EonNext at it again with 'End Of Life Meter' tactics for exchanging to a Smart meter

born_again

This is such a joke carry on.
At the time this was mooted, it should have been a simple rollout where every meter was changed. No if, no buts. Anyone that stalled the process should have been put on a more expensive tariff, or charged for the staff costs on the delay.

But of course a simple job was made a lot harder than it ever should have been, by giving people a choice.🤦‍♀️

Marvel1

Qyburn said:

The sooner it's clearly publicised that they're mandatory, the better.

Not against threm, but the sooner they do what they are suppose too the better

pseudodox

I am not anti-smart meters as such but I have very good reasons for not wanting one until they become mandatory.  By which time I may be too old or feeble to care.  I live in a location with very patchy unreliable mobile signals, so an SM could be unreliable in sending readings to the energy supplier.  Fair enough - I could always read the meter & send in my own readings as I do now with absolutely no problem and which generate accurate monthly bills.  However my current old gas meter is high up on the garage wall but I can easily read it from below over the roof of my car with the aid of a torch.  To read a SM I understand I would have to press buttons.  This would mean backing my car out of the garage, removing some tools from a wall rack, and then standing on steps or a stool in order to reach over a storage unit.  I am of advanced years with dodgy knees so standing on anything is risky these days.  Even if I got on the priority register and qualified to have someone come around and read the meter (or even ask a friend) there would still be the same scenario of accessability (not).  I have never understood why meters have often been placed in the most inconvenient places - high up, low down, inside cupboards, outside in a box, under the stairs, under the kitchen sink etc

There is no way I would trust an IHD to give me accurate information - even supposing it actually worked.  Whoever thought up that ridiculous Einstein advert should be ashamed.  It is misleading, especially before it was modified and even more people than still do now thought the IHD was their meter.  But that perception is now ingrained.  The claim that it would help me to control energy usage is nonsense - it certainly would not alter my long standing habits of switching things off if they are not in use.  From what I read in many posts the display is inaccurate anyway as it lumps in the daily S/C and there is nothing anyone can do to reduce this (other than changing tariffs) so it is not showing your daily usage per se.  It would be more useful to show cost of actual usage on a daily basis and give the S/C as a monthly additional amount.  I keep a spreadsheet, enter the readings and with all the costs and conversion formulas I can have a daily, weekly or monthly summary of my usage.  My bills are always within a couple of pence of my calculations.  No smart meter is going to give me more accurate bills and I have never had a estimated one in my life.

Of course I do like the idea of being able to access TOU tariffs - however these depend on reliable communication & again we see many people here who cannot get them because the comms don't work.

When I get emails telling me my meters are at the end of life and must be replaced they add that if a new SM cannot communicate they can put back the old ones.  Huh?  So they can put back something which they say is unreliable and out of date?  I know my current meters are OK as my usage has altered little year on year for 50 years - I would notice if a meter started running amok and was seriously under or over reading.

Marvel1

born_again said:

This is such a joke carry on.
At the time this was mooted, it should have been a simple rollout where every meter was changed. No if, no buts. Anyone that stalled the process should have been put on a more expensive tariff, or charged for the staff costs on the delay.

But of course a simple job was made a lot harder than it ever should have been, by giving people a choice.🤦‍♀️

What about for those who sign up for this - this is OVO energy, but the meter does not send the regular readings every 30 mins so doesn't know?

Power Move

Rewards for greener habits

Join the Power Move challenge today to use your energy at greener times of the day. You’ll get money off your energy bills and help take pressure off the grid.

prowla

There do seem to be some folks here who are quite militant about getting others to have smart meters fitted.

Given that there is a choice, "I can't be bothered." is a perfectly acceptable reason for not taking one.

However, there is no need to justify it at all, so just "No." is answer enough.

pseudodox

prowla said:

There do seem to be some folks here who are quite militant about getting others to have smart meters fitted.

Given that there is a choice, "I can't be bothered." is a perfectly acceptable reason for not taking one.

However, there is no need to justify it at all, so just "No." is answer enough.

