Refusing a smart meter installation

Grumpy_chap

Ultrasonic said:

The purpose of a smart meter is not to save you money. From a customer perspective the main benefit is no longer having to send meter readings to your supplier, 

How reliable is this functionality?

The only person I know with a smart meter is my Mum - they had one fitted in what was the family house.  That meter never communicated to the outside world because of a poor mobile signal apparently.  So, it still required meter readings to be taken and sent in.
Mum has now moved to a bungalow and the smart meter is not linked to the supplier because Mum changed supplier away from the default and that, apparently, requires a new smart meter for the new supplier.  Again, it means meter readings need to be taken and sent in.

I can't see the point of changing our meter to smart meter if it needs swapping every time there is a change of supplier.  It also seems very wasteful to create all this WEE waste every time utility supplier changes.  Good for creating jobs for meter fitters though.

QrizB

Grumpy_chap said:

Mum has now moved to a bungalow and the smart meter is not linked to the supplier because Mum changed supplier away from the default and that, apparently, requires a new smart meter for the new supplier.  Again, it means meter readings need to be taken and sent in.

That shouldn't be the case. Smart meters communicate with the DCC, and the DCC's data is accessible to whichever supplier you use.

An exception would be if she has one of the early first-generation meters that connected directly to the supplier and can't be redirected to speak to the DCC.

I can't see the point of changing our meter to smart meter if it needs swapping every time there is a change of supplier.

As above, this shouldn't be the case.

Ultrasonic

Grumpy_chap said:

Ultrasonic said:

The purpose of a smart meter is not to save you money. From a customer perspective the main benefit is no longer having to send meter readings to your supplier, 

How reliable is this functionality?

The only person I know with a smart meter is my Mum - they had one fitted in what was the family house.  That meter never communicated to the outside world because of a poor mobile signal apparently.  So, it still required meter readings to be taken and sent in.
Mum has now moved to a bungalow and the smart meter is not linked to the supplier because Mum changed supplier away from the default and that, apparently, requires a new smart meter for the new supplier.  Again, it means meter readings need to be taken and sent in.

I can't see the point of changing our meter to smart meter if it needs swapping every time there is a change of supplier.  It also seems very wasteful to create all this WEE waste every time utility supplier changes.  Good for creating jobs for meter fitters though.

In my personal experience it has been 100% reliable, including with my smart meter having been using with 4 different suppliers now. Nobody should need to change meters just because they change suppliers. Can there be issues? Yes, as your Mum's experience has shown. The silent majority just have a smart meter fitted and have no issues though. People who don't have issues generally don't post on forums like this to say so. Crucially, for anyone that does have an issue of data not being sent, they are no worse off that with their previous 'dumb' meter.

molerat

they are no worse off that with their previous 'dumb' meter.

So you can read your meter from 6ft away with a torch ?

Glum

QrizB said:

Ofgem's site (at your link) is unfortunately worded:

The "must install" in the first sentence overrides the customer choice mentioned further down in the box.

The latest Ofgem communication on the smart meter rollout seems to be this open letter:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/smart-meter-rollout-energy-suppliers-rollout-delivery-open-letter-march-2022

Thanks. I spotted that too. It should probably say:
In all other cases you can choose not to accept an offer to have a smart meter fitted.

I see from the open letter that 'abort rates' for the larger suppliers are 23%. I wonder how many of these are due to bad communication with the customer i.e. the fitter turns up and the customer just says, "What? Not today thank you!". From the general tone of the Ofgem letter relating to quotas, this may explain why I am being told I'm having one without being asked.

Ultrasonic

molerat said:

they are no worse off that with their previous 'dumb' meter.

So you can read your meter from 6ft away with a torch ?

I couldn't do that on a dumb meter any more than I could with a smart meter! Possibly somebody with better eyesight than me could on a dumb meter but this is a particularly bizarre criterion to introduce! 

If someone has a meter in a particularly bizarre place where this might become an issue then I'll leave it up to them to consider, but a long stick to push the button on a smart meter would probably do the trick. Those with hard to access meters would however see far more of a benefit from a working smart meter than any current 'dumb' meter.

MWT

molerat said:

they are no worse off that with their previous 'dumb' meter.

So you can read your meter from 6ft away with a torch ?

I can read my smart meters from 30' away and I don't even need the torch...

The IHD is a useful device...

dunstonh

pineapple said:

They can't fit smart meters everywhere even if the customer wants them. Next door got harangued and thought it was obligatory so she had them round and guess what - she can't have one due to the poor mobile phone signal. Which also applies to me.

SMETS1 used mobile networks.  We couldn't have a SMETS1 meter due to no signal.  They installed a new conventional meter instead (old one was faulty - ironically, so is the replacement but it's in my favour).    SMETS2 don't use mobile signals.  99.25% of households work with a SMETS2 meter.

CKhalvashi

Glum said:

QrizB said:

Ofgem's site (at your link) is unfortunately worded:

The "must install" in the first sentence overrides the customer choice mentioned further down in the box.

The latest Ofgem communication on the smart meter rollout seems to be this open letter:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/smart-meter-rollout-energy-suppliers-rollout-delivery-open-letter-march-2022

Thanks. I spotted that too. It should probably say:
In all other cases you can choose not to accept an offer to have a smart meter fitted.

I see from the open letter that 'abort rates' for the larger suppliers are 23%. I wonder how many of these are due to bad communication with the customer i.e. the fitter turns up and the customer just says, "What? Not today thank you!". From the general tone of the Ofgem letter relating to quotas, this may explain why I am being told I'm having one without being asked.

In fairness though, if you turn up to most peoples homes on a weekday you're going to have issues getting in, at least with us and our neighbours. We're either doing something or sleeping (depending on work schedules) at these times.

I've said to the company that wants to install for us that I'd take no issue with them installing it, just we can't guarantee to be in on the timescales they're looking at (I refuse to be unable to schedule meetings due to power going out for a while just to sit in all day for someone to not arrive as timed slots aren't on offer), they're insisting, despite both meters being outside, that someone is home for the install. They won't even give an hour's notice to be home so it's not as if I can reschedule 1/2 calls on the day, come home and then go back to the office.

[Deleted User]

dunstonh said:

pineapple said:

They can't fit smart meters everywhere even if the customer wants them. Next door got harangued and thought it was obligatory so she had them round and guess what - she can't have one due to the poor mobile phone signal. Which also applies to me.

SMETS1 used mobile networks.  We couldn't have a SMETS1 meter due to no signal.  They installed a new conventional meter instead (old one was faulty - ironically, so is the replacement but it's in my favour).    SMETS2 don't use mobile signals.  99.25% of households work with a SMETS2 meter.

SMETS2 meters in the Southern and Central regions use the Telefonica (O2) mobile network. Northern regions use UHF radio frequencies managed by Arqiva.