Smart Meters - good idea or not?

Marvel1

[Deleted User] said:

Why wouldn’t you want one? There are some issues but most do what it says on the tin. If you want to make use of cheaper time-of-use tariffs you need to have a smart meter.

I'm with British Gas, thinking of one for this reason, any links where I can find this information from them?

wild666

I had them fitted in 2015 to take BG's free electric. The only thing smart meters do, IMHO, is let you know how much electric and gas you're using with a IHD. All the savings can be made without smart meters by turning appliance off that are not in use and lowering boiler temperatures and the thermostat temperature. There are only three electrical appliances that need to be on 24/7 and they are the fridge, freezer and router. 

casjen

Smart meters are totally pointless. In this digital age sending the readings over your phone/pc every month ensures both, you know the company has got them and B they are accurate. The don't save you any money whatsoever.  Just digital junk.

badger09

casjen said:

Smart meters are totally pointless. In this digital age sending the readings over your phone/pc every month ensures both, you know the company has got them and B they are accurate. The don't save you any money whatsoever.  Just digital junk.

I don’t agree that they’re ‘totally pointless’. They will be essential if/when Time of Use incentives are introduced 

k_man

And useful for granular view (30 min slots) of energy usage, which makes saving energy (and so money) much easier.

Better than the alternative of 30 min manual meter readings and a spreadsheet to get the equivalent information.

lisyloo

casjen said:

Smart meters are totally pointless. In this digital age sending the readings over your phone/pc every month ensures both, you know the company has got them and B they are accurate. The don't save you any money whatsoever.  Just digital junk.

I don't agree they are pointless.
Reading the meter when you're halfway round the world is impossible.
Also they help elderly people with mobility issues especially if the meter is outside on slippery surfaces.

I agree with you about the money saving aspect, I don't "get" that at all.

[Deleted User]

I wish people would take a step back from the usual approach of 'how will it benefit me'?

Smart meters are but one part of what is known as a smart grid. A smart grid is necessary because our energy supply is no longer constant as was the case when we had coal-fired power stations. Today, National Grid has to manage the weather and time-dependent vagaries of renewable energy where the amount of electricity provided by solar and wind power can range from 60% to not a lot - as is the case at the moment:



You can see that nearly 60% of our electricity is coming from gas at 9.20am on an October morning.

Renewable energy cannot be turned on and off with ease. It makes sense to offer cheap energy when supply exceeds demand and vice versa. Making good decisions requires better consumer profiling. Better profiling means that the Grid (and more truthfully, we) are not paying to have a coal-fired power station sitting on idle on a 'just in case' basis. The Grid operators need to know how much energy is needed per year and when the energy is being used. Smart meters provide this granularity. Renewable energy brings with it voltage and frequency challenges. My grid voltage goes up by 5volts when the two local solar farms start to generate. This has to be managed and DNOs are now trialling pro-active grid voltage management at an area level by taking voltage data from smart meters.

Many countries now have both time-of-use and demand restricted tariffs. The latter require the consumer to sign up to a power limit (kW): the benefit of doing so is a much cheaper overall tariff. The consumer is helping the Grid operator and gets cheaper energy as a result.

In sum, the whole point of a smart grid is to better manage demand with ever-changing renewable supplies along with better grid frequency and voltage control, and earlier grid component fault detection. It is not just about the supplier being able to bill on actual meter readings.

badger09

[Deleted User] said:

I wish people would take a step back from the usual approach of 'how will it benefit me'?

Smart meters are but one part of what is known as a smart grid. A smart grid is necessary because our energy supply is no longer constant as was the case when we had coal-fired power stations. Today, National Grid has to manage the weather and time-dependent vagaries of renewable energy where the amount of electricity provided by solar and wind power can range from 60% to not a lot - as is the case at the moment:



You can see that nearly 60% of our electricity is coming from gas at 9.20am on an October morning.

Renewable energy cannot be turned on and off with ease. It makes sense to offer cheap energy when supply exceeds demand and vice versa. Making good decisions requires better consumer profiling. Better profiling means that the Grid (and more truthfully, we) are not paying to have a coal-fired power station sitting on idle on a 'just in case' basis. The Grid operators need to know how much energy is needed per year and when the energy is being used. Smart meters provide this granularity. Renewable energy brings with it voltage and frequency challenges. My grid voltage goes up by 5volts when the two local solar farms start to generate. This has to be managed and DNOs are now trialling pro-active grid voltage management at an area level by taking voltage data from smart meters.

