♥️ I love my mechanical meter because........

Chris_b2z

EssexHebridean said:

Chris_b2z said:

mmmmikey said:

I love my mechanical meter because it brings back memories of an earlier time when trains were powered by steam engines.....

Steam trains provided a reliable service between Euston and Manchester ... and they were delivered on budget.

And would you want to go back to them being in use now? (My Mum always says that the one thing she can always tell about anyone who says “yes” in answer to this is that they are not old enough to remember actually travelling in steam trains!) 

I just feel a bit embarassed that our proud nation can no longer deliver major infastructure projects effectively ie SMETS1 and HS2.

NorfolkCanary

because....it spins right round, baby, right round and like a record, it records, baby right 'round 'round 'round

Zandoni

Mechanical diaphragm gas meters are pretty amazing, they are cheap to produce and remain accurate for many years. There have been a few problems with some manufacturers over the years and all the problems found were fixed. It's a shame that so many of them have been sentenced to death when they had many years of service left in them.

They were all produced in this country too.

I doubt the electronic smart meters used now will last any where near the same amount of time.

Netexporter

They were all produced in this country too.

Are you sure about that?

M25

Another reason I don't like smart meters:

My 85 year old aunt (on the Priority Register) had been receiving letters from British Gas which confused her saying her gas meter was no longer sending meter readings but not to worry they would estimate the bill. But they kept sending letters. And she worried.

I eventually visited and indeed she had several letters so I checked the gas meter. There was no smart meter at all. She did (maybe 15 years ago) have a smart meter fitted to her electric and that just had a blank screen totally dead. There was never any 'smart' connection to the gas (the gas meter was very old style) from what I can see.

Anyway, I decided the best route would be to contact BG and they offered to fit 2 new smart meters which sounded a good idea [for her].

She sat in for the installer who arrived 5 hours late and he said he couldn't do the meters but to expect a call about another appointment from a different engineer. Another appointment was arranged and an engineer changed the meters over.

That was 3 months ago and they don't work and of course she's now getting letters saying her smart meters aren't sending readings but not to worry they'll estimate the bill. A lot of 85 years like to worry.

Yes, it's an anecdote but my time is lost and we're no further forward.

The idea behind smart meters is actually pretty smart I accept but are they needed? Not really. It's like oak floors I wouldn't fit them but if I moved into a house with them I'd just buy rugs and live with them.

At the moment they're just toys for certain parts of society to play with. Some people truly love their smart meters. I just like my gas/electric meters because I don't know they're there and their operation doesn't consume my daily life via an IHD (In Home Dunce) or app.

In fact mechanical meters are incredibly smart because they work well for decades without any work from the consumer. Reading the meter is a bit of effort i suppose but it is a meter after all so that's part of having a meter. I'd suggest smart meters give people a lot of work and when I say people I mean the type of people who love smart meters as objects as part of their daily life and post on this forum and elsewhere talking about them like they're their children.

Anyway, hopefully we'll have more postive mechanical stories.

M25

Just to add a bit of info:

Her 2 meters can actually be read from outside the house but the meters ar inside the house. House was built with a wooden panel at the door so you could read the meters. It was done well with just little windows so you could read the digits.

Now, that's smart and it worked for almost 40 years perfectly. I was never sure why they took a smart electric meter because the meter was read by an err.. meter reader person outside.

MultiFuelBurner

I fully agree for a certain age of consumer to have what they know to be changed for something technologically focused can be disturbing in what could be their final year's at home (mind you we said that 10 years ago with nan)

However I don't think we have looked at our IHD since we worked out how much everything costs and used smart measuring plugs for that as well.

It's nice to login to see the daily usage when tweaks are made to the heating system to see the results of the changes but it's certainly not an everyday experience. 

I suspect you login here to promote the dumb in meter more than people look at their IHD or app. It provides convenience and can save people between 5-95% of their bill.

Zandoni

Netexporter said:

They were all produced in this country too.

Are you sure about that?

100% I used to visit all the factories, they started to move them abroad in the later years of production.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Zandoni said:

Netexporter said:

They were all produced in this country too.

Are you sure about that?

100% I used to visit all the factories, they started to move them abroad in the later years of production.

So not all of them then, just a bit of poetic license in that perhaps the later years (what 1/2/3/5/10 years so maybe a few million not made it the UK?

This is the problem fact is few and far between on the past it's all nostalgia and it was all Rosey and great. It wasn't.

Netexporter

they started to move them abroad in the later years of production.

Which proves my point. G4 meters were made in Germany, amongst other places.