Smart meter - having second thoughts

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Can I be forced to have a smart meter?.

froggy1

im with shell energy and just been told government is making companies change all to smart meters ?they are offering £50 off energy bill until end of dec- i dont really want one but agreed as foolishly listened to the spiel now im not sure if i should go ahead

dunstonh

Care: 2020 thread revival.

im with shell energy and just been told government is making companies change all to smart meters ?

Currently not compulsory but when your meter gets to end of life then it will be replaced with a smart meter apart from a very small number of cases.  A smart meter can be put in dumb mode but that would probably be a dumb thing to do.

i dont really want one but agreed as foolishly listened to the spiel now im not sure if i should go ahead

Why wouldn't you want a smart meter?   If we were still in the SMETS1 days then I could understand but not with SMETS2.

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

What means are available for reconciling the 30 minute Smart Meter readings used by the supplier, against 'actuality'?

Third party apps, if you don't trust your supplier to get it right.

(Though your supplier actually only pulls data once a day, to get a file with the 30-min slots for the previous 24 hours.  Third party apps might do it more often, not all.)

You could also test the waters by not going onto a smart or TOU tariff straight away, and check that they bill you accurately for the first month or so.  For that check you can simply compare the billed amount against the reading on your meter.

Qyburn

PhilHornby said:

What means are available for reconciling the 30 minute Smart Meter readings used by the supplier, against 'actuality'?

Unless you are on a smart tariff the supplier will bill on meter readings downloaded from the meter, not by adding up the 30 minute data. So what's on the bill should match the readings you see on the meter.

MultiFuelBurner

froggy1 said:

im with shell energy and just been told government is making companies change all to smart meters ?they are offering £50 off energy bill until end of dec- i dont really want one but agreed as foolishly listened to the spiel now im not sure if i should go ahead

£50 is decent see if they will make it £100.

There was a post here recently that suggested another supplier was offering £100.

EssexHebridean

**Post edited as the OPs thread has now been split from the one it was originally on!** 

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Third party apps, if you don't trust your supplier to get it right.

No, based on past experiences,  I don't trust Energy "suppliers" (i.e. billing companies  ) at all!

Can you point me at any of the third party apps?

Bright (by Hildebrand)
Loop
Hugo

EssexHebridean

@[Deleted User] I find Loop very good. Bright is also a favourite of many here. 

The flashing light on the meter is no secret - it’s been discussed here many times. For those who just want to get a rough idea of whether their main oven is more economical than the air fryer though, the IHD connected to a smart meter is a lot less labour-intensive! 😉

MultiFuelBurner

[Deleted User] said:

What means are available for reconciling the 30 minute Smart Meter readings used by the supplier, against 'actuality'?

Symbio and Eon.Next proved utterly incapable of handling a reading every 30 days, let alone every 30 minutes! 

I currently track Octopus's view of the world against my own spreadsheet - we were only 35p adrift at the last count, so things are definitely looking up and I might be tempted to take the plunge...

Whilst I agree symbio were probably run to fail and Eon Next customer service is one of the most shocking I have experience. With a smart meter neither missed a beat with correct billing.

QrizB

EssexHebridean said:

The flashing light on the meter is no secret - it’s been discussed here many times. For those who just want to get a rough idea of whether their main oven is more economical than the air fryer though, the IHD connected to a smart meter is a lot less labour-intensive! 😉

... and, before IHDs were a thing, the Geo Minim+ had a LED sensing option (rather than the more common current transformer).

https://geotogether.com/product/minim-led/

That's the same Geo company as makes the Trio IHD. They're also the same company that was Humm and made those CT-based energy monitors that the suppliers used to give/sell to their customers. I have a Humm device here monitoring my solar.