MSE Poll: Energy smart meters: What's your view?

stevemul wrote: »

You are all missing the obvious point!
Energy Companies are never going to reduce their profits and therefore their shareholder dividends. If consumers use less, they will raise prices and reduce their output to increase profits each year to maintain and/or increase their share price. This is the principle of the stock market. It is naive to think that by reducing your consumption you will reduce your annual cost.

Without wanting to stick up for the free-market too much, if usage went down then the energy company's costs would go down, so the total amount they bill could come down and their profit would remain the same.

To be fair I made a mistake. Got a SMET1 - didn't realise it wouldn't be compatible with other providers. Now too late. It's not the fact that since switching it's nolonger a smart meter that is my problem. It's that it is harder to read than a normal meter. I have to press a number of what seem like random buttons to get to the right screen and tehn read the right part.

My fault really. I sshould have done my research.

I like the initial idea behind smart meters, no more estimated bills, no more meter reader knocking on your door when you're sleeping off nights etc. The issue is, however, when it come to changing suppliers.

I had smart meters fitted from British Gas, all fine & dandy. Then I switched to Sainsburys energy which is part of British Gas, so there was still no problem. When it came time to switch again, I looked for a company that supported smart meters, and settled on First Utility. At no point during the switch was I made aware that my smart meters would now become dumb meters.
The first I knew that my meter wasn't compatible, was when I contacted First Utility to find out why they kept asking for meter readings when I have a smart meter.

I would have though that, since it was a government plan to roll out smart meters, they would have ensured that they were all standard, or at least compatible. I should have known better.

Why isn't the option given that people know about the energy companies not being able to use different energy companies smart meters, so if you have one installed by one company you're stuck with them or back to square one.

I don't trust energy companies, they were privatised by the conservatives to make more money and rip people off - as usual, so why would I trust a bunch of thieves?

I also believe smart meters are a con, what else can they do - listen into private conversations etc? They're a health risk.

No investigation has been done about the health risks - are more people getting ill with cancer? That's a big yes, something is causing that. Again no investigations. I wonder why. You cannot fight these big companies, they are allowed to get away with murder.