Smart meters question

House_Martin

We will be getting the same problems with gas meters as electric meters do when the screen go s blank..The smart gas meter could fail with the valve in the open position, or the clever ones will make sure the valve is open, there is a way to acheive this.. Some prepayment users will be just thanking their lucky stars and making sure it does`nt get reported so no more expensive top ups needed.. whopee ! This will carry on for as long as they can get away it..and it will be years and years in many cases. They will not be complaining and they will make sure to refuse any access from us because , "its inconvenient, its not my house , I m just rushing out for work now,My mums not in I m under 18 ,No speeakie eenglish,!!!! off, etc etc
I actually have two blank screens on electric meters in the same street which have been blank for over 6 years,,The electric meter is the £5 job by Ampy/siemens which has a habit of going blank very often..These two blokes have figured out that they quite like the super low direct debit and that the meter is nt recording so
they then can let rip with electric heaters all over the house in cold weather....free...and no big gas bill..All meter readers to the property are not refused entry but we all just record it as a blank screen..Nothing is ever done about our comments, the suppliers never look at it, or the computer just passes it by. We used to be able to report it on our dedicated theft of gas and electric line but that was stopped for some unknown reason, so now I have been told that the only way to alert the supplier is for us to phone Scot Power/Edf personally..This is how blank screens on smart gas will be going when the batteries stop working and the valve is either in the open position or helped along a bit to stay in the open position. I will not say how its done but its basic mechanics and easy to do..
The suppliers are so inept nowadays they will do nothing at all about it and the free energy bonanza may well continue for smart gas prepayment meters. There are anti tamper codes the meter can send but if the battery is flat it can t send it.
Seem a hell of a waste of the customers money ( all added to our bills ) when instead of replacing a £15 battery a full meter is exchanged at over £100..Non smarts never did this, beats me why they want to throw money away like this.. Maybe its like the I phone 5 ( i think ) which they slyly made to have a non replaceable battery, so dead battery- new iphone needed.

EachPenny

House_Martin wrote: »

The suppliers are so inept nowadays they will do nothing at all about it and the free energy bonanza may well continue for smart gas prepayment meters. There are anti tamper codes the meter can send but if the battery is flat it can t send it.
Seem a hell of a waste of the customers money ( all added to our bills ) when instead of replacing a £15 battery a full meter is exchanged at over £100..Non smarts never did this, beats me why they want to throw money away like this.. Maybe its like the I phone 5 ( i think ) which they slyly made to have a non replaceable battery, so dead battery- new iphone needed.

Bless you HM. Welcome to the side of the 'naysayers'

50Twuncle

I asked Scottish Power what powers the actual transmitter side of the meter..
I received the following "numpty" reply :
Poor English/spelling must be forgiven nowadays !!

"You had recently contacted to know how your meter is powered.
I would like to inform you that the meters are powered by battery. The battery is designed to last up to 10 years. When your battery will be fail, we will calcualte the reading for that period based on your previous usidge pattern."


I don't think that I will bother, thank you very much....