New Smart Meter are dangerous - Budget Exceeded

justAnotherBadger

[Deleted User] said:

@justAnotherBadger

Your posts are becoming something of a rant against energy suppliers. The installer is just a trained person that installs smart meters. In many cases, they do not work for your energy supplier. They are not there to chat to consumers about their energy use or set budgets. Are you really suggesting that they should sit down with every consumer discuss the tariff that they are on: the day/night split for E7; the property EPC and your preferred heating times and temperatures just to set a budget? Did you have a daily energy budget before your smart meters were installed? 

In a number of cases, the installers will have moved on to their next job leaving a non-commissioned gas meter. They are paid for each installation they do.

You seem unduly focussed on budgets. Smart meters and IHDs are NOT energy savings devices. The energy savings come from the information that they provide which, in turn, encourages people to turn things down or off. In your case, the IHD seems to have worked as designed! Everyday is a school day, and you are now much more knowledgable about smart meters and IHDs than you were when you made your original post.

Finally, I wouldn’t worry too much about the elderly. We have been through the University of Life and managing spending is something that was taught to us by our parents well before the age of computers and iPhones. Some of us even know how to turn a computer on.

I'm not ranting against anyone, I am just asking for more information to be provided, this can be focused on circumstances if needed.  Would you like a leaflet on setting up budgets or would you like me to show you the setup?

Everyone should receive a level of information to help their circumstances, my grandparents would need that.

The_Fat_Controller

Not all IHDs have a budget feature, mine certainly doesn't.

When my tariffs changed it was several days before they appeared on the relevant IHD screen.

You cannot expect energy companies to spoon feed everybody.

The standard installation should be, here's the manual, so please RTFM.

matelodave

Should the budget be set in kwh or in £££'s because if you set the budget in kwh and the cost increase then then budget gets blown out of the water if it's been set in £££'s

My six year old IDH has a target rather than a budget and it's set in kwh so it tells me whether I'm above or below target and tells me how much it's going to cost (the tariff is actually properly set).

However, it does have a green, yellow and red light to tell me whether I'm below, on target or above. But that said, it goes red when we boil a kettle or the washing machine, cooker or anything else is on so I guess it thinks we should be using a consistent amount all the time, so it's not very useful

However, like virtually everyone, my consumption in the winter it vastly higher than it is in the summer (8-10kwh a day in the summer and 30-60kwh/day in the winter). Therefore, the budget or target function is pointless unless I tweak it virtually every month (or week or day) depending on the weather, or if we are going to be doing the washing or even going on holiday.

justAnotherBadger

matelodave said:

Should the budget be set in kwh or in £££'s because if you set the budget in kwh and the cost increase then then budget gets blown out of the water if it's been set in £££'s

My six year old IDH has a target rather than a budget and it's set in kwh so it tells me whether I'm above or below target and tells me how much it's going to cost (the tariff is actually properly set). Dunno how newer IHDs are set

However, like virtually everyone, my consumption in the winter it vastly higher than it is in the summer (8-10kwh a day in the summer and 30-60kwh/day in the winter). Therefore, the budget or target function is pointless unless I tweak it virtually every month (or week or day) depending on the weather, or if we are going to be doing the washing or even going on holiday.

Target is certainly better wording than budget, target doesn't have the same connotation as budget.

These are sold as smart meters to help save energy, they should actually be smart and useful straight out of the box. 

It didn't come with a manual or instructions so I can't RTFM. 

[Deleted User]

 they should actually be smart and useful straight out of the box.  

They are smart and useful straight out of the box. You are choosing to make a mountain out of a molehill because you are embarrassed by your post. Most IHDs are sitting in cupboards/drawers because they are of limited value when there are so many third-party apples around that most people prefer to use.

Most smart devices come with very little information out of the box. For example, do you know how to take meter readings from your smart meters should they stop being smart (it happens). Smart meters have 4 registers and they are many models of SMETS2 meters all of which are different. For convenience, suppliers put this information online:

https://octopus.energy/blog/how-to-read-your-meter/

They are meeting their requirements under the Code by doing it in this way.

ariarnia

justAnotherBadger said:

... they have exceeded a ridiculous £1000 yearly budget.

it might be ridiculous for you but £1000 for us is quite generous. our current projection is about £600 for 2022 (no idea what the rates will be from april for 2023 of course). 

the idea an accurate budget can be set based on a few questions about how many people live in the house and if there's double glasing is just silly. 

ChaunceyGardiner

I think that anyone who actually paid attention to the budget information would realise that it could be adjusted. Would anyone think that their supplier was actually imposing, or suggesting a budget?

The_Green_Hornet

I can see where the OP is coming from. The customer is handed a brand new gadget, which they don't have any knowledge about, and then it suddenly displays a warning about their weekly budget being exceeded.

Now obviously all the clever people on this forum know what it means but just for once put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn't know anything about smart meters or in house displays.

Maybe the budget feature shouldn't be set by default.

PennyForThem_2

My IHD initially showed me spending about £50 per day.  It was worrying initially but after googling and getting 'sorry we have a s/w problem'  I turned it off and consigned it to a draw.  It is pretty useless, tbh.  Occasionally used it to read the meters but it has even ceased to do that - mainly because it is never on to receive s/w updates.

wild666

My SMETS 1 meter didn't have a default budget option set when it was installed in 2015, I guess this is something some suppliers are doing. 
All I have being doing since mine was installed was taking daily readings, the IHD got waterlogged in Dec. 2015 so got binned. I now take daily electric readings and weekly gas readings