Smart Meters

brewerdave

niktheguru said:

murphydavid said:

Dolor said

the management of the programme which has been abysmal,

That's what bothers me and why I asked my original question.
I have just been through 7 months of abysmal service regarding meter readings from a company who now wants to change my meter and are capable of disputing any reading it may send them; smart or not.
When I changed to them MSE said they had a good customer relations rating for which reason I did not choose a cheaper company. I'd rather pay more for a peaceful life. I wish.
So as getting a smart meter; on its own; seems to give me a more than 50% chance of bringing agro with it; and the company I am with have proved to me they can be extremely aggravating so another % chance to add to the 50%; and the service ratings do not seem to apply to an "unlucky in energy guy" like me.
At this time I will only change if I'm forced to. 
Oh and it seems they lied to me just the other day.   
I'm not "anti smart meter" but I am "avoid incompetency or worse" and they seem to go hand in hand.
With my recent experience I keep seeing this scenario.
Sparkling smart meter reading 0.00. Old gas meter gone. Gas company says your old meter read 3654 our industry independent judicator says so (similar to what they just did). I know it read 1264 but this time no way to prove it except the photo I took which could be anyone's meter. Much agro ensues.

Also, surely with smart meters now being smets2, the closing/opening reading dispute should become a distant memory with little need for the "third party" as readings should/will be accurate.

In principle -yes. But there are still many issues ,particularly with gas meters, due to failures during installation or comms. failures later in the process - and trying to get the suppliers to revisit to resolve such issues is nigh on impossible.
My s-i-l has recently moved out of his house and his "smart" gas meter hadn't worked at all in the previous 2 years + since install and the original suppliers ,SP, found innumerable excuses to avoid sorting! 

murphydavid

brewerdave said:

niktheguru said:

murphydavid said:

Dolor said

the management of the programme which has been abysmal,

That's what bothers me and why I asked my original question.
I have just been through 7 months of abysmal service regarding meter readings from a company who now wants to change my meter and are capable of disputing any reading it may send them; smart or not.
When I changed to them MSE said they had a good customer relations rating for which reason I did not choose a cheaper company. I'd rather pay more for a peaceful life. I wish.
So as getting a smart meter; on its own; seems to give me a more than 50% chance of bringing agro with it; and the company I am with have proved to me they can be extremely aggravating so another % chance to add to the 50%; and the service ratings do not seem to apply to an "unlucky in energy guy" like me.
At this time I will only change if I'm forced to. 
Oh and it seems they lied to me just the other day.   
I'm not "anti smart meter" but I am "avoid incompetency or worse" and they seem to go hand in hand.
With my recent experience I keep seeing this scenario.
Sparkling smart meter reading 0.00. Old gas meter gone. Gas company says your old meter read 3654 our industry independent judicator says so (similar to what they just did). I know it read 1264 but this time no way to prove it except the photo I took which could be anyone's meter. Much agro ensues.

Also, surely with smart meters now being smets2, the closing/opening reading dispute should become a distant memory with little need for the "third party" as readings should/will be accurate.

In principle -yes. But there are still many issues ,particularly with gas meters, due to failures during installation or comms. failures later in the process - and trying to get the suppliers to revisit to resolve such issues is nigh on impossible.
My s-i-l has recently moved out of his house and his "smart" gas meter hadn't worked at all in the previous 2 years + since install and the original suppliers ,SP, found innumerable excuses to avoid sorting! 

Yes that's how I see it.

oldandwizend

As yet I have neither commited to smart meters nor been badgered to have them and before I do 'sign up' I will need some reassurance regarding the ability for remote firmware updates. Whilst these will, in all probability, be necessary  and would, of course, have the ability to add more functionality my main concern is whether there is 100% guaranteed success with the update. In my many years of computer etc. experience firmware updates have never been 100% successful but the timing of an update has been of my choosing with the ability to create backups etc. in the case of failure.  With a smart meter I have no control and there is no 'backup' supply if things go wrong.  For the majority of people this may lead to a mild inconvenience but, worst case scenario, what if a supply is inadvertantly cut off without customer knowledge (e.g. away on holiday)? The impact could be very serious.

Hopefully my fears are unfounded but we are not yet getting 100% success rate on installations so I feel that I am right to be a little concerned.

Gerry1

oldandwizend said:

worst case scenario, what if a supply is inadvertantly cut off without customer knowledge (e.g. away on holiday)? The impact could be very serious.

