EonNext smart meter call

Gerry1

MWT said:

Gerry1 said:

lohr500 said:

@AndyPK Why the aversion to having a smart meter fitted?

Perhaps he doesn't want to be Load Limited to a couple of kWh or Load Shedded?

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1556229/gas-crisis-UK-risk-blackouts-energy-cut-off-evg

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/17430931/households-warned-electricity-blackouts-temperatures-fall/

https://electricityinfo.org/news/energy-supplies-144/

Gerry, you do understand that in those scenarios the power is going off for you as well, not just those that have smart meters...?

Well, since you asked...

Once the smart roll out has been completed then it's highly likely that peak Time of Use tariffs will be used to restrict demand when the grid is about to fall over, with Load Limiting and Load Shedding being the Rationing of Last Resort.  Of course, they won't do so this winter: they'll want to keep their powder dry so they don't let the cat out of the bag and scare the horses.   [/mixed_metaphors] 

Perhaps this is the way we ought to go: we can just do everything on the cheap, cutting corners instead of replacing our end of life power stations so that we have a secure resilient network that will meet our needs when the wind stops blowing and the days are always grey.  Instead, we'll be ruled by our smart meters and cooking, heating, washing and drying only at times when the grid lets us rather than when it suits us.

What I object to is that this rationing aspect (which is the whole raison d'être for smart metering) hasn't been publicised to anything like the same extent as the mythical savings that the shiny IHT toy is unlikely to deliver.  As a nation, we simply haven't been able to make fully informed decisions.

But of course if all the punters were made aware of the bigger picture then very few would willingly accept a smart meter, hence all the strong arm tactics.  It turns out that even Parliament had been misled, several Secretaries of State having given solemn assurances that no-one would be forced to have a smart meter.  Then BEIS quietly reneged on that long standing commitment and Ofgem tore up its promises, warning that when your meter needs to be replaced you'll be forced to have a smart meter whether you like it or not.  We were also repeatedly promised that if we left the EU that VAT on energy could then be abolished. Yeah, right....

Usual punchline: before any of the usual suspects respond with the usual knee jerk 'tinfoil hat', 'paranoia' abuse, it's all out there in the public domain for anyone who takes the trouble to read the smart meter specification and/or searches for terms such Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Demand Side Response etc.

AndyPK

On one hand, our supplies are significantly better than Europe. 

Theirs is about a third of ours. But they dont have electric showers. And thry cope, just

The problem will come, when gas runs out, and we need to use electric heating 

MWT

Gerry1 said:

But of course if all the punters were made aware of the bigger picture then very few would willingly accept a smart meter, hence all the strong arm tactics.  It turns out that even Parliament had been misled, several Secretaries of State having given solemn assurances that no-one would be forced to have a smart meter.  Then BEIS quietly reneged on that long standing commitment and Ofgem tore up its promises, warning that when your meter needs to be replaced you'll be forced to have a smart meter whether you like it or not.  We were also repeatedly promised that if we left the EU that VAT on energy could then be abolished. Yeah, right....

Usual punchline: before any of the usual suspects respond with the usual knee jerk 'tinfoil hat', 'paranoia' abuse, it's all out there in the public domain for anyone who takes the trouble to read the smart meter specification and/or searches for terms such Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Demand Side Response etc.

Gerry, you still don't get it, and that's fine, it is your choice to resist the change as long as you can.

There is no big secret here, knowing everything you seem to think is being hidden I am still very happy to have got a smart meter and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Even the IHD is a very useful tool when it comes to tracking down excessive use and just generally monitoring consumption over the day/week/month, and not once have I had to go out to my meter to count the little red flashes as you would have people do...

I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled, and I look forward to Load Limiting etc. all adding even more possibilities to save money by willingly limiting demand peaks in exchange for lower prices.

Bring it on, I'm ready for it even if you are not...

Gerry1

@ MWT  No problem, we'll agree to disagree, horses for courses.  Hope you don't regret it when you're cold and dark...

anotheruser

lohr500 said:

anotheruser said:

lohr500 said:

@AndyPK Why the aversion to having a smart meter fitted?

Maybe the person wants to have some other work done and move the meter at the same time?

Maybe the person wants to wait to see if a new version of smart meters comes out.  A family member had one straight away.  Then version 2 came out.  They changed company and the new company doesn't support version 1 meters, so it's now back to a "dumb" meter that needs reading.

Maybe they do, maybe they don't.

Nothing to stop the person getting a smart meter fitted now in the existing location then moving it later, if that's the reason.

That may cost more though.
I'm fairly certain many companies will allow a change of location when fitting the meter.
But it's always worth waiting a little while - there's still huge amounts of houses without smart meters and will be for 10+ years yet.

