To Smart meter or not?

brewerdave

cityboyhirst said:

Hi all 
I'm currently on a prepayment meter but I'm due to have a smart meter fitted on Friday. What would you guys suggest? Go with it or stick with what I've got. I'm hearing conflicting reports.

Ignoring all the "comedians" comments above - there is a potential problem with smart meters in that a small% will not work in smart mode either because the fitter doesn't complete the meter commissioning process correctly or the information from the meter doesn't get back to "base" due to signal/communications issues.
The latest Govt. figures from their own quarterly report ,suggests that about 13% of the installed UK smart meters are not currently operating in smart mode.

Irratus_Rusticus

cityboyhirst said:

Hi all 
I'm currently on a prepayment meter but I'm due to have a smart meter fitted on Friday. What would you guys suggest? Go with it or stick with what I've got. I'm hearing conflicting reports.

Just ignore the word "Smart". I recently finally opted for smart meters. Bearing in mind their much vaunted USP is that the innocent consumer can stop fretting over estimated bills etc, and not even bother to read the blessed things. Yet you constantly find folks hit with shock bills from their supplier because they believed this nonsense and didn't study their bills for the 'estimated reading' clue.

I went for smarts in case I might go for "time of use"(?) deals in future. They worked, until they didn't. then they did, then they didn't.  The wee IHD will just reboot on its own all of a sudden - maybe MI5 resetting their end - or it'll decide to tell me b***** all for ages. Trying to communicate so don't shout at me, it says. 

My supplier oft times all jocularly tells me on their website "Oops we can't talk to your meter(s)". So I turn on Basil Fawlty and go and shout at them to work, and warn am prepared to give them a thrashing.

Only an idiot will not read their smart meters regularly as always before when Noah first made meters out of wood and a few nails, and send in their readings and take photos.

To be fair, Octopus is up front about this and recommends doing this. We can liken smart energy meters to those early attempts at motorised carriages where a bloke had to walk in front waving a flag. Maybe they'll work in fifty years. Look nice, mind, with those flashing lights.

Astria

The only reason I don't have a smart meter is that I see no point in them, yes they can (sometimes) display my energy usage but I'm not interested in total energy usage, I'm interested in what each individual device/gadget is using, which they can't provide.

When they can provide something that is useful (or a tariff that is cheaper with one) I might decide to switch over to one.

elsien

I like my smart meter. It saves having to crawl into cupboards to get readings sent. 

Yes you still need to check the meter itself once in a while - parent’s gas one stopped working so she’s not had a proper bill for 6 months (also her fault as well for not checking) but in the main not had any issues.
The conspiracists tend not to have any actual data or evidence with regards to the majority of their claims around health, or indeed anything else. 

[Deleted User]

Astria said:

The only reason I don't have a smart meter is that I see no point in them, yes they can (sometimes) display my energy usage but I'm not interested in total energy usage, I'm interested in what each individual device/gadget is using, which they can't provide.

When they can provide something that is useful (or a tariff that is cheaper with one) I might decide to switch over to one.

Ofgem is consulting on the rollout of time-of-use tariffs. Legacy (non smart) tariffs will be more expensive. It is impossible to compare t-o-u tariffs on kWh/year. BEIS has developed and trialled a smart tool that, with a consumer's specific permission, will pull 12 months of smart data from the meter and this data will then populate a price comparison website. To get the cheapest tariff, the price comparator needs to know not just how much energy is used but when it is used.

I am the first to admit that our rollout is anything but World-beating: we should have gone for the French (nespresso) Link system. This is a single design built by selected manufacturers.

Many of the problems relating to gas meters will be resolved with the deployment of a dual band Communications hub.

Larac

I had one fitted around 3 months ago and find it quite useful as you can instantly see what you are using for both gas and electricity on a daily basis.  Good for finding out what devices are big users of energy and seeking ways of making less use.  Found it quite a faff to read meters on monthly basis, especially if they are not digital and easy to misread.  

RobM99

Astria said:

 I'm interested in what each individual device/gadget is using, which they can't provide.

They can if you make the effort. Turn everything off and switch things on one by one. Takes a few minutes.

Grotdog

We've looked at this in detail. Smart meters are a way for energy suppliers to control you. If you dont pay all your bill, or get behind, they can switch it to pre-payment mode - even if you werent on pre payment before. I can see very little benefit -  you're better off getting your own meter fitted and telling them to stick the daily charge as you are supplying your own meter.

wild666

The savings of having a smart meter IMHO are that there is no meter readers calling to take readings and you have an IHD to tell you how much electric and gas you've used other than that it's a normal meter. 
One point would be is if you ever cancel the DD, i.e. the don't pay protest movement, then they can switch the smart meter to prepayment mode and it would be difficult to get it back to a credit meter afterwards as they could consider the person a high risk in doing so.

elsien

Grotdog said:

We've looked at this in detail. Smart meters are a way for energy suppliers to control you. If you dont pay all your bill, or get behind, they can switch it to pre-payment mode - even if you werent on pre payment before. I can see very little benefit -  you're better off getting your own meter fitted and telling them to stick the daily charge as you are supplying your own meter.

Please come  back and let us know how that goes……