Octopus: Action: Your meter is approaching its use-by date

ariarnia

[Deleted User] said:

Deleted_User said:

I had typed a reply for 70sbudgie and MalMonroe and thanks also to Spoone_Turtle, doing my best to explain.  I don't know what happened but I 'lost' what I had typed and the comment did not post - maybe my post was too long.

As Spoonie_Turtle and pochase confirmed, my present electric meter is not nearing it's end of certification date.

Thank you for your kind words, MalMonroe.

Although I find it difficult to articulate, I am comfortable and happy with my present 'Dumb' meters and don't want to change to Smart Meters.

So you would rather believe forum posters rather than your energy supplier? 

Why would a supplier make this up - and before you answer I do not buy into the conspiracy theories that emerge on this forum. As Octopus has said in its blog, if you have concerns about the meter certification date then speak to it about it.

You use words like ‘comfortable’ and ‘happy’ as if they have some legal basis when they don’t. The legal position is that suppliers have to change meters when they reach the end of their certificated lives. To do otherwise would be breach of the Law. Working does not mean accurate.

To re-iterate, Octopus does not need your approval to fit a smart meter in the circumstances described in the message that you received.

 if the actual cirt length of that meter has changed over the years then its not hard to think a database hasn't been updated without it being a conspiracy ? or octopus are saying 'its coming up on end of life' not it has expired so maybe they're just trying to do replacements for older meters while they have stock and engineers available in that area?

i agree if i was the op i would be contacting octopus but i';m sure octopus will follow up themselves eventually alway. 

Mstty

[Deleted User] said:

Mstty said:

2010 said:

The post is about whether the OP is being misled by the email that he received and it seems he has listened and has made up his own mind and decided he has been and they can keep their SM.

If smart meters were for the benefit of the consumer --------------- they wouldn`t fit them.

Mutual benefit isn't too bad though is it?

We would not be without our smart meter.

Recent benefits are the many time of use tariffs coming to the market now that will be in full swing come the end of our current fix. 

The DFS national grid energy shift events. We estimate £200+ payback from these events. (10% of our bill this year)

The recent downsides

None for us
.

People need to read the Smart Meter Cost Benefit Analysis which shows savings of £6Bn to the domestic energy sector. This is not money saved by energy suppliers but the sector as a whole. Without smart meters, consumers would end up paying these costs via their standing charges. 

It is true that smart meters do not in themselves save consumers a penny but they do encourage different behaviours, and make available money-saving tariffs. 

I think I have successfully shown a smart meter can in fact save the consumer money with the current DFS events and would argue you have a greater choice in the electricity market even now with a smart meter to save a lot of money with products such as Octopus tracker.

wild666

I have smart meters and some days without me doing anything different the daily usage is up by about 1.3kWh. The gas is another matter as depending on the temperature of the home it can use more or less gas.
As I have said many times a friend has resisted moving to smart meters and got a reply when he asked about the certification period that his meters were certified until around 2027, he moved into the property, a new build in October 1983, he used to get requests to have smart meters installed monthly until he requested the certification date from the supplier, then they stopped. His meters were installed in early 1983 and will be over 44 years old by the time the certification period runs out. His home is full of appliances that were new in the 60's and 70's and are still running strong, if any break he just cannibalises part from other items that will work in the one that broke. 

Mstty

wild666 said:

I have smart meters and some days without me doing anything different the daily usage is up by about 1.3kWh. The gas is another matter as depending on the temperature of the home it can use more or less gas.
As I have said many times a friend has resisted moving to smart meters and got a reply when he asked about the certification period that his meters were certified until around 2027, he moved into the property, a new build in October 1983, he used to get requests to have smart meters installed monthly until he requested the certification date from the supplier, then they stopped. His meters were installed in early 1983 and will be over 44 years old by the time the certification period runs out. His home is full of appliances that were new in the 60's and 70's and are still running strong, if any break he just cannibalises part from other items that will work in the one that broke. 

Are you saying your electricity smart meter is faulty? If you know for certain your base load has no way of the additional 1.3kwh and you have monitored each appliances seperatley then surely you have raised this with your supplier?

deano2099

Gerry1 said:

MWT said:

Gerry1 said:

TheElectricCow said:

greenhill said:

No, you don't save money with smart meters so please don't bother saying that.

At the more extreme end of the scale you even have things like the Demand Flexibility Service currently being tested/ran which can allow for some significant gains if you go about it right.

AKA Surge Pricing.

Don't worry, electricity will only be prohibitively expensive at the times when you want to use it...

The exact opposite in this case, people are being paid to use less energy in a specified time period to reduce the demand...

And how long do you think that this Shangri-La La Land will last?

Forever. Because it's infinitely more palatable than the alternative of surge pricing, for the same effect.
Why price electricity higher in peak times, when instead you can price it higher all the time and then pay people to not use it at peak times?

deano2099

Gerry1 said:

It's a great way for them to manage your energy consumption.  FTFY !

Starts with paying people to use less.  Yup, some people will fall for it.  (Just as they believed in the pensions triple lock, that the Dartford Bridge would only be tolled until it had paid for itself, that Theresa wouldn't call an early general election, that Clegg wouldn't allow tuition fees to be increased, and that the Pound in your Pocket wouldn't be devalued.  Yup, you can always trust a politician.  And BTW there were never any parties.)

Then it's Surge Pricing, which won't remain optional for very long.  If you don't comply, then it's Load Limiting.

If you still don't comply, then it's Load Shedding.

Yes, it may well be the future, but it's the sheer dishonesty of the unpublicised Demand Side Response agenda to which I object.

You might be right. But if you are right you're missing one group of gullible people like those who believed in the triple lock, Clegg, etc: the people that believed that by simply saying "no" to a smart meter that they'd avoid this energy dystopia altogether.

*If* surge pricing happens and you don't have a smart meter, you're just going to be charged surge pricing based on what the energy company *estimate* you used during those times. And if you think that those estimates will be beneficial, rather than detrimental, to you, then that's completely inconsistent with your narrative of how the energy companies and governments are going to force this through in the first place.

deano2099

wild666 said:

I have smart meters and some days without me doing anything different the daily usage is up by about 1.3kWh. 

That is concerning and worth investigating.

What I would note though is that if you didn't have a smart meter, and your meter had the exact same fault, you would not be aware of this unless you were reading it every day. You'd just assume the monthly total was accurate.

These sort of anomalies are a great example of why smart meters are beneficial. When they go wrong, you realise a lot more quickly. 

2010

Six month waiting list for the Octopus tracker and even then you may need a Philadelphia lawyer to understand the mechanism of it if you`re not up to it.
Also the tariff and standing charge varies from region to region.

There again, it seems some people have loads of time to kill everyday seeing if the price is higher or lower than the day before.

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

Alnat1

Loads of time to kill? Like 10 seconds?