SMART meter time?

lohr500

Netexporter said:

What are the negatives in having a smart meter?

The worst case I can see is that if the smart meter can't connect, for some reason, you will still effectively have a dumb meter. At least it will be a recently calibrated and within its service life dumb meter.

Isn't the main fear raised by those opposed to smart meters that the supply to the individual property could be switched off remotely?
Either as a result of non payment of bills, or as part of load rationing activity at times when demand exceeds supply.

Rightly or wrongly, I don't share that fear. A smart meter has been of great benefit in our case as it has allowed us to access a time of use tariff that could not be supported by a conventional dumb meter.  

Netexporter

Isn't the main fear raised by those opposed to smart meters that the supply to the individual property could be switched off remotely?

Same legal process. Would you rather have the leccy switched off remotely, or have the door knocked down by bailiffs (assuming you wouldn't let them in to make the disconnection)?

You'd also get the supply restored quicker, with a smart meter, that could then be remotely converted to pre-payment mode, rather than a physical pre-payment meter fitted.

[Deleted User]

Same legal process. Would you rather have the leccy switched off remotely, or have the door knocked down by bailiffs (assuming you wouldn't let them in to make the disconnection)?

Correct. Remote disconnection without someone being present was dismissed some years ago by lawyers. Can you imagine the fallout if someone died as a result of having their life support remotely turned off by mistake.

badmemory

That isn't what worries me.  "If the smart meter doesn't communicate then you can read the meters anyway".  From the little I have seen of smart meters they are a lot harder to read than the old ones.  As in the need to bend over & keep pressing buttons & hope you catch the number as it goes flashing passed you.  It does not seem to be a good mix with decreasing both eyesight & mobility.  I know they stopped fitting them here for a couple of years because of comms problems but who is to say that the new comms are any better.  Don't ask me to believe them because they were trying to force them before when they must have known they weren't going to work.

Altior

I can only write in regard to my own personal circumstances. What I'd urge anyone else to do is exactly that, not listen to me or anyone else. Yes my meters are old tech, but I am in a new build so the meters aren't actually old and can be read from the exterior. I live alone, my home has strong insulation. My energy usage is very low and very consistent. I have no interest in moderating my usage further overall, or at a particular time of the day. Installing smart meters would make zero difference to my life, apart from they could bring difficulties that I don't experience currently.

Spoonie_Turtle

Altior said:

So in this example, what do you stand to gain now, and in the future, by allowing your domestic energy supplier to fit a 'SMART' meter,

My answer to that is -
Now: savings on smart tariffs, and accurate energy monitoring to know how much each appliance is realistically using (regardless of its nominal power draw) so we can identify anything going rogue - sadly we've already cut down where possible and certain changes have made our energy consumption increase again.

In the future: being able to keep our energy supply!  When our non-smart meter reached the end of its life and needed replacing, the reality is a smart meter would have been the only option anyway.

As this is a moneysaving site, worth pointing out that since being on what is now a smart tariff requiring smart meters to allow people to join it, so far this year we have saved in the region of £930 compared with the standard variable tariff.  In the last three months alone since having the smart meter (our previous tariff term ended and we could not continue on Octopus Tracker without having one fitted) we have saved nearly £250.  Blows the current £100 incentive out of the water, really.
(We don't have an EV or anything, just depressingly high usage all-electric.)  Our average rate has been around 16-17p/kWh for the last few months, according to the bills, compared with 30-36p at the standard rate - Eastern England, so unit rates here are higher than the quoted average.  But the Tracker formula for Eastern is a bit higher than some other areas too.

born_again

badmemory said:

That isn't what worries me.  "If the smart meter doesn't communicate then you can read the meters anyway".  From the little I have seen of smart meters they are a lot harder to read than the old ones.  As in the need to bend over & keep pressing buttons & hope you catch the number as it goes flashing passed you.  It does not seem to be a good mix with decreasing both eyesight & mobility.  I know they stopped fitting them here for a couple of years because of comms problems but who is to say that the new comms are any better.  Don't ask me to believe them because they were trying to force them before when they must have known they weren't going to work.

All I can say to that is reading our smart meter is exactly the same now, as the meter that Eon Next could not read smartly. Which is the self same physical meter...
It's live on screen all the time, I can cycle through different readings, but there is no need to.

Spoonie_Turtle

We're also on single rate and ours displays the actual reading like our previous meter did.  It also photograps easily, as our previous one did (which was a minor concern before but we ended up needing to have one fitted regardless).

markin

Dolor said:

Same legal process. Would you rather have the leccy switched off remotely, or have the door knocked down by bailiffs (assuming you wouldn't let them in to make the disconnection)?

Correct. Remote disconnection without someone being present was dismissed some years ago by lawyers. Can you imagine the fallout if someone died as a result of having their life support remotely turned off by mistake.

Wasn't the a thread just last month were someones SM had Accidentally been switched to pre-payment mode!

The_Green_Hornet

QrizB said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Netexporter said:

A smart meter costs nothing and will give you access to cheaper TOU tariffs. If you are with Eon you might also get £100 for having one installed at the moment.

From UK Government's smart meter roll-out: cost-benefit analysis 2019

Notwithstanding that pretty-coloured chart, the consumer incurs no additional cost by accepting a smart meter.

Or, put another way, they're already paying for it whether they have one or not.

You are absolutely right in saying there is no additional cost and nor should there be considering how much the whole smart meter project has cost the bill payer. That pretty-coloured chart has some eye-watering figures on it.

Personally I'm a big fan of smart meters. I'm not a fan of poorly run and financially wasteful government projects though.