why are energy companies pushing smart meters? what's the catch??

savers_united

Octopus are leading the way with smart tariffs and keep coming up with new ideas. 

Those without a smart meter are locked out from these developments, that may suit many, but I do quite like these innovative tariffs and has helped keep our bills down and load on the grid at peak times. 

Up until this year I never even knew my washing machine and dishwasher had timers, now we set them both to run a few times a week during our cheap electric rate all thanks to a smart meter.

I am looking this year with a new EV to use 7500kwh last year it was 4200kwh, but it's only adding an extra £13 a month to the leccy bill, 3300kwh of extra leccy use for £13 per month. 

jrawle

savers_united said:

[...]
I personally don't see any issue with them, and struggle to understand people's resistance to having one fitted. 

Those who don't give regular meter readings are the biggest winners as no more estimated bills, which should reduce debt / credit. 

Access to a wider range of tariffs is another advantage. 

The only people I guess who would be resisting an install are those who are maybe wanting to hide something, I have known of people to over read their meter to stay on a lower tariff rate for longer, practices like that are not possible with smart meters that submit regular readings.

I have so far resisted having a smart meter not because I have something to hide or am a conspiracy theorist, but because I don't like having things messed with unnecessarily. My meters work perfectly well at the moment. I have seen several accounts of people who have had gas leaks following a meter exchange. It seems that just about every job I have done at home by a tradesman is substandard, or results in damage being done to my property. If my meters genuinely wear out and need replacement, I would be happy for the replacement to be a smart meter, but not for them to be changed just for the sake of it. There is also an environmental impact of having a meter changed before the end of its life.

I also do not like the way the adverts give the impression that smart meters magically save energy, with small print such as "consumer action required" the only disclaimer. Non scientifically minded people may well believe this, and actually do less to save energy once they have smart meters.

I do not believe automatic meter reading will cut excessive credit balances, either. This has little to do with estimated readings, and anyone who gives their supplier a regular reading well knows. It is more to do with suppliers deliberately running up a credit to make a few extra pennies out of each customer.

Astria

jrawle said:

savers_united said:

[...]
I personally don't see any issue with them, and struggle to understand people's resistance to having one fitted. 

Those who don't give regular meter readings are the biggest winners as no more estimated bills, which should reduce debt / credit. 

Access to a wider range of tariffs is another advantage. 

The only people I guess who would be resisting an install are those who are maybe wanting to hide something, I have known of people to over read their meter to stay on a lower tariff rate for longer, practices like that are not possible with smart meters that submit regular readings.

I have so far resisted having a smart meter not because I have something to hide or am a conspiracy theorist, but because I don't like having things messed with unnecessarily. My meters work perfectly well at the moment. I have seen several accounts of people who have had gas leaks following a meter exchange. It seems that just about every job I have done at home by a tradesman is substandard, or results in damage being done to my property. If my meters genuinely wear out and need replacement, I would be happy for the replacement to be a smart meter, but not for them to be changed just for the sake of it. There is also an environmental impact of having a meter changed before the end of its life.

A neighbour had an appointment to install a smart meter, they came, give him a free "safety check", determined it wasn't safe, and forced him to have work done by another contractor who said it was safe but old, shouldn't need changing unless you just wanted it changed to bring it upto code. Not exactly a good advert for something that didn't really need touching in the first place as the existing meter was fine.

littlemoney

About 3-4 years ago my energy supplier at the time told me it was a legal requirement to have a smart meter install by the end of the year. I told them they had a requirement to offer me a smart meter but I didn't have to accept. She didn't like my comment. Don't know if she had a target to reach by her employer, but she didn't like my refusal. I stil haven't got a smart meter.

wild666

The only thing that a smart meter does is tell you how much electric and gas is being used and the DSC, that's what you pay before you use any electric or gas. The savings are made, first by the person having a lower tariff for accepting a smart meter and second by the person turning off appliances that are in standby rather than leaving them on 24/7 using, according to many manufacturers only 0.5 Watts per hour, but in reality they use a lot more. 
My 65" TV uses around 90 W per hour in standby, it's G rated, by turning it off at the socket I'm saving over 2 kWh per day. Everything else turned off is saving me another 1.5 kWh per day. 

Astria

wild666 said:

My 65" TV uses around 90 W per hour in standby, it's G rated, by turning it off at the socket I'm saving over 2 kWh per day. Everything else turned off is saving me another 1.5 kWh per day. 

How old is your TV? It sounds broken if it's using up 90W in standby.

If I plug mine into a meter, it alternates between 0 and 1W.

Verdigris

 it's G rated

So why did you buy it, if you are truly concerned with energy efficiency? My 55" telly uses less than 1 Watt on stand-by. It only uses 98 W when in all-singing, all-dancing, 4K action.

Swipe

Astria said:

jrawle said:

savers_united said:

[...]
I personally don't see any issue with them, and struggle to understand people's resistance to having one fitted. 

Those who don't give regular meter readings are the biggest winners as no more estimated bills, which should reduce debt / credit. 

Access to a wider range of tariffs is another advantage. 

The only people I guess who would be resisting an install are those who are maybe wanting to hide something, I have known of people to over read their meter to stay on a lower tariff rate for longer, practices like that are not possible with smart meters that submit regular readings.

I have so far resisted having a smart meter not because I have something to hide or am a conspiracy theorist, but because I don't like having things messed with unnecessarily. My meters work perfectly well at the moment. I have seen several accounts of people who have had gas leaks following a meter exchange. It seems that just about every job I have done at home by a tradesman is substandard, or results in damage being done to my property. If my meters genuinely wear out and need replacement, I would be happy for the replacement to be a smart meter, but not for them to be changed just for the sake of it. There is also an environmental impact of having a meter changed before the end of its life.

A neighbour had an appointment to install a smart meter, they came, give him a free "safety check", determined it wasn't safe, and forced him to have work done by another contractor who said it was safe but old, shouldn't need changing unless you just wanted it changed to bring it upto code. Not exactly a good advert for something that didn't really need touching in the first place as the existing meter was fine.

I also had a busybody smart meter installer to swap the meter on the wall outside who insisted on coming into the house and started poking around inside the cupboard where my old style consumer unit is located. As far as I was concerned he was there to swap the meter on the wall and had no business coming inside.

Verdigris

I also had a busybody smart meter installer to swap the meter on the wall outside who insisted on coming into the house and started poking around inside the cupboard where my old style consumer unit is located. As far as I was concerned he was there to swap the meter on the wall and had no business coming inside

They aren't allowed to connect to an unsafe gas or electric system. How are they going to ascertain that without looking?

Swipe

Verdigris said:

I also had a busybody smart meter installer to swap the meter on the wall outside who insisted on coming into the house and started poking around inside the cupboard where my old style consumer unit is located. As far as I was concerned he was there to swap the meter on the wall and had no business coming inside

They aren't allowed to connect to an unsafe gas or electric system. How are they going to ascertain that without looking?

Well, the last meter swap I had, the installer didn't set one foot inside.