Exactly!  And perhaps those who are on fixed deals, TOU tariffs & various schemes could just be grateful to those of us who stick with old meters and SVT and so pay more for our energy into the coffers of the suppliers, who we are constantly being told are having a hard time making any profit.

Qyburn

Scot_39 said:

And the refusal to support ihd after just 1 year another major failure on a meter with say a 10, 15 year lifespan another mistake if integral to their usefulness.

I can agree with that.  IHD should really be optional, but if you take it up it should be supported forever by the supplier, replacing if necessary.

prowla

pseudodox said:

prowla said:

There do seem to be some folks here who are quite militant about getting others to have smart meters fitted.

Given that there is a choice, "I can't be bothered." is a perfectly acceptable reason for not taking one.

However, there is no need to justify it at all, so just "No." is answer enough.

Exactly!  And perhaps those who are on fixed deals, TOU tariffs & various schemes could just be grateful to those of us who stick with old meters and SVT and so pay more for our energy into the coffers of the suppliers, who we are constantly being told are having a hard time making any profit.

FYI, I had a smart meter fitted last month; I'd spent ages in the "Can't be bothered" category because it just plain wasn't important to me and I didn't want the disruption of the install.

I was having discussions on a thread here and TBH, some of the attitudes were a bit offputting, but there was also some interesting commentary.

So I decided what the heck, I'd go for it and hopefully the system's teething problems are now sorted, and I arranged the install.

I did get mucked about by the installation company, but Octopus gave me a £30 credit and I went ahead with it.

It's done and in-place.

I think it now lets me do things which put me on a lower off-peak rate, eg doing the dishwasher or washing machine overnight, but that's about the limit of it for me.

I've not got solar, heat pump, batteries, or electric car, so there's no big wins available and I'm not sure I want to go onto a tracker plan and fret about whether the price has jumped, because I've better things to do with my time.

I do get graphs of usage on my phone app, which is mostly harmless.

There's also a little display on which an amber light turns on if I make a hot drink or cook something.

Otherwise, there's not a lot to be bothered about!

Cloth_of_Gold

prowla said:

There do seem to be some folks here who are quite militant about getting others to have smart meters fitted.

Given that there is a choice, "I can't be bothered." is a perfectly acceptable reason for not taking one.

However, there is no need to justify it at all, so just "No." is answer enough.

I agree and I'm afraid I don't agree with the 'there is no downside' argument. For a start, it was recently in the news that millions of smart meters don't work properly. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9zqn77ezno

One of my friends has a smart meter and in December he was £800 in credit. He went abroad for 3 months and so almost on no electricity was being used but on his return his account was showing as being £8000 (yes £8K) in debit. His smart meter is not working properly but after weeks of trying he has not been able to get his supplier to do anything about either the erroneous bill or the faulty meter. 

There is also the issue of variable pricing which smart meters make possible. I don't doubt that will work for some but for those of us who can't have all their power-hungry appliances running in the middle of the night it won't. I'm no Luddite and happy to embrace change when it is to my advantage but we shan't be having one installed unless and until we have to as I'm not convinced there are any benefits for us and potentially some significant downsides.

SAC2334

prowla said:

There do seem to be some folks here who are quite militant about getting others to have smart meters fitted.

Given that there is a choice, "I can't be bothered." is a perfectly acceptable reason for not taking one.

However, there is no need to justify it at all, so just "No." is answer enough.

Saying "no " will soon be off the agenda when the energy industry returns to sanity and stops giving the public any choice in the matter .In 27 days time there will be a Labour goverment back in power .Ed Milliband was Energy Secretary at the time of the last Labour Government when smart meters first started getting installed and sensibly they made them mandatory as most other countries did .He may well get his old job back .

His constiuency is in my home town of Doncaster and his office is in an area which is rife with meter fiddling ,( I know only too well because I was finding dozens of them in my job ) as many parts of Doncaster are and these fiddlers will be fighting to keep their easy to fiddle dumb meters and avoid the smart meters which have inbuilt anti tamper detection .
I think I will drop him a line and tell him about our towns huge meter tampering which has been going off for a long time with most of the suppliers except British Gas doing anything at all to stop it . The public should not be given any choice at all in what the suppliers want to fit .