Smart Meters. Are they worth it?

13

Comments

  • Pedro1877
    Pedro1877 Posts: 30 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    TBB. When the switch is done you will still have all the info on your monitor, the only thing that will not be accurate is the price in £. You will still have your instant gas and electricity meter readings and the Kwh useage available. The only difference is that it will not send auto readings to your new utility supplier/s.

    I was also with BG and I think they informed me that they wanted to change the DD amount a couple of times but I argued that my calculations were far more accurate than their algorhythm as I knew that I switched my gas completely off for 4-5 months and how could they know that. They obligingly left my DD the same throughought the year and when I left a month ago I have a small credit which hopefully they will refund me within the six weeks.
  • Pedro1877
    Pedro1877 Posts: 30 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    edited 26 September 2017 at 11:41AM
    Correction to the above. I have just read on the http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5692120&page=14#topofpage thread (Post #277) that BG have switched off one poster's connection between meters and monitor.:eek: It lasted 5 days after the actual switch was completed. Today is 5 days after my switch and mine is still working. I do hope that the British Gas Rep. on this forum reads these posts and can explain. I do not care that the £ info is inaccurate as long as I can read my meter readings and the Kwh useage info.

    I have also emailed energyclub to ask them if they can contact BG for an answer.
  • Pedro1877
    Pedro1877 Posts: 30 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    edited 26 September 2017 at 6:22PM
    Also tweeted their CS and received these replies:

    Hi Pedro, as it stands the you'll lose Smart functionality after you change supplier. This is something which is being worked on & the system which will ensure you don't lose functionality will come in nearer the end of this year. Your new supplier will be able to arrange the fitting of new Smart meters which will work with their system. Thanks, Jim

    Hi Pedro, sorry but you will lose functionality as Jim has already advised. Your meters send the reading info to your supplier which also sends the use to your monitor. This won't happen if or when you change. Thanks, Paul

    :(:cry:
  • MeterMan
    MeterMan Posts: 433 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    Pedro1877 wrote: »
    Correction to the above. I have just read on the http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5692120&page=14#topofpage thread (Post #277) that BG have switched off one poster's connection between meters and monitor.:eek: It lasted 5 days after the actual switch was completed. Today is 5 days after my switch and mine is still working. I do hope that the British Gas Rep. on this forum reads these posts and can explain. I do not care that the £ info is inaccurate as long as I can read my meter readings and the Kwh useage info.

    I have also emailed energyclub to ask them if they can contact BG for an answer.

    The IHD is very likely to stop working at some point, but it only records the reading in KWH, you will need to read the gas meter in order to give the reading in m3
  • House_Martin
    House_Martin Posts: 1,462 Forumite
    MeterMan wrote: »
    The IHD is very likely to stop working at some point, but it only records the reading in KWH, you will need to read the gas meter in order to give the reading in m3
    BG gas IHD gives the metric reading.
    Not sure if it also converts to kwh because I only look for M3., hope it does nt do the kwh conversion because that will get them phoning/submitting that reading in sometimes, just like the Eon IHD does !
  • AndyPK
    AndyPK Posts: 4,241 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    do they use a fixed (estimated) value for the calorific value ?
  • janbeno
    janbeno Posts: 114 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    I was with British Gas on a MSE collective fix, whilst on this I had a smart meter fitted. I have just changed to the EDF on another MSE collective fix and I was told before I swapped that my smart meter was compatible and I would just have to phone up to have the EDF signal started. I have now found out that NONE of the energy suppliers smart meters are compatible! Millions of £'s have been spent of our money fitting these meters and now apparently all these meters will have to be replaced with a newer compatible model a smet2? in the next 6 months. I am furious that so much money has been wasted and this government once again has sanctioned a vast money pot for the utility companies. I will not be getting another smart meter.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,093 Community Admin
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    edited 27 September 2017 at 12:02PM
    janbeno wrote: »
    I was with British Gas on a MSE collective fix, whilst on this I had a smart meter fitted. I have just changed to the EDF on another MSE collective fix and I was told before I swapped that my smart meter was compatible and I would just have to phone up to have the EDF signal started. I have now found out that NONE of the energy suppliers smart meters are compatible! Millions of £'s have been spent of our money fitting these meters and now apparently all these meters will have to be replaced with a newer compatible model a smet2? in the next 6 months. I am furious that so much money has been wasted and this government once again has sanctioned a vast money pot for the utility companies. I will not be getting another smart meter.

    The Government has asked the industry to come up with ways of updating existing SMETS1 meters such that they can connect to The Data Communications Centre hub. There is no suggestion that the industry has the resources/time to exchange the millions of smart meters that have already been installed. At the time, the reason for going down the SMETS1 route was sound - unfortunately, the whole project has suffered from massive delays with no shift - as yet - in the 2020 rollout timescale.

    From the July 2017 DCC Report:

    SMETS1 Enrolment and Adoption

    DCC also made good progress towards
    developing solutions to support the Enrolment
    and Adoption of SMETS1 meters. DCC is
    managing a programme to consider how first
    generation SMETS1 meters can be enrolled into
    its infrastructure which will allow energy
    suppliers and other authorised parties to
    communicate with both SMETS2 and SMETS1
    meters via DCC systems.

    In 2016, DCC undertook important work
    engaging with industry, leading to an Initial
    Enrolment Project Feasibility Report (IEPFR) in
    November 2016. The public consultation for the
    report closed in January 2017. The IEPFR
    outlining enrolment options is due to be
    published later in 2017.
  • janbeno
    janbeno Posts: 114 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    The Government has asked the industry to come up with ways of updating existing SMETS1 meters such that they can connect to The Data Communications Centre hub. There is no suggestion that the industry has the resources/time to exchange the millions of smart meters that have already been installed. At the time, the reason for going down the SMETS1 route was sound - unfortunately, the whole project has suffered from massive delays with no shift - as yet - in the 2020 rollout timescale.

    Surely all this should have been sorted BEFORE the rollout of smart meters ? The meters should have been made compatible from day 1, not have to be replaced . As I said previously it is the consumer that is footing this debacle.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,093 Community Admin
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    janbeno wrote: »
    The Government has asked the industry to come up with ways of updating existing SMETS1 meters such that they can connect to The Data Communications Centre hub. There is no suggestion that the industry has the resources/time to exchange the millions of smart meters that have already been installed. At the time, the reason for going down the SMETS1 route was sound - unfortunately, the whole project has suffered from massive delays with no shift - as yet - in the 2020 rollout timescale.

    Surely all this should have been sorted BEFORE the rollout of smart meters ? The meters should have been made compatible from day 1, not have to be replaced . As I said previously it is the consumer that is footing this debacle.

    This project is by no means a recent development. The logic of allowing suppliers to install foundation meters was to allow the industry time to determine which meters performed well (in terms of reliability) and which didn't, and to allow them to develop IT systems that could accept smart metering. In parallel, Capita was contracted to set up the Data Communications Company alongside which the industry put together the 800 pages or so of the SMETS2 standard for meters. This got delayed for various reasons (not least cyber security). I agree that it hasn't been a well-managed IT project but history shows that when Govt is involved things invariably go wrong.
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