Can a Smart Meter Increase Bills

Gerry1

@Matthaus73 was seriously overcharged by a smart meter !

Petriix

wittynamegoeshere said:

One downside is that if you ever want a new consumer unit fitting then, to fit it safely, you need the power to be off from the meter.  As we live in a really stupid country, electric suppliers don't fit a cutoff switch as standard as they do in every civilised country, it's an optional extra that they'll charge you about £120 for, or they'll charge you each time you want it connecting or disconnecting to work on it.

Many electricians used to pull out the fuse in the past, although this wasn't allowed.  This makes everything safe but the problem is that this also cuts the power to the meter.  If you do this with a smart meter then it will immediately report an alert to say the power has been cut.  This can be a sign that someone is tampering to obtain free power, and there have been cases where the power company has turned up straight away to try and catch someone in the act.  You'll then get a fine or whatever they do to naughty people.

However, I was very lucky in that I discussed this issue with the chap who fitted mine who said he had a switch in his van that was spare and he fitted it for free.  This goes after the meter, so switching it off does not alert anyone.  I was extremely lucky, he was working his notice period and didn't like the company he worked for.

I picked up an isolator for £12 from Toolstation and gave my smart meter fitter a can of Punk IPA for the pleasure of fitting it at the same time as fitting my new meter. He did a very neat job and upgraded the tails too. Top bloke really. 

FreeBear

The biggest problem is if they change out a gas meter. If the old one uses imperial units (cubic feet), and your supplier fails to update the records, your gas bill will increase by nearly threefold.

Smart gas meters record usage in cubic metres... Take a photo of your old meters before they are removed just in case.

QrizB

Petriix said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

One downside is that if you ever want a new consumer unit fitting then, to fit it safely, you need the power to be off from the meter.  As we live in a really stupid country, electric suppliers don't fit a cutoff switch as standard as they do in every civilised country, it's an optional extra that they'll charge you about £120 for, or they'll charge you each time you want it connecting or disconnecting to work on it.

Many electricians used to pull out the fuse in the past, although this wasn't allowed.  This makes everything safe but the problem is that this also cuts the power to the meter.  If you do this with a smart meter then it will immediately report an alert to say the power has been cut.  This can be a sign that someone is tampering to obtain free power, and there have been cases where the power company has turned up straight away to try and catch someone in the act.  You'll then get a fine or whatever they do to naughty people.

However, I was very lucky in that I discussed this issue with the chap who fitted mine who said he had a switch in his van that was spare and he fitted it for free.  This goes after the meter, so switching it off does not alert anyone.  I was extremely lucky, he was working his notice period and didn't like the company he worked for.

I picked up an isolator for £12 from Toolstation and gave my smart meter fitter a can of Punk IPA for the pleasure of fitting it at the same time as fitting my new meter. He did a very neat job and upgraded the tails too. Top bloke really. 

My smart meter installer fitted one himself, voluntarily. (I had bought one that I was going to ask him to fit [there would have been beer or beer vouchers offered too] but when he was talking me through the job he told me he was going to fit one, so I didn't need it after all. And I got to keep the beer.)

MWT

QrizB said:

My smart meter installer fitted one himself, voluntarily...

With Octopus at least, they have always been free if installed at the same time as a smart meter, just request it when agreeing to the meter being installed.

Doesn't mean some of the installers don't try to rush the job and skip that bit so always worth making sure they do actually do it

Swipe

FreeBear said:

The biggest problem is if they change out a gas meter. If the old one uses imperial units (cubic feet), and your supplier fails to update the records, your gas bill will increase by nearly threefold.

Smart gas meters record usage in cubic metres... Take a photo of your old meters before they are removed just in case.

Nothing a quick phone call can't resolve