Many countries now have both time-of-use and demand restricted tariffs. The latter require the consumer to sign up to a power limit (kW): the benefit of doing so is a much cheaper overall tariff. The consumer is helping the Grid operator and gets cheaper energy as a result.

In sum, the whole point of a smart grid is to better manage demand with ever-changing renewable supplies along with better grid frequency and voltage control, and earlier grid component fault detection. It is not just about the supplier being able to bill on actual meter readings.

Sadly, that’s the only aspect some people are interested in☹️

brewerdave

badger09 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I wish people would take a step back from the usual approach of 'how will it benefit me'?

Smart meters are but one part of what is known as a smart grid. A smart grid is necessary because our energy supply is no longer constant as was the case when we had coal-fired power stations. Today, National Grid has to manage the weather and time-dependent vagaries of renewable energy where the amount of electricity provided by solar and wind power can range from 60% to not a lot - as is the case at the moment:



You can see that nearly 60% of our electricity is coming from gas at 9.20am on an October morning.

Renewable energy cannot be turned on and off with ease. It makes sense to offer cheap energy when supply exceeds demand and vice versa. Making good decisions requires better consumer profiling. Better profiling means that the Grid (and more truthfully, we) are not paying to have a coal-fired power station sitting on idle on a 'just in case' basis. The Grid operators need to know how much energy is needed per year and when the energy is being used. Smart meters provide this granularity. Renewable energy brings with it voltage and frequency challenges. My grid voltage goes up by 5volts when the two local solar farms start to generate. This has to be managed and DNOs are now trialling pro-active grid voltage management at an area level by taking voltage data from smart meters.

Many countries now have both time-of-use and demand restricted tariffs. The latter require the consumer to sign up to a power limit (kW): the benefit of doing so is a much cheaper overall tariff. The consumer is helping the Grid operator and gets cheaper energy as a result.

In sum, the whole point of a smart grid is to better manage demand with ever-changing renewable supplies along with better grid frequency and voltage control, and earlier grid component fault detection. It is not just about the supplier being able to bill on actual meter readings.

Sadly, that’s the only aspect some people are interested in☹️

Maybe because virtually all the adverts talked about on TV for the past 4 or 5 years , was how much the individual consumer could save by installing SMARTs ??

[Deleted User]

brewerdave said:

badger09 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I wish people would take a step back from the usual approach of 'how will it benefit me'?

Smart meters are but one part of what is known as a smart grid. A smart grid is necessary because our energy supply is no longer constant as was the case when we had coal-fired power stations. Today, National Grid has to manage the weather and time-dependent vagaries of renewable energy where the amount of electricity provided by solar and wind power can range from 60% to not a lot - as is the case at the moment:



You can see that nearly 60% of our electricity is coming from gas at 9.20am on an October morning.

Renewable energy cannot be turned on and off with ease. It makes sense to offer cheap energy when supply exceeds demand and vice versa. Making good decisions requires better consumer profiling. Better profiling means that the Grid (and more truthfully, we) are not paying to have a coal-fired power station sitting on idle on a 'just in case' basis. The Grid operators need to know how much energy is needed per year and when the energy is being used. Smart meters provide this granularity. Renewable energy brings with it voltage and frequency challenges. My grid voltage goes up by 5volts when the two local solar farms start to generate. This has to be managed and DNOs are now trialling pro-active grid voltage management at an area level by taking voltage data from smart meters.

Many countries now have both time-of-use and demand restricted tariffs. The latter require the consumer to sign up to a power limit (kW): the benefit of doing so is a much cheaper overall tariff. The consumer is helping the Grid operator and gets cheaper energy as a result.

In sum, the whole point of a smart grid is to better manage demand with ever-changing renewable supplies along with better grid frequency and voltage control, and earlier grid component fault detection. It is not just about the supplier being able to bill on actual meter readings.

Sadly, that’s the only aspect some people are interested in☹️

Maybe because virtually all the adverts talked about on TV for the past 4 or 5 years , was how much the individual consumer could save by installing SMARTs ??

Chicken and egg.

Do the adverts focus on personal savings because that’s the only thing people are interested in, or is that the only thing people are interested in because it’s the only thing they were told about in the adverts?