British Gas bill estimates

System

The answer to Magyars question is once again a massive plug for smart metering. It will end all this malarkey and expense and worry for good, but posters on here are more interested in wifi waves and SMET flavoured meters and constantly direct everyone away from the most logical meter and advise them to refuse them..they are actually the best thing since sliced bread ! and Magyars friend needs one for a start.

magyar

House_Martin wrote: »

The answer to Magyars question is once again a massive plug for smart metering. It will end all this malarkey and expense and worry for good, but posters on here are more interested in wifi waves and SMET flavoured meters and constantly direct everyone away from the most logical meter and advise them to refuse them..they are actually the best thing since sliced bread ! and Magyars friend needs one for a start.

Couldn't agree with you more. Not to mention the fact that TOU Tariffs could end up being much cheaper for a lot of people.

magyar

House_Martin wrote: »

The second obligation is impossible to keep and very expensive to actually perform. Not a chance in hell can that obligation be followed up about getting a reading once a year. Warrants and locksmiths would be needed constantly.This sort of thing would only happen in a Police state. Most suppliers do not even need a physical reading once a year. If they have a few years usage they can estimate it quite closely. The need to look at the meter is also used to check for energy theft. Bypassing and abstracting gas can blow the place up or set fire to the electric meter wiring.

It only says they need to use "reasonable endeavours" - which clearly doesn't include breaking into the house! And of course it's only for people who don't supply readings. If someone came to read an internal meter and left a card, that would be fine.

You will I am sure be pleased to know that as well as offering to help with BG I gave my friend a stern lecture in (a) reading the meter at least once a quarter, ideally monthly, and submitting on the web site and (b) checking at least once a year she's on the cheapest tariff.

molerat

House_Martin wrote: »

The answer to Magyars question is once again a massive plug for smart metering. It will end all this malarkey and expense and worry for good, but posters on here are more interested in wifi waves and SMET flavoured meters and constantly direct everyone away from the most logical meter and advise them to refuse them..they are actually the best thing since sliced bread ! and Magyars friend needs one for a start.

I think you will find few posters here who are anti smart meters. Many, like me, are all for them but not in their present incarnation where they become useless on switching supplier which of course many on this site do regularly. We would rather wait until there is a fully working and transferable system. Of course they would have helped in this situation but taking personal responsibility would have had the same outcome as having one of these expensive gadgets installed.

System

Some good points, I agree about smart meters, but they are not that expensive as a meter , ( about £125 ) and that price will drop with bulk use. The usual cheap credit meters cost about a tenner (ampy, Landys Gyrs ).] and they break down all the time.They are cheap rubbish and cause a lot of loss of revenue when they go blank. I ve just been to read a meter in a village called Hensall, which has had a blank electric meter for over five years ! Personally I have, (or have in my other house ) a pair of smart meters and I switch around quite a lot and they still work smart now after numerous switches. I do prefer BG and their cheaper cousin Sainsburys Energy to switch to and fro from, exit free(collecting cashback ) when good deals appear but I have had spells with EDF, and Npower when they went dumb.They are both working smart now on probably one of the cheapest deals in the UK on a BG collective two year fix .Unfortunately the house is vacant and its not transferable. The point is , I ve had half a dozen switches since I had smarts installed and they still work smart now.. SMETS2 are better but in the mean time I would accept a SMETS1 and don`t believe the stories that you will never get updated if you get lumbered with a SMETS1 meter, you will if you ask for it. It could be many years anyway till they get round to installing a SMETS2 the way that the government have made it up to the suppliers to fit them in dribs and drabs instead of the DNOs swarming down a street doing as many as possible in one day. If there is a slow and expensive way of doing it then the UK government will go that way.