Smart Meters

jcontest

Houbara wrote: »

We have been paying for all meter exchanges for decades..I never heard a whimper of complaint from anyone on here when, for no logical reason , they started exchanging Imperial meters to Metric meters.
Not one complaint from the smart meter moaners when token prepay meters were all exchanged, also at great cost, to smart key and card prepayment meters, which turned out to be no better than the old meters
No one complained about the huge costs of quarterly meter reading teams knocking on doors all day. All paid for by the consumer.
As you say.."emphatically not free "..why did nt you complain then ?

I think people have a hatred of energy suppliers just like they do of the banks. They fail to see the use of either and are happy to be mad at groups like those all the time.


There are some good reasons to be upset about smart meters.
1) We only have a handful of them installed - So far it's cost quite a lot!
2) The Gov let Capita have a Monopoly on this (Through creating the DCC), I could sub this out from 2a > 2z, but meh....
3) It isn't being done just as a matter of normal replacement, the gov wants it done AND energy suppliers COULD be fined for customers not having them - GOV+CAPITA Bullying Suppliers to Bully customers!
4) Often when they are installed they don't ever go smart! I personally only know of a few people who have had smart meters installed, and can say I know of none of them who has one that works!
5) The Cost of the project seems to be quite high, costings for the old dumb meters + install was a lot lower, and only a one-off. Under the new system your going to pay for the multiple part meter system, smart display, and the regular fee's going back to Capita.
6) They often don't work with renewable installs where there's export.
7) Consumers don't have access to all of that "smart" data. If you want your data you will need to request it from your supplier, who will need to request it from Capita. It's likely that by the time you get the data, if you get it, it's too old to be useful to use!



Consumers will probably never see a "cost" benefit out of this. The only group who will save money are the meter read services.

binao

jcontest above, item 2.

Capita ???????????

Well, how did that happen?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/23/capita-losses-worsen-debt-outsourcing-carillion

MothballsWallet

bri160356 wrote: »

You may scoff, but the danger posed by subliminal EMF waves should not be underestimated.

Subliminal EMF waves were invented by Russian military scientists during the Cold War as part of their global mind-control programme.

Huge amounts of EMF waves were generated but had to be confined to secure storage facilities as they were considered far too hazardous ever to be used. :eek:

However, President Putin has recently discovered a huge pulsating mass of military-grade subliminal EMF waves in a sealed underground Siberian vault.

According to a Kremlin insider, Putin is now directing vast quantities of these incredibly dangerous EMF waves towards the UK and he’s using them to manipulate the minds of the great British public via the gift of our Smart Meter roll-out programme;

…what a rotter! :mad:

And the CIA injected an unwilling test subject with LSD as part of Project MK ULTRA - he ended up dead after falling off the roof of a hotel while under the drug's influence.

And let's not get started on Operation Plumb Bob...

MothballsWallet

buglawton wrote: »

Interesting. So some suppliers have developed a crafty way of connecting to legacy smart meters. Why just some? Is the industry really so fragmented? Someone should invent the idea of a technical design standard and open source blueprint so that ALL suppliers can connect to SMETS1.

Now you're just being sensible - and we can't have that in Britain

Michaelw

British Gas says the smart metres save customers money but critics say it is only cost effective of the home owner takes steps to regulate the usage.

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/17508628.british-gas-forcing-essex-residents-to-have-smart-metres/


Atos,Capita where I have I and many others heard those two before?

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/03/19/1756830/0/en/Atos-secures-Smart-Meter-data-with-a-security-by-design-approach.html

Michaelw

Why the smart meter rollout target needs revising

Energy firms told to slow down installation

Technical issues with the new SMETS2 devices means there physically aren’t enough meters to meet the current tranche of installation appointments

https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/195111/why-the-smart-meter-rollout-target-needs-revising/

moremore

Seen in paper weeks ago energy companies said they wanted to monitor people with dementia in their homes with smart meters, this show how unsafe they are they know every time your home is empty, know how many times you boil your kettle in your home, know all your movements. Also they have caused fires in homes. Smart meters would be a big NO for me...

jcontest

moremore wrote: »

Seen in paper weeks ago energy companies said they wanted to monitor people with dementia in their homes with smart meters, this show how unsafe they are they know every time your home is empty, know how many times you boil your kettle in your home, know all your movements. Also they have caused fires in homes. Smart meters would be a big NO for me...

https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/knowledge-hub/mental-health-articles/smart-meters-study/ seems to be what your talking about.


Sure if you read it in the Daily Mail, Express, or Sun then it's all doom and gloom and big brother. The system is going to use machine learning as they cant actually know for sure if it's your kettle or not. The system can't track your "movements" either, granted if you only wash your hands after a poo then I guess they could track "movements".


The time for people to "fight" against this was years ago. The DNO's should have had control of reading the data and passing it to the customers supplier. Capita now has control of this (Tho they would say that it's not directly them). If you had even a rough idea of just how much information is currently contracted out to them for processing then the thought of them knowing when you turn a kettle on or off really isn't disturbing at all.


As it stands now the data can only be read with consent, and I would imagine that a Subject Access request to the SmartDCC should let you know who has accessed such data, or that hopefully a trial will make it so they must inform you.


If your seriously key about privacy then I would imagine you also don't use Google (search/email/drive/photos), Facebook, Instagram, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Ebay, Quidco, TCB, loyalty Points, Credit Cards, and that you block all tracking and other bad sites (I'll give you my list of what I block!)...

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts;showintro=0
https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
https://adaway.org/hosts.txt
https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts
http://www.hostsfile.org/Downloads/hosts.txt

This will probably be a Opt-In only type of thing (for now, if it even happens past the initial trial) so it's not something that you should be worried about. And if you do have a family member that suffers with dementia or other mental illnesses then perhaps that extra warning is actually a good thing?.

carinjo

tried using the search function, but asking a question might be easier: am i able to get a smart meter if i have an old fuse box, the one with the wire coil(?)? Also, I am with Avro, who does not do installations, so am thinking of switching to a bigger company and then switching back, so i can monitor my usage, but now i read here that the new second generation meters giving issues. shall i wait to switch i bit longer?

[Deleted User]

Avoid them like the plague.
Waste of time, waste of energy, waste of money. Muffin to stop you from learning how to take your own meter readings and submit them for yourself. These meters have cost consumers an enormous amount of money through the charges levied on the industry. The older ones don't work, you need WiFi or a connection to the internet and even the right coloured wires. Shop around for a cheaper deal on your old meter.
ATB
Dougie