Smart meters not worth the bother?

badmemory

Definitely wait for second generation ones. They are SUPPOSED to still work when you switch.

wymondham

Isnt it odd if the smart meter can't handle a supplier change and just becomes a dumb meter? cant see any benefits to them yet.....

System

wymondham wrote: »

Isnt it odd if the smart meter can't handle a supplier change and just becomes a dumb meter? cant see any benefits to them yet.....

This was deliberate Government policy. Foundation stage meters have been deployed to allow suppliers time to build up their knowledge; to develop internal systems that can cope with smart meter data and to minimise risk. There was some logic to this type of approach as Government civil servants have a long history of failed/delayed/over budget IT projects.

Sadly, because of technical delays in agreeing the new SMETS2 meter standard and delays to the 'going live' of the Data Communications Company ( a central data hub), the roll-out has become a mess, and suppliers are still deploying foundation stage meters to give themselves some chance of meeting the Government's smart meter 2020 rollout target. Ways of adopting these meters onto the central hub are being looked at.

House_Martin

The latest smart meters will work in SMETS2 when it comes available, so when smart switching eventually comes in the meters will still work smart whoever you switch to.
I do not know if BG are using these meters yet,( Landis and Gyr zigbees ), they do use Landis Gyr meters so its strange if they are still using the useless old ones which they may as well bin.. It will be a waste of money for BG but I suspect that they would prefer to fit them in an effort to retain their customers with an eye to retaining customers long term.
Maybe the OP could ask BG if they are using the Zigbee meters and if not ask why not. Call centre staff will not have a clue how to answer that one ! They are wasting your time and theirs using old out of date meter stock which may just as well be sent to scrap.

EachPenny

House_Martin wrote: »

...they do use Landis Gyr meters so its strange if they are still using the useless old ones which they may as well bin.. It will be a waste of money for BG but I suspect that they would prefer to fit them in an effort to retain their customers with an eye to retaining customers long term.
...They are wasting your time and theirs using old out of date meter stock which may just as well be sent to scrap.

They won't scrap them because someone has paid for them and putting large numbers into the bin before they have recorded a single unit of energy would cause an outcry if the information ever became public - or maybe not given the lack of public outcry over the billions to be wasted on this pointless project anyway.

If BG are still installing SMETS1 meters without explaining clearly to customers what the issues with them are then there are two logical conclusions:

1) BG hope that SMETS1 meters can eventually be adopted onto the hub as Hengus says. But this is still an aspiration rather than fact, so customers receiving a SMETS1 meter need to be aware it may never happen, may involve further disruption, and may mean they lose the 'smart' facility if they want to switch before some unknown date in the future. If customers are not being warned about this up front before agreeing to a 'smart' installation then it is hard to see the difference between this and a suplier/retailer selling a product which has significant failings and not telling customers about it. There are laws preventing retailers selling things which don't work as described.

2) Alternatively BG don't expect the meters to ever work with the hub, but have a stock of SMETS1 meters to be fitted and a government imposed 2020 'target'. Many customers trust big organisations, and as House Martin has previously commented, many people think of BG as the 'gas board' of old - a dependable and reliable organisation. Could it be possible that consumer's trust is being used to enable a stock of obsolete meters to be installed to meet targets, and the consumers best interests are not being put first?

If so, then the government should step in to protect consumers... ah, I've just seen the flaw in my logic.

redux

badmemory wrote: »

Definitely wait for second generation ones. They are SUPPOSED to still work when you switch.

I want to wait for the fifth or sixth generation, which would actually be smart.

It live checks all the tariffs, and switches supplier when it finds something cheaper, perhaps even several times a day.

I assume this will probably never happen, or not for 20 years or so, but it is arguably the logical conclusion of a direction to try to head in, a slightly satirical fightback against the suppliers being in charge, and might sort of parallel the way the wholesale market works. Maybe it could even bid its own tariffs, and some bought ahead ...

[Deleted User]

Carrot007 wrote: »

Of course regardless of wheather you get a smart meter or not you will end up wiating in to get the meter changed at some point. They do not last forever!

Though who knows. nmy meter is 1.5 years overdue a change. Though maybe the government has allowed em this at the moment so they can concentrate on installing smart by area.

They don't change and recalibrate all 27 million meters on a fixed schedule, it would be too expensive. They just check a statistical sample, and infer the accuracy of the remainder from that.

Chomeur

They were quite pushy when they first phoned up, being in quite a rush to book me in, and not giving me much chance to ask questions, so I suspect they are on some sort of quota.

I could see in a few years the power companies all being obliged to compensate people for having their time wasted in having these things installed. So it probably wouldn't have mattered if I had said yes.

[Deleted User]

I've never been in a hurry to get a smart meter as I supply my own readings each month and use my own spreadsheet to check the monthly bill - takes me ten minutes a month.

And when I read that the next generation of smart meters (SMETS2) will be run by Capita I am certainly going to wait until I'm forced to have one as Capita seem to have a poor reputation among many people on this forum.

ctdctd

I shall be waiting until they work with all suppliers or become compulsory!