British Gas Meter end of life and Smart Meters

wild666

harrys66 wrote: »

Not Spite... pure rational money saving ethic .... old mechanical meters start reading under as they age, it's in the interest of suppliers to change them (hence the certification process on old meters)

Surely if the meter is reading under the amount of electricity or gas used then it's up to the supplier to prove it and not just change the meter because it might be reading under the utility used.
Someone in a house where I used to lived refused because the energy company said it was coming to its end of life use, he got someone to check the meters and they where still reading spot on after 65 years.

Zandoni

harrys66 wrote: »

The old meters never read "over", always "under" as they age.... in your interest to keep it as long as possible


What I'd do is just change provider, it stops the process dead


If you choose a small/medium sized provider, they will never get round to sorting out the replacement (recommend bulb who will reimburse any early termination fees, plus i have a referral link if you want to message me direct )

Unfortunately thats not correct, gas meters can certainly get faster as they age.

FreeBear

wild666 wrote: »

It's a scam by them to get you to have a smart meter. Unless they can prove there is a fault with the meters you have installed they cannot just come and install them

If the meters are coming to the end of their certification period, the energy company are legally obliged to replace them. Whilst it is true you can refuse to have a smart meter installed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of dumb meters.

I was originally opposed to smart metering, but had them fitted earlier in the year. It enabled me to identify exactly when my peak energy usage occurred and take steps to cut out the wasteful periods. Also have a better picture of how much electricity is being wasted by having various devices sitting on standby. Not a huge amount, but 10,20,50W over the course of a day & week add up.

badmemory

FreeBear wrote: »

I was originally opposed to smart metering, but had them fitted earlier in the year.

Can you actually read your meters as many of then seem to be much more difficult to read than the old ones or are you dependant on the IHD which has a very limited life. The reading difficulty is why I don't want a smart meter.

FreeBear

badmemory wrote: »

Can you actually read your meters as many of then seem to be much more difficult to read than the old ones or are you dependant on the IHD which has a very limited life.

Admittedly, the new meters are not as easy to read if your eyesight is starting to fail. On the plus side, not having to go outside to read the gas meter is a bonus. All the information about the meters (readings, ID, etc) is readily available on the IHD - I see no reason why the IHD should fail withing its (or the meter's) lifetime. If it does, I'll call the energy supplier and demand a new one.

thorganby

FreeBear wrote: »

Admittedly, the new meters are not as easy to read if your eyesight is starting to fail. On the plus side, not having to go outside to read the gas meter is a bonus. All the information about the meters (readings, ID, etc) is readily available on the IHD - I see no reason why the IHD should fail withing its (or the meter's) lifetime. If it does, I'll call the energy supplier and demand a new one.

Can you tell us which make/model of smart meter you have fitted that displays the gas reading in cubic meters in the IHD please because many do not offer this most important yet basic function?

Personally I'm not interested in the other info e.g. cost per day, week, month, co2 etc. just the actual meter reading in !!! not an approximated kWh figure.

If it does not display the actual meter reading on the IHD then it's not smart and no use to me!

FreeBear

thorganby wrote: »

Can you tell us which make/model of smart meter you have fitted that displays the gas reading in cubic meters in the IHD please because many do not offer this most important yet basic function?

I would imagine most (all ?) IHDs will display the units consumed. If you are wanting to graph usage in Cubic metres, then that would be dependent on software installed in the IHD.

As you asked, the gas meter is a Landis+Gyr G470 connected to a Geo Trio II IHD.

thorganby

FreeBear wrote: »

I would imagine most (all ?) IHDs will display the units consumed. If you are wanting to graph usage in Cubic metres, then that would be dependent on software installed in the IHD.

As you asked, the gas meter is a Landis+Gyr G470 connected to a Geo Trio II IHD.

Thanks for the make/model information.

Many IHD's do not actually display the gas meter reading in cubic M and give a worthless approximation in kWh.

There are many who can't easily get access to their meter or who are disabled etc. and for so called smart meters not to display the actual meter readings in the IHD, shows that they have been designed by a bunch of idiots, as this should be a fundamental design requirement.

As the whole smart meter roll-out has been one giant fiasco over the last decade, it's no real surprise!

badmemory

FreeBear wrote: »

All the information about the meters (readings, ID, etc) is readily available on the IHD - I see no reason why the IHD should fail withing its (or the meter's) lifetime. If it does, I'll call the energy supplier and demand a new one.

The IHDs are only "guaranteed" for a year. Once the year is up they do not replace them. They are a gimmick which does not give you the gas meter reading.

thorganby

FreeBear wrote: »

I would imagine most (all ?) IHDs will display the units consumed. If you are wanting to graph usage in Cubic metres, then that would be dependent on software installed in the IHD.

As you asked, the gas meter is a Landis+Gyr G470 connected to a Geo Trio II IHD.

No not interested in silly graphs of usage, just the actual meter readings displayed on the IHD.

After reading the Geo Trio II IHD user manuals both touchscreen and button versions, there is no mention of how to obtain the actual meter readings on the IHD.

The manual states:

What is a kWh

Electrical and gas energy consumption is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) - traditionally know as units.

So this "smart meter" IHD only displays consumption in kWh, which is obviously correct for electricity but gas is actually measured in cubic metres!

This is a monumental fail.