRRRR !!!!
"Thank you for taking the time to email us today, i can see you spoke to my colleague about this yesterday as well.
At the moment your "Profile Class" on the national database is listed as "00" meaning that we take you smart meter readings every 30 minutes, this change to 00 was made at the request of Ofgem and it's a legal requirement under their regulations that all suppliers that accommodate smart meters change their customers to this profile class to allow bills and energy purchasing to be a lot more accurate.

It's also a legal requirement that all suppliers take over a property that has a 00 profile class and accommodate this change however some suppliers are still falling short of this which has caused this issue.

We have requested this is changed back to a "01" profile class which should allow the new supplier to take over without any issues going forward, the requests are made directly to the Electric national database and it generally takes around 2-4 weeks for this change to be implemented by them.

In terms of crediting the difference in unit rates this isn't something we are going to be able to offer as we are only following the legal guidelines that Ofgem have put in place, I'd recommend speaking to the new supplier and asking them to do this for you as a matter of goodwill for their shortfall.
I hope this has been of some assistance to you."

Highland76

Delboy wrote: »

Can anybody comment on this ? Trying to switch from OVO to Green Energy copy of email received from OVO GRRRRR !!!!
"Thank you for taking the time to email us today, i can see you spoke to my colleague about this yesterday as well.
At the moment your "Profile Class" on the national database is listed as "00" meaning that we take you smart meter readings every 30 minutes, this change to 00 was made at the request of Ofgem and it's a legal requirement under their regulations that all suppliers that accommodate smart meters change their customers to this profile class to allow bills and energy purchasing to be a lot more accurate.

So energy companies must take readings every 30 mins so that they can issue bills every 30 mins?:rotfl: Someone is clearly telling you blatant porkies mate. As I said earlier, when booking a EON smart meter appointment last week, i was given a choice of how often I want the smart meters to send readings to EON. I chose monthly and EON were fine with that.