You come back from a winter holiday to find that the battery in the gas meter failed when it froze, the supply defaulted to being cut off, the pipes burst and your home is flooded?

murphydavid

I hear from a number of sources that batteries in smart gas meters are not monitored by anyone and the meter gives no warning of the battery getting low. This always seems to result in the gas supply being cut off unexpectedly and remaining off till a maintenance engineer arrives after a day or so.
I find it strange to hear people say that you need an engineer to change a battery. Its like the light bulb joke.
So save money get rid of gas meter reader man. read it yourself. then get smart and Employ an engineer to change batteries. D'oh!
Rather go back to have a meter reader man thanks.
I don't know if the most recent design of smart gas meters do this but if they do its a bad bad design and needs sorting.
I believe they come with a monitor that sits in your kitchen that tells you all sorts of amazing energy saving prompts but can't tell you your battery level.
I have all sorts of control devices and bluetooth devices with apps (some very cheap to buy). Gas fire control. Thermostat. Plant watering probe. Heart rate monitor. etc on and on and every one of them has a little battery monitor on the hand device or app page. Hm when I think my TV zapper doesn't. Its the only one.
If any of them was to loose battery power the effects are small compared to having my gas cut off. And with all of them I can charge or replace the battery myself but it seems you can't do that with a smart gas meter.

Gerry1

@murphydavid Apparently the battery can't be removed from the meter when it runs out, the whole shebang has to be replaced.  Just another example of the colossal waste of money caused by the smart meter fiasco.

Similarly, a mountain of scrapped meters and batteries won't be good for the environment.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

@murphydavid Apparently the battery can't be removed from the meter when it runs out, the whole shebang has to be replaced.  Just another example of the colossal waste of money caused by the smart meter fiasco.

Similarly, a mountain of scrapped meters and batteries won't be good for the environment.

If that was the case, then why does the technical manual for my GWi G4 SMETS2 gas meter state:
Quote: Primary Battery: 3.6V Lithium Thionyl-Chloride (can be replaced in-service) Unquote

And, according to smartme.co.uk:

Quote: The gas meter battery can be replaced by a smart meter installer Unquote

carl.waring

niktheguru said:

Also, surely with smart meters now being smets2, the closing/opening reading dispute should become a distant memory with little need for the "third party" as readings should/will be accurate.

Another "good thing" about Smart Meters then 😉

oldandwizend said:

As yet I have neither commited to smart meters nor been badgered to have them and before I do 'sign up' I will need some reassurance regarding the ability for remote firmware updates. Whilst these will, in all probability, be necessary  and would, of course, have the ability to add more functionality my main concern is whether there is 100% guaranteed success with the update. In my many years of computer etc. experience firmware updates have never been 100% successful but the timing of an update has been of my choosing with the ability to create backups etc. in the case of failure.  With a smart meter I have no control and there is no 'backup' supply if things go wrong.  For the majority of people this may lead to a mild inconvenience but, worst case scenario, what if a supply is inadvertantly cut off without customer knowledge (e.g. away on holiday)? The impact could be very serious.

Hopefully my fears are unfounded but we are not yet getting 100% success rate on installations so I feel that I am right to be a little concerned.

Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed; except death and taxes. If that were the measure, no-one would have anything.

Dolor said:

Gerry1 said:

@murphydavid Apparently the battery can't be removed from the meter when it runs out, the whole shebang has to be replaced.  Just another example of the colossal waste of money caused by the smart meter fiasco.

Similarly, a mountain of scrapped meters and batteries won't be good for the environment.

If that was the case, then why does the technical manual for my GWi G4 SMETS2 gas meter state:
Quote: Primary Battery: 3.6V Lithium Thionyl-Chloride (can be replaced in-service) Unquote

And, according to smartme.co.uk:

Quote: The gas meter battery can be replaced by a smart meter installer Unquote

Because Gerry1 is usually wrong?  😁

And in my 5 years working in Customer Service for one of the former "big six" I never had anyone call to ask for their battery replacing.

brewerdave

[Deleted User] said:

Gerry1 said:

@murphydavid Apparently the battery can't be removed from the meter when it runs out, the whole shebang has to be replaced.  Just another example of the colossal waste of money caused by the smart meter fiasco.

Similarly, a mountain of scrapped meters and batteries won't be good for the environment.

And, according to smartme.co.uk:

Quote: The gas meter battery can be replaced by a smart meter installer Unquote

....and all you need are suppliers willing to have "engineers" on standby to replace said batteries - I think not !!

[Deleted User]

brewerdave 

....and all you need are suppliers willing to have "engineers" on standby to replace said batteries - I think not !!

Uhm - I am not sure how to respond to that. Suppliers are responsible for the meters that they install or gain through churn.