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British Gas trying to deceive customers to have smart meters installed
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Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:There are problems with them especially when you switch suppliers when your smart meter cannot be read by their systems so reverts to being dumb meter.
You do raise a fair point about a meter change causing issues for anyone unaware of how to restart their own boiler..
A real benefit to the consumer would be to only charge them in real time for the energy consumed but that doesn’t suit the energy companies who prefer to have their customers give them interest free loans so they can play the hedge market.0 -
nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:There are problems with them especially when you switch suppliers when your smart meter cannot be read by their systems so reverts to being dumb meter.
You do raise a fair point about a meter change causing issues for anyone unaware of how to restart their own boiler..
A real benefit to the consumer would be to only charge them in real time for the energy consumed but that doesn’t suit the energy companies who prefer to have their customers give them interest free loans so they can play the hedge market.. It is possible to get billed regularly for actual usage rather than paying by direct debit but the charges are higher to do so. Also, smart meters make time of use during the day tariffs possible in a way that old-fashioned meters do not.
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I've been with four different energy suppliers in the past 12 months (BG gas & SSE electric, then Pure Planet, and now Shell); does that mean if I'd had smart meters they would've stopped working on changing supplier?In my case, I wouldn't be prepared to take a day off work to allow the changeover.0
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prowla said:I've been with four different energy suppliers in the past 12 months (BG gas & SSE electric, then Pure Planet, and now Shell); does that mean if I'd had smart meters they would've stopped working on changing supplier?prowla said:In my case, I wouldn't be prepared to take a day off work to allow the changeover.0
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prowla said:I've been with four different energy suppliers in the past 12 months (BG gas & SSE electric, then Pure Planet, and now Shell); does that mean if I'd had smart meters they would've stopped working on changing supplier?In my case, I wouldn't be prepared to take a day off work to allow the changeover.0
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nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:Ultrasonic said:nigelbb said:There are problems with them especially when you switch suppliers when your smart meter cannot be read by their systems so reverts to being dumb meter.
You do raise a fair point about a meter change causing issues for anyone unaware of how to restart their own boiler..
A real benefit to the consumer would be to only charge them in real time for the energy consumed but that doesn’t suit the energy companies who prefer to have their customers give them interest free loans so they can play the hedge market.0 -
Ultrasonic said:prowla said:I've been with four different energy suppliers in the past 12 months (BG gas & SSE electric, then Pure Planet, and now Shell); does that mean if I'd had smart meters they would've stopped working on changing supplier?In my case, I wouldn't be prepared to take a day off work to allow the changeover.
I switched my gas supply to Octopus a month or so ago, and they have been happily pulling 30 minute data from day one. My point is that a lot of reported issues with smart meters have more to do with a supplier’s secure adapter software rather than the meters themselves.
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nigelbb said:A real benefit to the consumer would be to only charge them in real time for the energy consumed but that doesn’t suit the energy companies who prefer to have their customers give them interest free loans so they can play the hedge market.The only way they can deliver fixed tariffs as a credible option is to take advance payments and hedge the future demand, if you remove one, the other goes with it...Plenty of recent examples of what happens when you sell a fixed tariff and don't hedge adequately...
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I'm waiting for the same email as on a prepayment meter and will be doing the top up to the max before 1st April, so no smart meter for me (yet).0
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