MWT

anotheruser said:

That may cost more though.
I'm fairly certain many companies will allow a change of location when fitting the meter.

The teams doing the smart meter fits are not generally equipped to relocate the meters, so I wouldn't expect that as an option unless specifically arranged in advance.

Brewer21

MWT said:

Gerry1 said:

But of course if all the punters were made aware of the bigger picture then very few would willingly accept a smart meter, hence all the strong arm tactics.  It turns out that even Parliament had been misled, several Secretaries of State having given solemn assurances that no-one would be forced to have a smart meter.  Then BEIS quietly reneged on that long standing commitment and Ofgem tore up its promises, warning that when your meter needs to be replaced you'll be forced to have a smart meter whether you like it or not.  We were also repeatedly promised that if we left the EU that VAT on energy could then be abolished. Yeah, right....

Usual punchline: before any of the usual suspects respond with the usual knee jerk 'tinfoil hat', 'paranoia' abuse, it's all out there in the public domain for anyone who takes the trouble to read the smart meter specification and/or searches for terms such Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Demand Side Response etc.

Gerry, you still don't get it, and that's fine, it is your choice to resist the change as long as you can.

There is no big secret here, knowing everything you seem to think is being hidden I am still very happy to have got a smart meter and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Even the IHD is a very useful tool when it comes to tracking down excessive use and just generally monitoring consumption over the day/week/month, and not once have I had to go out to my meter to count the little red flashes as you would have people do...

I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled, and I look forward to Load Limiting etc. all adding even more possibilities to save money by willingly limiting demand peaks in exchange for lower prices.

Bring it on, I'm ready for it even if you are not...

"I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled"

In particular I'd genuinely like to know about the about "quote above" as a non smart meter householder.

QrizB

Brewer21 said:

MWT said:

I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled, and I look forward to Load Limiting etc. all adding even more possibilities to save money by willingly limiting demand peaks in exchange for lower prices.

Bring it on, I'm ready for it even if you are not...

"I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled"
In particular I'd genuinely like to know about the about "quote above" as a non smart meter householder.

I can't speak for @MWT (they will no doubt be along in a little while to give you their account) but my smart meter allowed me to switch to a smart time-of-use tariff (I wanted Logicor Advanced but that fell through, so chose Octopus Go instead).

My average unit cost has been under 10p/kWh and so I've saved roughly £80 on the 800kWh I've bought from the grid in the past 4 months.

There aren't many competitive smart ToU tariffs at the moment due to the high price of energy vs. the Ofgem cap but that might change when the cap is revised in in April.

meinnit

QrizB said:

Brewer21 said:

MWT said:

I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled, and I look forward to Load Limiting etc. all adding even more possibilities to save money by willingly limiting demand peaks in exchange for lower prices.

Bring it on, I'm ready for it even if you are not...

"I'm already saving hundreds on my bills with what the smart meter has already enabled"
In particular I'd genuinely like to know about the about "quote above" as a non smart meter householder.

I can't speak for @MWT (they will no doubt be along in a little while to give you their account) but my smart meter allowed me to switch to a smart time-of-use tariff (I wanted Logicor Advanced but that fell through, so chose Octopus Go instead).

My average unit cost has been under 10p/kWh and so I've saved roughly £80 on the 800kWh I've bought from the grid in the past 4 months.

There aren't many competitive smart ToU tariffs at the moment due to the high price of energy vs. the Ofgem cap but that might change when the cap is revised in in April.

Same here. My average kWh has dropped significantly since signing up for a time of use tariff with Octopus simply by shifting my usual demand to cheaper and greener off peak period. Obviously won't work for everyone but those that can shift can make nice savings

MWT

A similar story here, I got the smart meter to enable access to the time of use tariffs, but it actually helped a lot in highlighting and tracking down some of the energy hogs that I had around the house as well.

You don't need a smart meter to do that, but it sure does make it a lot easier to do as you can see the instantaneous use without having to buy energy monitors, or counting red LED flashes on the meter. It also makes it easy to see your overnight use and reduce your base load.

That made a decent saving by spotting an old freezer that was running its compressor most of the time and the crazy amount I was consuming with our old plasma TV and of course the 50W halogen bulbs in the lounge ceiling.

I moved to Octopus Go like QrizB, and then quickly on to Octopus Agile where I was averaging under 10p/kWh, before moving back to Go when Agile prices started to rise early last year.

Installed solar and a battery, and currently on 8p/kWh with zero standing charge on the Tesla Energy Plan.

So in short, the smart meter just on its own makes it easy to reduce consumption and opens up the possibility of cheaper tariffs, but the best results come from what it enables in taking further steps down the 'green' pathway.