Bulb customers left with faulty smart meters - MSE News

Former_MSE_Callum

Smart meters installed by the renewable energy supplier Bulb have been showing customers incorrect figures for energy consumption due to a fault with their displays, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal...

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'Bulb customers left with faulty smart meters'

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[Deleted User]

I wish people , including MSE would stop referring to the 3 quid freebie gizmo as a "smart meter ". Its not a meter !. In House Display or monitor is its description
Sounds like Bulb are yet another supplier to succumb to the bargain basement cheapest smart meter in the UK, Secure Liberty.
.As a Bulb customer , if that is what they are now installing, then they are wasting their time getting me to agree with the installation of it.

jackandcoke

Houbara wrote: »

I wish people , including MSE would stop referring to the 3 quid freebie gizmo as a "smart meter ". Its not a meter !. In House Display or monitor is its description
Sounds like Bulb are yet another supplier to succumb to the bargain basement cheapest smart meter in the UK, Secure Liberty.
.As a Bulb customer , if that is what they are now installing, then they are wasting their time getting me to agree with the installation of it.

Exactly this! I don't understand why people keep referring to the IHD as the meter.

Shavuot

Never mind the quality feel the width :money:

minislim

er? so avro are being punished for not rolling out smart meters.
yet bulb are having problems with the ones they've rolled out.

its time this smart meter nonsense was scrapped.

and all the money thats being wasted advertising it. as its only us the customer who'll end up paying for it in the long run.

Thomas_Edison

What type of smart meter will you be installing?

We’re installing EDMI and Landis+Gyr second-generation smart meters.

The Chameleon ihd's the bit having an issue connecting but that's not due to the hard ware.

All that's happening is the readings for one fuel aren't shown on the ihd. https://community.bulb.co.uk/discussion/9027/update-we-ve-started-installing-smart-meters-in-our-members-home

ianb24

Some seem worried about gas meters and battery failure.

I have had conventional gas meters in my various homes and offices for 50+ years, no batteries ever, of course, as the old ones are mechanical, working on the flow of gas turning the dial. Only modern "SMART" meters have batteries which will eventually need replacing. Then "man with van costs etc etc" every 10 yrs or so. That's Smart.

[Deleted User]

ianb24 wrote: »

Some seem worried about gas meters and battery failure.

I have had conventional gas meters in my various homes and offices for 50+ years, no batteries ever, of course, as the old ones are mechanical, working on the flow of gas turning the dial. Only modern "SMART" meters have batteries which will eventually need replacing. Then "man with van costs etc etc" every 10 yrs or so. That's Smart.

Digital non smart "dumb " gas meters have been around for at least a decade.. Soon as you have to install a battery there is a limit on how long its lasts, 10 years is the average
They have quite expensive Lithium Thionyl Chloride batteries in them which cost approx £15 each.
We routinely change prepayment meter batteries which can t last as long but for some reason the suppliers can t be bothered to exchange the batteries in credit meters even though it is simple enough to do it in situ so they add costs by exchanging the whole meter...
Its a throwaway society so there are more expenses to the end used to pay for.. People often quote the cost of the smart meter roll out but there are lots of waste in the industry for no reason, and battery meters are one of them
The old metric and Imperial meters are good for at least 25 years or more and are better made and do not go wrong like digital rubbish meters

Carrot007

Houbara wrote: »

The old metric and Imperial meters are good for at least 25 years or more and are better made and do not go wrong like digital rubbish meters

However recertifying them for reuse costs more than a new throw away meter.


Probably more since the in house department for it was shut years ago.


Much easier to sell the old meters in palletes to overseas ;-)


It's what you get with short term thoughts.

w0z

If I've understood it correctly the article is blatantly misleading on 2 counts.
1. The I.H.D. (not the meter) isn't showing incorrect figures, it's just not showing the figures for both fuels. So no "incorrect" figures are being shown
2. The meter (or meters) is/are not showing any incorrect figures.
Disappointing standard of journalism here, worthy of the tabloids.
I'm puzzled by the irate reaction of one customer saying they are going to leave because their IHD is not fully functional (when they never used to have one).

[Deleted User]

Carrot007 wrote: »

However recertifying them for reuse costs more than a new throw away meter.


Probably more since the in house department for it was shut years ago.


Much easier to sell the old meters in palletes to overseas ;-)


It's what you get with short term thoughts.

imperial and Metric mechanical gas meters never get recertified .They last approx 25 years or more. No one touches them for at least a couple of decades. The age of the gas meter is marked on the front near to the index
I thought they would be scrapped once they ve had their day rather than sold on
. Many perfectly good Metric meters are being ripped out nowadays for no other reason than to fulfil smart meter roll out figures. More waste.
I see thousands of old Imperial gas meters in use still throughout the year and no one has changed them or recertified them since they were installed. I` ve never heard of gas meters being recertified or overhauled. It would be too expensive
Electric meters are the same. I myself have an old Sangamo Weston mechanical meter which has nt budged in 20 years. The even older dial type meters are still around in large numbers throughout the UK, untouched since they were installed.#someone may come along and bung a sticker on them but they don t take them off.