Smart meter incompatibility and chaos

POPPYOSCAR

Our electric meter is not in our house.

It is in a box about 300 feet from the house.

Would it be replaced with a smart meter?

System

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Our electric meter is not in our house.

It is in a box about 300 feet from the house.

Would it be replaced with a smart meter?

Smart meter will work fine 300 ft from the house.Not sure if the IHD monitor will work. You don t need that gadget anyway and won t miss it.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi Malc. I've gone through it with several people in the smart metering team, including today. All of them have confirmed my observation that the gas meter reading on the in-house display is in kWh. They assure me that's correct and, if I want to give them a meter reading from the display, I must convert that reading to cubic meters first. Then, when my bill is being produced, E.ON converts my reading back into kWh before multiplying it by the unit rate. When I told one agent last week about your posting here saying a manager confirming the different scenario you've described, she replied that it was wrong and (I paraphrase):
Ignore what managers say, talk to those of us in the team here who know the answer.

Thanks for the update picks. I've passed this on to the managers I've been talking to.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Malc

dave_dph

Just read through the posts in this thread and thought I'd add my bit!

I'm all electric, economy 7.

Until February this year I was with Eon. When my tariff ended they had nothing competitive to offer, so I arranged to switch to Scottish Power.

During my time with Eon they arranged to fit a smart meter. The guy arrived, looked at the meter and said 'Ah ok, you have an Economy 7 meter; not a problem, I can do this for you.' Five minutes later he comes back and says 'Sorry I can't fit the smart meter because I can't get a signal.' He left!

Moving forward to Scottish Power..... There is a link in my online account to register for a smart meter, when I click it I get:

Unfortunately we are unable to install a smart meter at this time because:

• Smart metering technology for customers with a multi-rate meter is not yet available.

Not really a problem, I'm not fussed about having a smart meter. Just thought I'd post as it's laughable really.

soya

dave_dph wrote: »

Just read through the posts in this thread and thought I'd add my bit!

I'm all electric, economy 7.

Until February this year I was with Eon. When my tariff ended they had nothing competitive to offer, so I arranged to switch to Scottish Power.

During my time with Eon they arranged to fit a smart meter. The guy arrived, looked at the meter and said 'Ah ok, you have an Economy 7 meter; not a problem, I can do this for you.' Five minutes later he comes back and says 'Sorry I can't fit the smart meter because I can't get a signal.' He left!

Moving forward to Scottish Power..... There is a link in my online account to register for a smart meter, when I click it I get:

Unfortunately we are unable to install a smart meter at this time because:

• Smart metering technology for customers with a multi-rate meter is not yet available.

Not really a problem, I'm not fussed about having a smart meter. Just thought I'd post as it's laughable really.

I had E7 with Eon few years back. When the smart meter was installed we moved to single rate tariff and Eon billed us by adding the two electricity readings together.

Apart from Eon, which other supplier does this too?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

dave_dph wrote: »

Just read through the posts in this thread and thought I'd add my bit!

I'm all electric, economy 7.

Until February this year I was with Eon. When my tariff ended they had nothing competitive to offer, so I arranged to switch to Scottish Power.

During my time with Eon they arranged to fit a smart meter. The guy arrived, looked at the meter and said 'Ah ok, you have an Economy 7 meter; not a problem, I can do this for you.' Five minutes later he comes back and says 'Sorry I can't fit the smart meter because I can't get a signal.' He left!

Moving forward to Scottish Power..... There is a link in my online account to register for a smart meter, when I click it I get:

Unfortunately we are unable to install a smart meter at this time because:

• Smart metering technology for customers with a multi-rate meter is not yet available.

Not really a problem, I'm not fussed about having a smart meter. Just thought I'd post as it's laughable really.

Hello dave_dph and sorry we weren't able to fit smart meters whilst you were with us. This wouldn't have been because you've an Economy 7 electricity meter though. We've been fitting Smart Economy 7 meters for a time now.

It sounds more like the mobile phone signal wasn't strong enough. This signal is particularly important and, it may be your area shows as having a strong enough signal, but local circumstances water it down sufficiently to make it unusable for smart meters.

With smart, the electricity is the hub of the operation. It stores, sends and receives information. If there's a gas meter, this sends readings to the electricity meter and the electricity meter sends information to the In House Display and back to us. Wood, plasterboard and other building materials generally have a minimal effect on the signal but thick stone and concrete can have a bigger impact. Metal has the biggest effect on the signal.

Each property presents its own challenges. What might seem okay from a distance isn't always the case when the technician is on site. Our technicians carry out various onsite tests to see if the signal is strong enough. For example, they use Sniffer Units to test the low power radio signal by placing the transmitter at the electric meter and the receiver at the gas meter and/or display. If the signal is below a certain level, it's likely it won't be sufficient and the job will be aborted. I suspect something like this happened to you.

Not all suppliers are at the same stage with the smart roll out. My comments are about E.ON only. Sorry you've left dave_dph but hope this helps explain why there might've been a difficulty letting you have smart meters whilst you were with us.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

soya wrote: »

I had E7 with Eon few years back. When the smart meter was installed we moved to single rate tariff and Eon billed us by adding the two electricity readings together.

Apart from Eon, which other supplier does this too?

That's right soya. Where customers prefer, we can charge Economy 7 usage on a single rate tariff. No need to change the meter. We add the day and night usage together and charge all the electricity used at the one rate. This is with all our Economy 7 meters including smart.

To benefit from Economy 7 prices, a significant amount of electricity needs to be used during the cheaper off peak hours. The actual amount depends on the area and tariff. This is because our Economy 7 tariffs have a higher day rate than single rate products and then a lower night rate. As circumstances change, particularly when properties change hands, we give the choice of moving from single to two rate tariffs and vice versa with as little disruption as possible. Customers with Economy 7 meters and registered with our website can switch between these rates online.

Not all suppliers do this and some ask to change the meter. Not sure which suppliers do as we do.

Hope this is of interest soya.

Malc

Pennyd

Hi, I was with First Utility and had smart meters installed by Siemens for gas and electricity. I have now changed to Avro, and cannot get an accurate reading on the smart meters, as they change screens very rapidly. I don't feel confident doing manual readings, and was of the opinion that the new supplier would be able to access the readings through the smart meter.

waamo

Pennyd wrote: »

Hi, I was with First Utility and had smart meters installed by Siemens for gas and electricity. I have now changed to Avro, and cannot get an accurate reading on the smart meters, as they change screens very rapidly. I don't feel confident doing manual readings, and was of the opinion that the new supplier would be able to access the readings through the smart meter.

I don't know how you formed the opinion that new suppliers could read smart meters as they can't.

Your smart meter is now a dumb meter. You could ask your new supplier for one.

The whole thing is an utter farce.

Vegastare

What really annoys me is the idea that you have to have a smart meter, you do not need too. It is down to your choice, and not the energy firm.
Somewhere this process is costing a hell of alot of money and nothing is free it will be racked back somehow!
The whole exercise seems to save pennies - sure it will build up over the years, but when the darn things are all compatable - technology will move on yet again. I agree we all need to be energy savy but will a little box really get the message across




Smart meters are not compulsory; it's entirely your choice. The government requires energy suppliers to offer smart meters to all homes and small businesses across Great Britain by 2020, but whether you accept them is completely up to you