Smart Meters

C_Mababejive

I'm not saying this is the case in post #761 as i dont have a photo of the meter install but it is the truth that a good number of smart meter fitters drop kick some jobs because it involves more work and they cant be arsed doing it so make up some excuse or other to not do it and move on.

deejaycrox

I recently changed tariffs and apparently chose one where I agreed to have a smart meter fitted. They have been hassling me by text message to I relented today to get it booked in. However after half an hour of questions they said I couldn’t have one because my gas meter is in a ground box, partially below ground. Isn’t this the standard gas meter installation type these days? My house is only 13 years old. The gas meter is also a reasonable distance from the electric meter and their FAQs say they need to be within 10m of each other.
Strikes me as a massive oversight if they cannot fit smart meters in brown gas meter boxes! I have their assurance that they won’t force me into a much worse tarrif

brewerdave

deejaycrox wrote: »

I recently changed tariffs and apparently chose one where I agreed to have a smart meter fitted. They have been hassling me by text message to I relented today to get it booked in. However after half an hour of questions they said I couldn’t have one because my gas meter is in a ground box, partially below ground. Isn’t this the standard gas meter installation type these days? My house is only 13 years old. The gas meter is also a reasonable distance from the electric meter and their FAQs say they need to be within 10m of each other.
Strikes me as a massive oversight if they cannot fit smart meters in brown gas meter boxes! I have their assurance that they won’t force me into a much worse tarrif

Interesting point - when my daughter moved into a new build ~ 8 years ago, I was surprised to find the leccy meter buried at the back of the understairs cupboard yet the gas meter was outside in a brown box by the path. Wonder if all those houses are not "eligible" for SMETS meters ??

Elizabeth.Brown22

Is there any update in meters? And Currently, howmany tarrifs are being charged?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

deejaycrox wrote: »

I recently changed tariffs and apparently chose one where I agreed to have a smart meter fitted. They have been hassling me by text message to I relented today to get it booked in. However after half an hour of questions they said I couldn’t have one because my gas meter is in a ground box, partially below ground. Isn’t this the standard gas meter installation type these days? My house is only 13 years old. The gas meter is also a reasonable distance from the electric meter and their FAQs say they need to be within 10m of each other.
Strikes me as a massive oversight if they cannot fit smart meters in brown gas meter boxes! I have their assurance that they won’t force me into a much worse tarrif

Hello deejaycrox and sorry for the late reply. Missed your post.

Also sorry we're currently unable to fit smart meters. Don't worry, this won't affect your tariff. Happy to confirm, you can stay on your chosen tariff even though we're unable to let you have smart meters at this point.

We've made some progress in being able to fit smart meters where the existing gas meter is in a semi-concealed ground box similar to yours. We've started to fit smart meters in these circumstances in certain areas. We'll see how these go and then, if successful, rollout them out generally.

We'll have made a note on your account as to the existing situation and will be in touch as soon as we've a proven solution.

Sorry for the delay deejaycrox.

Malc

davimel

My first thoughts on having a 'smart meter' are quite simple... If offered, RUN FOR THE HILLS! There are a few err 'omissions' from the companies blurb, but the main one is this.. In about 10% of instalations in properties with pre-payment meters any credit on the electric meter will not be carried onto the new one! We had this issue and were told that it is a known problem that will take 10 days to resolve, meaning we had to find not only the £25 credit we had, but also the amount of emergency credit used in the meantime... After 10 days we were contacted and told they STILL couldn't put it on.. it showed on their system, but they were unable to tell the smart meter! After 20 days they rang again to tell us it still wouldn't go on, but a complaint had been raised (that they never gave us a number for) and an extra £10 had been added to the amount they couldn't put onto our meter (You really couldn't make this up)! By week 4 we had still not received our money and my wife rang them again and this time told the lady that, as we had dual fuel with them (British Gas) perhaps they could put it onto our Gas meter instead... Oh yes, no problem, hang on... 10 seconds later we had our money back!
Now this fiasco had pushed me to the edge and I was all for having this thing thrown out, and our old ones back, but they managed to change my wifes mind with assurances that all would be well from now on! Woke up this morning, (June 1st) and our meter was dead! NOTHING ON IT, NO CREDIT, NOTHING! My wife tried to top it up, and it was declined! She rang the helpline number and after fiddling about we have been told we must wait 2 WEEKS for an engineer! In the meantime they assure us that with the balance on the meters we SHOULD last that long, but if we don't we run out of Gas and/or Electricity and I end up in Hospital! I should add that I am classed as a vulnerable customer on their records and without power I will have to leave my home til someone gets off their !!!! and fixes it! SO, if you prefer pre-payment meters, and/or have anything that requires a constant supply AVOID THESE THINGS at all costs!

fuzzyiceberg

British gas installed 'smart' meters at my mother's flat 2 or 3 years ago. They worked Ok until I switched her to a new supplier a year ago when they became dumb. A year on, and British Gas was now the most suitable for her needs so I switch her back to BG. BG send along an engineer to fit/check the meters and announce they wont work. I presume he simply saw they were the dumb 'smart' meters and assumed they were fitted by the outgoing supplier. Laughably useless.


Oh and a big shout out to OFGEM and BEIS for presiding over the most hopeless, incompetent, shambolic programme ever. What a waste of bill payers money. They should all resign in shame.

brewerdave

Fascinating today ,watching Morrison Data Services "engineers" at a neighbour's property,presumably fitting Smart meters. They have been there for ~ 4.5 hours already -still going!:rotfl:

nameloc2080

Just had the installer around to put in my Npower smart meters which turned out to be SMETS 2 which I was told they only started installing as standard yesterday. Was told would have to abandon installing gas as meter too far from my electricity meter (5 meters) which has the comms unit to DCC. I was offered electricity meter only but I could not have a in home display as I'm on the third floor but meter on the ground floor. Installation took about 30mins.

I had held off from SMETS 1 meters with the going dumb issue but apparently they had independent comm units so I could have had a SMETS 1 gas meter if I had been allocated one. You couldn't make this stuff up.

[Deleted User]

Is it true that the real reason why "Smart" Meters are being installed - and paid for by the Utility Companies is that when the majority of consumers have one installed they will allow the Utility Companies to introduce Variable Time Based tariffs i.e. If you use a lot of energy between 6.30am and 9.00am you will pay more than at an off peak time of say 10.30am?