Smart meter

Fertilizer

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

mmmmikey

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

This is the kind of nonsense that has been circulating on the Internet and has put people off. But it is just that - nonsense.

(1) Smart meters don't use your WiFi - i.e. you don't need WiFi in the home or an Internet connection to make them work. They use their own communications network to get the data back to the suppliers - in some parts of the country this is just the regular mobile telephone network.

(2) There are all sorts of checks and balances in place to stop the energy companies switching off your meter remotely on a whim. And in any case why on earth would they want to - they are in the business of selling elecricity?

(3) The assertion that "quite a few people" have had smart meters removed is also nonsense. I daresay a few people have needed to have them replaced for specific reasons, but keep in mind there are now (literally) millions of smart meters installed so it's inevitable that there have been problems with a few.

As far as the benefits are concerned, for me the biggest one is money saving. Over the last 52 days since I switched to Octopus Agile I have paid an average of 17.537p/kWh for my electricity - i.e. slightly more than half what I would have paid on a standard variable rate. And another benefit isI know this without having to have taken readings and put them on a spreadsheet or anything like that - I can see this in a free app on my smartphone.

QrizB

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

[Citation required]

Fertilizer said:

Apart from needing to use your wifi

They don't use your WiFi, or anybody else's WiFi.

Fertilizer said:

(and wifi might not be good for you)

[Citation required]

Choosing to have WiFi in your house, or not, has nothing to do with smart meters.

mr_stripey

again, it is worth pointing out (as I sometimes do when smart metering crops up) 

- most, if not all, meter manufacturers have stopped making the old style meters (there is no demand from the energy supplier)
- in the case of the company I work for, the factories which used to make them have been sold and demolished
- the new smart meters are made in new facilities, and could not make the old style meters

it may already be quite difficult for your energy to obtain an old style meter and pretty soon there won't be any left.

mr_stripey

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

that's a very large amount of nonsense in a very short post

[Deleted User]

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Source? No supplier is going to remove smart meters just because a consumer has changed his/her mind. Smart meters are just meters that record usage in a similar way to old analogue meters. If a supplier was to agree to remove smart meters, there would be a charge raised for doing so.

Suppliers can now replace end-of-life meters with smart meters without the homeowner’s permission.

CSI_Yorkshire

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

Thanks Fertilizer, I haven't had such a good laugh for a while.  You did well to write all that with a straight face

Gerry1

mmmmikey said:

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

(2) There are all sorts of checks and balances in place to stop the energy companies switching off your meter remotely on a whim. And in any case why on earth would they want to - they are in the business of selling electricity?

Why is this 'on a whim' nonsense always trotted out?

I'd wager you've never read the smart meter specification, hence you're not familiar with Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Time of Use Tariffs (Surge Pricing), Demand Side Response etc.

The energy companies don't want to switch people off but they may have to implement rationing when the creaky grid doesn't have enough juice to go round because nuclear stations have been closed and not replaced, it's dark and cold, and a stationary high pressure system means the wind won't blow for a week.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

mmmmikey said:

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

(2) There are all sorts of checks and balances in place to stop the energy companies switching off your meter remotely on a whim. And in any case why on earth would they want to - they are in the business of selling electricity?

Why is this 'on a whim' nonsense always trotted out?

I'd wager you've never read the smart meter specification, hence you're not familiar with Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Time of Use Tariffs (Surge Pricing), Demand Side Response etc.

The energy companies don't want to switch people off but they may have to implement rationing when the creaky grid doesn't have enough juice to go round because nuclear stations have been closed and not replaced, it's dark and cold, and a stationary high pressure system means the wind won't blow for a week.

It is now 4 years since the first SMETS2 meters were deployed. Have you a single validated report of any supplier disconnecting a supply using remote disconnection? 

Indeed, based on legal advice, it was agreed some years ago that suppliers will not use remote disconnection for such things as termination of supply due to bad debts. This would be done in the normal way via a Court Order.

In the future, we may see remote disconnection used when a consumer breaches an agreed power-limited tariff. The possibility of disconnection will be in the tariff terms and conditions. That said, these tariffs have yet to be offered to consumers in the UK.

mmmmikey

Gerry1 said:

mmmmikey said:

Fertilizer said:

I understand that quite a few people who have had "smart meters" installed have requested them to be removed - and they have been.

Apart from needing to use your wifi (and wifi might not be good for you), it also means the energy company can simply turn off your supply remotely.  That's seems to be the main reason these meters are being pushed - control.

(2) There are all sorts of checks and balances in place to stop the energy companies switching off your meter remotely on a whim. And in any case why on earth would they want to - they are in the business of selling electricity?

Why is this 'on a whim' nonsense always trotted out?

I'd wager you've never read the smart meter specification, hence you're not familiar with Load Limiting, Load Shedding, Time of Use Tariffs (Surge Pricing), Demand Side Response etc.

The energy companies don't want to switch people off but they may have to implement rationing when the creaky grid doesn't have enough juice to go round because nuclear stations have been closed and not replaced, it's dark and cold, and a stationary high pressure system means the wind won't blow for a week.

Good point, that's another benefit of smart meters. In an emergency or if there simply isn't enough electricity being generated to go round, the suppliers can use smart meters to manage who gets what in a controlled way. For example they could ensure that people with medical equipment that need power don't get cut off as part of an area wide shutdown. Or they could advise everyone to reduce usage and only cut off those who ignore the request and use electricity excessively. The ability to ration if needed is a good thing - the issues that drive that need are a different matter and nothing to do with smart meters.