'Misleading' smart meter ad banned - MSE News 6 March 2019 at 11:25AM in Energy 25 replies 1.5K views

Former_MSE_Naomi

A 'misleading' radio advert which claimed installing a smart meter could save consumers an average of 354 kilowatt hours a year has been banned...

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''Misleading' smart meter ad banned'

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miller

...and Scottish Power continues to bombard me and others by phone, email and text about having a smart meter installed. A quick google for LowriBeck, their supplier in our region would put a lot of people off IMO.

Oh, and I've asked for no marketing, but somehow this activity is OK.

SuiDreams

I don't agree with smart meters being advertised as a money saving device, all it is, is a different way to record and monitor your usage.


A smart meter wouldn't save me anything, I already monitor my usage and have reduced it as far as possible.

brewerdave

Hooray -taken them long enuf to take action - the TV Ads claimed the same!!!

nigelbb

SuiDreams wrote: »

I don't agree with smart meters being advertised as a money saving device, all it is, is a different way to record and monitor your usage.


A smart meter wouldn't save me anything, I already monitor my usage and have reduced it as far as possible.

Let's face it unless you have inadvertently left the immersion heater on 24x7 the only way most people can make major reductions in their energy consumption is by wrapping up warm & accepting lower temperatures.

[Deleted User]

They can save many people 354 kwh s a year. Whats the problem ? Some people do not understand that staying under the shower for 30 minutes a time is expensive ..
The advert is nt misleading at all and should nt have been banned.
OK the people on here will mostly be pretty savvy money savers but many people have no idea what a kilo watt hour is for a start, or are aware that the electric shower is a real energy guzzler.

dekaspace

Houbara wrote: »

They can save many people 354 kwh s a year. Whats the problem ? Some people do not understand that staying under the shower for 30 minutes a time is expensive ..
The advert is nt misleading at all and should nt have been banned.
OK the people on here will mostly be pretty savvy money savers but many people have no idea what a kilo watt hour is for a start, or are aware that the electric shower is a real energy guzzler.

Can they? How exactly? By monitoring usage? Well simple logic means if someone monitors the usage before and after the shower they can get the same.


Or get one of those devices that tells you current usage, your average usage and does not require a smart meter.

EachPenny

Houbara wrote: »

They can save many people 354 kwh s a year. Whats the problem ? Some people do not understand that staying under the shower for 30 minutes a time is expensive ..
The advert is nt misleading at all and should nt have been banned.
OK the people on here will mostly be pretty savvy money savers but many people have no idea what a kilo watt hour is for a start, or are aware that the electric shower is a real energy guzzler.

But as someone who frequently advises that people throw the 'useless' IHD in the bin or a drawer, then do you really believe the people most likely to benefit from knowing more about their energy consumption are actually likely to pay any attention to the information they are given on one of these devices?

The 354 figure is an estimated average. People with "no idea what a kilo watt hour is" are unlikely to understand what an 'estimated average' is, and have no idea what they need to do in order to save this amount. The complaint about the advert is it suggests (to some) that they will save simply by having a different type of meter with no other action required.

[Deleted User]

EachPenny wrote: »

But as someone who frequently advises that people throw the 'useless' IHD in the bin or a drawer, then do you really believe the people most likely to benefit from knowing more about their energy consumption are actually likely to pay any attention to the information they are given on one of these devices?

The 354 figure is an estimated average. People with "no idea what a kilo watt hour is" are unlikely to understand what an 'estimated average' is, and have no idea what they need to do in order to save this amount. The complaint about the advert is it suggests (to some) that they will save simply by having a different type of meter with no other action required.

I ve usually maintained to bin the useless thing after, A, the novelty has worn off, or B that its done its job after a few weeks and educated the unwary about the costs of various appliances. No point in wasting plug space and a quids worth of leccy a year keeping it plugged in. I remember a woman hiding the IHD so her hubby did nt see it going red when she was 30 minutes under the shower. They do educate a proportion of the population just by the red/amber/green usage display flagging up for all to see.
Its amazing how many people point to the In House Display unit when I turn up asking to see their smart meter for a safety check.Some seem to think its their new smart meter !
Ask a 100 people outside of, say B and M stores, what k.w.h. stands for and I d guess that at least a third have no idea..Outside Waitrose it will be only 10% who don t know.
I have done my own little tests to various people on my meter reading rounds to get my take on the problem. Smart meters do a good job in quite a few ways and are to be encouraged.
On here I realise that most FM s think they are the work of the devil, for some odd reason I cannot understand

molerat

And how much energy has been expended manufacturing and installing smart meters where a perfectly serviceable and inside useable life meter already exists offsetting any overall energy saving ?

[Deleted User]

molerat wrote: »

And how much energy has been expended manufacturing and installing smart meters where a perfectly serviceable and inside useable life meter already exists offsetting any overall energy saving ?

Most of the smart meters I see exchanged, especially for the UKs main supplier BG, are when old Imperial meters and analogue meters have reached end of life. The smart gas meters don t cost much more than a dumb metric gas meter.So no real extra costs are levied when they are exchanged like this.Meter fitters would have had to be engaged in this activity anyway. All this nonsense about the roll out costs are highly inflated because they do not take natural wastage of old meters into account.