Useless Smart Meter

borderlord

Hi all.
Lucky me, just got a smart meter installed. Trouble is, because I live in a top floor flat, and the meters are in the basement, the remote display doesn't work.
Asked the 'engineer' who installed it, he just shrugged his shoulders. Spoke to the suppliers, who said at least they could now get accurate meter readings.
Bully for them, they can now fire an army of meter readers, but for it's intended purpose, to give me real time usage, about as much use as a chocolate teapot.:(:(:(:(
Since a sizeable minority of the population live in blocks of flats, I can't be the only one.
any thoughts?
BL

victor2

The in house display is a little bonus for the consumer - if it works. Most people tire of looking at them after a month or so anyway. In itself, it won't save you any energy, but might make you a little more aware of when you are using large amounts.
The real benefit is that you won't get estimated readings, and if you have an online account, you should be able to see the readings there. The account I manage online for somebody shows the readings from their smart meters every month, making it easy to track usage.

Edit:
If you switch suppliers, the present meters will lose their "smartness" anyway.

bluedrop

Just had mine installed. The monitor show ££ as per standard tariff - not on the tariff I am on. I called British Gas and they said because I am on a "third party tariff" (wth is that?) it wont show the ££ accurately on my device(wth?) It will continue to show ££ as per standard tariff but my bill will be adjusted to the tariff I am on. Useless crap monitor is now sitting on my worktop showing excess ££ and stressing me out.

G_M

borderlord wrote: »

Hi all.
Lucky me, just got a smart meter installed. Trouble is, because I live in a top floor flat, and the meters are in the basement, the remote display doesn't work.
Asked the 'engineer' who installed it, he just shrugged his shoulders. Spoke to the suppliers, who said at least they could now get accurate meter readings.
Bully for them, they can now fire an army of meter readers, but for it's intended purpose, to give me real time usage, about as much use as a chocolate teapot.:(:(:(:(
Since a sizeable minority of the population live in blocks of flats, I can't be the only one.
any thoughts?
BL

It is serving its primary purpose - remote readings for the energy company.

Seling the idea of smart meters as an economy device for consumers is a con. An expensive one which we all pay for indirectly.

If you want to save money on your energy bills, turn stuff off, or down, and/or insulate.

You don't need a smart meter to tell you that!

As victor says, they are also a mechanism to lock you into your current supplier......

samueld_2

I had a smart meter installed about 18 months ago, by ovo then i moved to sse, since i moved i have to read the meters manually again and have been for nearly a year. It is a lot more difficult to read a smart meter than the old type. You have to decide which is the KWH from about four readouts. There is great difficulty knowing which is the correct one, it took me a month to master it. I would not advise anyone to get a smart meter. I dread changing utility company. Far removed from the (make life easy for yourself by getting a smart meter) Do not get one is my advice, and I speak from experience. I would have my old meter back any day. I am pretty tech savvy too!