Smart Meter IHD works again.

r2015

I was with Scottish Gas and they installed smart meters which worked as expected, drove the wife batty when I told her how much her shower cost.


Then I left Scottish Gas and the meters became dumb as the IHD stopped showing the usage and the green flashing light on the electricity meter started flashing orange.


Then I left who I went to because they put their prices up and Scottish Gas had a new tariff which with the cashback I received worked out a few pence less.


I went to read the meter for my spreadsheet and noticed that the previous orange flashing light was now flashing green so I fished out the IHD from where I had put it and plugged it in.


It displays my usage again so I no longer have to go outside in the pouring rain to read my meters.


So why do people not want one?


I think they are brilliant :j and I realised I had missed it for the time it did not work when I had left Scottish Gas.

D_M_E

If you still plan on submitting readings, whatever you do DO NOT GIVE THE READINGS SHOWN ON THE IN HOME DEVICE.

Use the readings shown on the meters instead.

The electricity reading on the IHD will probably be quite close but the gas reading on the IHD will be about eleven times the actual reading shown on the meter - the gas meter reads in cubic meters but the IHD shows KwH and it's the cubic meter read that the supplier wants.

matelodave

If his smart meter is working then I doubt that he'll need to send in readings.
However I'd make sure that I checked my on-line account at least once a month to make sure that they were actually receiving readings and using them.

PennineAcute

And not necessarily will the IHD show kWh for gas. Mine shows metres cubed.

r2015

And not necessarily will the IHD show kWh for gas. Mine shows metres cubed.

Mine shows m3 as well as kWh and it shows exactly what the meter readings are.

It even shows how much the gas and electricity costs in £s and p. and it also shows what tariff I am on.


As accurate as my spreadsheet.

EachPenny

r2015 wrote: »

It displays my usage again so I no longer have to go outside in the pouring rain to read my meters.

So why do people not want one?

Because I am able to think ahead and would never be so daft as to go outside in the pouring rain just to read my meter?

What your eulogy neglects to mention is that while your IHD was useless and sitting in your drawer you had to go outside (presumably in the pouring rain) to read your 'smart' meter. As many people have found, some models of smart meter have very poorly designed (from an ergonomic point of view) displays, and the displays have much smaller digits and/or require various combinations of button pushing in order to get the readings displayed on the meter. Even then, it is not always easy for the layperson to work out which of the many items of data displayed they actually need to record.

So, great while the IHD works (and if it displays m3 not kWh), but if the IHD is not functioning then the job of reading the meter is harder and more time consuming than it was with traditional meters.

And rather obviously, if you are standing outside in the rain reading your meters then the longer it takes you the wetter you get.

brewerdave

OP - you answered your own question! Because the currently installed SMETS1 meters are not interchangeable between suppliers.
Many of us on here, are only SMART refuseniks BECAUSE of the extremely poorly thought out implementation of the "scheme"

BooJewels

Another refusenik here. My husband's employer used to have a utilities division and they installed 'smart' meters and the engineers heartily recommended not having one. None of them had them in their own homes.

I'm happy to get into the awkward position it requires to read my gas meter and to go down into the cellar for electric, once a month each and spend a few minutes recording in my spreadsheet and logging in to submit my readings (I've taken to taking photos of late too, as a belt and braces check - and it saves my old knees too). That seems pretty smart to me, because I know it's done right. 15 minutes a month for peace of mind. Job done!

When the system is rather smarter in future, I'll no doubt succumb, but not yet.