octopus energy 'representatives' houding me to get a smart meter

Qyburn

timjim said:

Your IHD not working is not a big problem is it. You didn't even have one with your dumb meter. Did you read that every day?

I'm a big fan of smart meters, when they're working.

But every time issues like the IHD not working, or data not being sent to the supplier, are down played as unimportant I feel this is weakening the whole case. Quite often there are defeatist comments along the lines of "it's still a meter and you can put in readings as before so you're no worse off".

We should be pushing for smart meters to work properly.

MikeyPGT

Qyburn said:

I'm a big fan of smart meters, when they're working.

But every time issues like the IHD not working, or data not being sent to the supplier, are down played as unimportant I feel this is weakening the whole case. Quite often there are defeatist comments along the lines of "it's still a meter and you can put in readings as before so you're no worse off".

We should be pushing for smart meters to work properly.

I agree - I love my Smart Electric meter and get a real kick out of seeing how much I can save in real time.  I loathe my Smart Gas meter which only communicates with Octopus when it feels like it (luckily I very rarely use any gas) and the data it sends to Loop is so wide of the mark it has me down as using 2823765 kWh on 26 April at a cost of £184,815.63!  According to Octopus the actual use was 0.71 kWh - for 4pence - luckily it's Octopus that bill me and not Loop!

SAC2334

Peter999_2 said:

I just cannot understand people who won't have a smart meter.    None of the arguments I've read make any real sense.     The smart meters are the same as the meter you've already got but the only additional bit is that it will automatically send meter readings instead of you reading them.

The benefits of the smart meter are so clear.    For example, my fiends who live down the road have Octopus Go.   They have a EV charger that we share and pay 7p per kWh to charge it.     I've been using it since February and have used 804.9 kWh which has cost me £53.53 and I've done over 3200 miles.

If they didn't have a smart meter then it would have cost £209.27 and if it was my old petrol car it would be £608.
I myself have Octopus Agile where you pay a different amount every half hour.    As we speak I am currently paying 0.4p per kWh instead of the standard rate of 26p per kWh -  as you can imagine the washing and dishwashing are being done.    Sometimes they even actually pay me to use the energy when there is a massive surplus in the country.     In the last month I have spent £45.47 and if I was on the standard tariff it would have been £64.15

All of this is because I have a smart meter.      People moan and complain like mad about the cost of living at the moment but so many refuse to have a smart meter.

A lot of my ex-wife's family absolutely will not have them - I finally persuaded my ex-MIL a couple of years ago to get one and have saved her such a lot of money and she is so grateful now.

I am told by people it's because it is so easy for them to cut off remotely (it is really not, the amount of hoops they have to jump through to cut off a meter).   They all forget in the 70s we used to have planned powercuts all the time where half our city would be switched off for a few hours - they never had any trouble doing that and without a smart meter in sight.

I know one of the main reasons why many will hold out to the bitter end to avoid a smart meter . I m an ex meter reader .I won t say on here why they won t want one as this forum is very touchy about this subject but read between the lines and work it out for yourself as it involves the billing .

MattMattMattUK

SAC2334 said:

Peter999_2 said:

I just cannot understand people who won't have a smart meter.    None of the arguments I've read make any real sense.     The smart meters are the same as the meter you've already got but the only additional bit is that it will automatically send meter readings instead of you reading them.

The benefits of the smart meter are so clear.    For example, my fiends who live down the road have Octopus Go.   They have a EV charger that we share and pay 7p per kWh to charge it.     I've been using it since February and have used 804.9 kWh which has cost me £53.53 and I've done over 3200 miles.

If they didn't have a smart meter then it would have cost £209.27 and if it was my old petrol car it would be £608.
I myself have Octopus Agile where you pay a different amount every half hour.    As we speak I am currently paying 0.4p per kWh instead of the standard rate of 26p per kWh -  as you can imagine the washing and dishwashing are being done.    Sometimes they even actually pay me to use the energy when there is a massive surplus in the country.     In the last month I have spent £45.47 and if I was on the standard tariff it would have been £64.15

All of this is because I have a smart meter.      People moan and complain like mad about the cost of living at the moment but so many refuse to have a smart meter.

A lot of my ex-wife's family absolutely will not have them - I finally persuaded my ex-MIL a couple of years ago to get one and have saved her such a lot of money and she is so grateful now.

I am told by people it's because it is so easy for them to cut off remotely (it is really not, the amount of hoops they have to jump through to cut off a meter).   They all forget in the 70s we used to have planned powercuts all the time where half our city would be switched off for a few hours - they never had any trouble doing that and without a smart meter in sight.

I know one of the main reasons why many will hold out to the bitter end to avoid a smart meter . I m an ex meter reader .I won t say on here why they won t want one as this forum is very touchy about this subject but read between the lines and work it out for yourself as it involves the billing .

This forum is not "very touchy" about smart meters, it just has little tolerance for conspiracy theorists.

QrizB

MattMattMattUK said:

SAC2334 said:

This forum is not "very touchy" about smart meters, it just has little tolerance for conspiracy theorists.

Discussion of bypassed meters and theft of electricity, however, can get a bit heated if posters think they're being accused.

SAC2334

prowla said:

I put off having a smart meter for ages, simply because I didn't see the point of it and I used to submit my readings monthly.

There were some issues with older generations ones failing and cutovers to different suppliers, so I held off.

Also I didn't want the disruption of someone turning off my power, as I WFH.

But I did eventually get them fitted when I switched to Octopus just over a year ago and they seem fine.

I can go online and see my usage and was able to easily switch to a better tariff when one became available.

So overall, no dramas.

What about price of the energy you use  if you don t see the point .This is a money saving forum after all .I m on Octopus smart tariffs , Tracker for gas and Agile for electric .My gas price today is 4.89 p a kwh , my electric price at this moment is 15.7 p a kwh . your gas will be around 7 p a kwh and electric approx 26 p a kwh .
Do not belive Farage who said on TV a few weeks ago that smart meters will be the first to be cut off in power cuts which is just another of his lies .Its not possible to do that to the millions of smart meter users .We will all get cut off in a published order which is shown on Gov.UK and with your code on your bill which is shown .Mine is "S " code and the first stage of rationing power is 3 blocks of three hours a week .Farage is just a staight liar