Compulsory Smart Meters.

facade

Please forgive my witless stupidity, but how exactly would a smart meter save me money?
I'd have thought more accurate metering would cost me money, as my ancient meters will have been manufactured to never ever over-read, so will have under-read a smidgeon.

Or is it like the energy saving advice I got from EON:
Can you read this- then turn the light off;)
Are you shivering with cold- then turn the heating down a bit.

Obviously, if I look at the remote display (which uses energy) and see an unexpected 10KW load, I could run upstairs and turn the kid's time machine off, or unplug the cable from next door, but realistically after many years of penny pinching I don't leave stuff switched on!

Do you sit looking at the display shouting

"Oy! Turn that light out!" :rotfl:

Ken68

I find the monitor very handy, facade. Have set a daily target and start switching off heating etc when it gets near the £2 a day reading.

Raxiel

facade wrote: »

Please forgive my witless stupidity, but how exactly would a smart meter save me money?
I'd have thought more accurate metering would cost me money, as my ancient meters will have been manufactured to never ever over-read, so will have under-read a smidgeon.

Or is it like the energy saving advice I got from EON:
Can you read this- then turn the light off;)
Are you shivering with cold- then turn the heating down a bit.

Obviously, if I look at the remote display (which uses energy) and see an unexpected 10KW load, I could run upstairs and turn the kid's time machine off, or unplug the cable from next door, but realistically after many years of penny pinching I don't leave stuff switched on!

Do you sit looking at the display shouting

"Oy! Turn that light out!" :rotfl:

For the most part, yeah it doesn't. There are some edge cases where it will.

I was on a fix with E.ON that ran out during my switch to Iresa. I had the remote display in £ today mode. I was used to seeing it around two pound something in the evenings, so it was quite a shock to see it jump to four pound something when we dropped onto the SVR for a few days.

Obviously I knew what was going on, and had a new fix coming, but I know people who've signed up for a fix in the past and then forgotten about it and end up on the SVR, and we see posts from people like that here on a semi-regular basis. So a smart meter with IHD might prompt them into renewing their fixes.

Not saying its necessarily worth it by itself, but it's something...

facade

Ken68 wrote: »

I find the monitor very handy, facade. Have set a daily target and start switching off heating etc when it gets near the £2 a day reading.

Thanks, I can see that it can help people budget, but the only way I can "save" this 30% I hear about is to go to bed as soon as it gets dark, turning off the heating an hour before I go, which isn't really how I want to live.

System

The Government's latest smart meter cost benefit analysis assumes that households will save £7 per year if action is taken by householders to reduce consumption. Interestingly, there is also an assumption that households with gas and electric smart meters will reduce energy theft by 62p/year per household. This is the wholesale saving that translates into a retail figure of £1.50/£2 per household. This benefit will go to the suppliers as will reduced meter reading costs.

By way of comparison, I purchased a £15 plug last year that turns off a whole host of standby boxes overnight. It has paid for itself in a year. If a smart meter with installation is costing me £215, then my simple maths suggest that it will take me 30 years to recover this cost. More worringly, the Government's cost benefit analysis also shows that the foundation stage smart meters have a life of only 15 years. We could all be paying for a further round of free meters from 2025 onwards. No wonder a number of countries have seen the folly of going for a mass rollout of smart metering.

facade

But I can "waste" or "save" between 10 and a hundred times more than £7 a year by changing tariff (Doubt if I can save £700 now, I can easily waste it though )

Don't get me started on payback times, I sent the last double glazing chugger packing over that.

Wanted to quote me to replace my perfectly functional double glazing with the latest A rated ones. AFAIK, that could save me as much as £70 a year. The payback time is way way beyond my lifetime, and they don't even guarantee them for more than 25 years :eek:
The unseasoned softwood frames the house came with lasted twice that, and half of them were still perfect when I had the UPVC rubbish fitted.

robmurphy1

A survey by Toronto Hydro showed about 80 per cent of people using smart meters are seeing increases, not decreases on their bills... smart meters have been nothing but a tax machine to take more money out of people's pockets...[smart meters] won't mean lower electricity bills"

lstar337

robmurphy1 wrote: »

A survey by Toronto Hydro showed about 80 per cent of people using smart meters are seeing increases, not decreases on their bills... smart meters have been nothing but a tax machine to take more money out of people's pockets...[smart meters] won't mean lower electricity bills"

Not being funny, but how can that possibly be connected to smart meters?

In increase can only come from higher usage. Either they were being undercharged on their old meter, or they are using more on their new meter. Neither of which are related to smart meters in any way at all.

Cardew

lstar337 wrote: »

Not being funny, but how can that possibly be connected to smart meters?

I suspect the he is in North America? - They quoted Toronto Hydro who have 'time of use' tariffs. See:

http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/electricsystem/residential/rates/Pages/resirates.aspx

baldelectrician

I got my smart meter taken out and a dumb meter installed


The smart meters have a pre-pay and post-pay capability.


In other words if you fail to pay your bill / direct debt they no longer have to get a court warrant to put in a pre-pay meter - all they have to do is push a button and you are on pre-pay


They will write to you etc but you can be put on pre-pay if you fail to keep direct debit or other payment arrangements.


They also have anti-tamper things built in that send a signal if the meter has been touched / cover removed / supply disconnected