Have just been offered a smart meter - should I accept?

System

so lets get this clear..you suggest that making the meters smart enough to avoid customers both thieving energy and running up bad debts ( leading to expensive prepay meters ) will then make more people want to thieve energy,and somehow this puts me more at risk !! .Firstly, the smart meters are just about all tamper proof AT THE METER itself and then you imply its safer to let them nick the energy to avoid me and them being at risk..Your logic is baffling ! . I am not at all at risk with dodgy meters. I ve seen hundreds and hundreds of live meters and I m still live and kicking and you would not believe what people will attempt with the old meters..Far better to drill it into every thiefs head to forget theft and PAY for what you use. I can send you photos of bare copper cable coming out of prepayment meters.. They are so easy to fiddle that more people risk killing themselves doing it..Just get smart meters installed..so much safer for everyrone..like adding trackers to our company cars..We dont speed because we can be caught.
I see that Hengus has gone and doubled his guesswork of energy theft from his initial government experts "view ", £200 million to OFGEMS equally blind guesswork estimate at £440 million.. any higher bidders..yes, from the people who know the score..BG RPU..Don t forget Hengus that the DNO s will make up most of the rest of the 35% that BG do not find..They all have their own RPUs also. I personally know the RPU man who works for Northern Powergrid, the DNO in my area. .He has pointed out gas theft fiddlers to me quite a few times..
The Foreign suppliers and the little guys ( SSE is not too bad ) don`t run a proper RPU..Scottish Power for instance use a couple of my meter reading mates in my area as RPU on electric.and we have no powers of entry and are pretty useless at it.. They use G4S ( now MDS ) because we are cheap as chips and rubbish at it .One lad, who has just packed in from MDS used to let people off if they promised to take the fiddle link from the electric prepay meter..He did nt have the nerve for upsetting the thieving scummers..
Marvellous how you two anti smart types are doing your best to knock smart meters ..Or do you just like to be awkward for a laugh.Funny how the whole of such a large country as Italy are now virtually 100% smart with none of your histrionics ..or Cyber attacks of course

elsmandino

Just wanted to pop back on here and thank everyone for their contributions - I love this forum as I not only learn lots from all the comments posted but i always feel that I am in a much better position to make a very informed decision on anything I ask.

By coincidence, it turns out that I am unable to keep the appointment given for the smart meter installation anyway.

I cancelled it and decided not to request another date.

I think that, in the short-term, I am going to stick with my current meters - all that being said, we are all (supposedly) to have them by 2020 anyway.

Thanks again - really appreciate all your time on this.

EachPenny

House_Martin wrote: »

Marvellous how you two anti smart types are doing your best to knock smart meters...

Funny how the whole of such a large country as Italy are now virtually 100% smart with none of your histrionics ..or Cyber attacks of course

Um, when did I ever say I was anti-Smart meters Martin?

Funny you keep on mentioning Italy, but rarely any of the other EU nations. Like Germany for example - the EU's leading nation politically and economically, one of the most advanced economies in the western world, a world-leader in engineering and technology, and with a long history of environmental awareness. What percentage of German homes have a smart meter, and what will the percentage be in 2020?