Octopus forcing new smart meter

alanwsg

EssexHebridean said:

I am intrigued to know the benefit of turning off a standard electric kettle at the wall when not in use - are there really some out there that use power even when not doing anything? 🤔 

You could have a "Smart" kettle,
E.g. one of these ....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-SMKET01-WGUK-Generation-iKettle-Litre/dp/B074ZBM513

matelodave

alanwsg said:

EssexHebridean said:

I am intrigued to know the benefit of turning off a standard electric kettle at the wall when not in use - are there really some out there that use power even when not doing anything? 🤔 

You could have a "Smart" kettle,
E.g. one of these ....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-SMKET01-WGUK-Generation-iKettle-Litre/dp/B074ZBM513

you just beat me to it with these https://poshh.co.uk/living/best-variable-temperature-control-kettle/ although yours is much posher than my paltry selection

anything that has a touch or push button to start it (if not mechanically switched) will draw some power whilst it's waiting for an input. It may not be a lot but it still consumes power. Likewise one that's got wifi or bluetooth is sitting listening for a signal

EssexHebridean

I genuinely hadn’t realised that smart tech had now advanced to the humble kettle. 😂 Think I’ll stick with my mechanical switchy one then! 😂

matelodave

You cant get away from technology nowadays, however humble or trivial the application

Gerry1

> Adjust your iKettle's desired boiling temperature between 20-100 degrees via the Smarter app.

If you set that £129 smart kettle to 'boil' water at 20°, it might pay for itself in about 100 years !

Vegastare

Yep you do routinely need meters changing.  As for a smart meter don't have one.  Have always felt no need but if it were linked in future to a better fuel deal etc might re think.

As Avro now with Octopus, yesterday on my online account a pop up appeared asking about smart meters did I want one or not or to think about it - I clicked no.  So no pressure yet!!!

Avro had a company phone me 3 times regarding smart meters, I declined due to the installers they used as some past genuine issues people known to me have experienced.  

wild666

alanwsg said:

EssexHebridean said:

I am intrigued to know the benefit of turning off a standard electric kettle at the wall when not in use - are there really some out there that use power even when not doing anything? 🤔 

You could have a "Smart" kettle,
E.g. one of these ....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-SMKET01-WGUK-Generation-iKettle-Litre/dp/B074ZBM513

Anything SMART uses electric waiting to be bought into use. A SMART bulb uses 4 Watts per hour whilst waiting to be bought into use if not used it will use 96 Watts per day, 672 Watts per week per bulb. 
The more SMART bulbs used the more kWh per week will be used but one SMART bulb in use uses about 11 Watts per hour or 264 Watts per day, around a quarter of the Wattage that a 40W bulb would use per day. 

My usage when I put everything in standby was around 6.5 kWh per day compared to an average of 3.5 kWh with turning everything off that's not in use.

leonj

lovelylass_2 said:

Hi everyone. Due to previous company going bust, I’m now with octopus. They have contacted me to say that my gas meter needs to be changed due to it being 16 years old and they need to install a smart meter (something I have always objected too). Just asking if anyone knows if it’s true that meters need to be replaced every 15-20years and if so do I have to have a smart meter as I thought it was customer choice. Thank you for reading

It's not true, they are lying so that they can get a smart meter install.  16 years is not old for a gas meter

QrizB

wild666 said:

Anything SMART uses electric waiting to be bought into use. A SMART bulb uses 4 Watts per hour whilst waiting to be bought into use if not used it will use 96 Watts per day, 672 Watts per week per bulb. 
The more SMART bulbs used the more kWh per week will be used but one SMART bulb in use uses about 11 Watts per hour or 264 Watts per day, around a quarter of the Wattage that a 40W bulb would use per day.

I don't know where you got those numbers from but they're far from correct.

Here's a typical Philips Hue lamp (link). The max standby power is 0.1W, so 2.4Wh per day or 0.88kWh per year.

When illuminated, it uses 6W and is equivalent to a 40W incandescent lamp.

If you use it for 1000 hours per year (and have it in standby for the other 7760 hours) it will use a grand total of 6.78kWh, compared to the 40kWh that the incandescent lamp would have used.

Gerry1

wild666 said:

alanwsg said:

EssexHebridean said:

I am intrigued to know the benefit of turning off a standard electric kettle at the wall when not in use - are there really some out there that use power even when not doing anything? 🤔 

You could have a "Smart" kettle,
E.g. one of these ....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-SMKET01-WGUK-Generation-iKettle-Litre/dp/B074ZBM513

A SMART bulb uses 4 Watts per hour whilst waiting to be bought into use if not used it will use 96 Watts per day, 672 Watts per week per bulb. 
The more SMART bulbs used the more kWh per week will be used but one SMART bulb in use uses about 11 Watts per hour or 264 Watts per day, around a quarter of the Wattage that a 40W bulb would use per day.

Do you have a reference for this?  4W standby seems very high.  (BTW, it wouldn't be 4 Watts per hour, it's plain 4W.  It would use 4Wh in one hour.)