Author Topic: Smart meters  (Read 2675 times)

zoony

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Smart meters
« on: Apr 14, 2018, 06:25:17 PM »
 
  I know very little of them so may I ask those who have one, are they a good thing?
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minniemouse

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #1 on: Apr 14, 2018, 06:26:42 PM »
I don't have one but I do know that if you change energy Companies they may not be compatible.
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zoony

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #2 on: Apr 14, 2018, 06:41:28 PM »
Yes. Apparently the ones they're installing are the older model but due to be upgraded in 2019. I don't know why they're using an inefficient piece of tech which is far from 'free'.. Is it really worth 11 billion pounds to do it? The only people who really benefit are the power companies as far as I can make out.
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

                                           cowboy wisdom.

minniemouse

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #3 on: Apr 14, 2018, 06:46:39 PM »
I've resisted having one.  I can't see any advantage for me.  I'm not interested in tracking how much power I use and I've read too many horror stories about problems when installing them.

Like you though Zoony I would like to hear peoples' point of view who've had one installed.
Smoking kills you, bacon kills you, smoking bacon cures it.

sueboo

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #4 on: Apr 14, 2018, 07:14:35 PM »
To be perfectly honest we've not looked into smart meters but have property that we rent out which have pay as you go meters and have said to tenants that they have the option to change back to billing  opposed to payment meters but for whatever reason they have stuck to the pay as you go?  Not really understand it but if they are happy so are we. :o
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Alex22

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #5 on: Apr 14, 2018, 08:42:44 PM »
I've got one, it's in the drawer  ;D
Don't bother getting one folks.........
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Phil

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #6 on: Apr 14, 2018, 08:50:55 PM »
I've resisted having one.  I can't see any advantage for me.  I'm not interested in tracking how much power I use and I've read too many horror stories about problems when installing them.

Like you though Zoony I would like to hear peoples' point of view who've had one installed.

Our new-build house has a smart electricity meter but it has a gas meter that needs to be read & both were fitted by e.on who were used by the builder.

The smart electricity meter meant that there were no estimated readings whilst the old gas meter would have had estimated readings if we hadn't submitted manual readings on a regular basis.

When we changed to Robin Hood Energy the smart electricity meter could no longer be read so from Dec 2015 we've had to read the meters every month because we pay for the exact amount we use each month by Direct Debit. No more paying a fixed £120 per month & ending up £300 in credit after a couple of years.

Robin Hood Energy have are now installing smart meters so we've gone onto their list to have both a new smart electricity meter & a new smart gas meter.
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minniemouse

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #7 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:17:17 PM »
What if you change providers in the future though Phil, or are you not bothered about maybe having your smart meter changed for a different one?
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Phil

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #8 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:24:57 PM »
What if you change providers in the future though Phil, or are you not bothered about maybe having your smart meter changed for a different one?

My understanding is that the new smart meters have been standardised & are able to be read by all the energy suppliers.

Robin Hood Energy is a not-for-profit energy supplier which is run by Nottingham City Council with their brilliant call centre based in Nottingham.

The phone is answered in a few seconds by people whose first language is English so in the highly unlikely event that we changed supplier & did need new smart meters then we'd get them installed.

It doesn't cost us anything.

https://www.smartenergygb.org/en
"I've stopped arguing with idiots. They will only bring me down to their level and beat me with experience.”

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Phil

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #9 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:39:08 PM »
I've got one, it's in the drawer  ;D
Don't bother getting one folks.........

That's not a smart meter, that's just a usage display.

You can have a smart meter without having a usage display & you can have a usage display without having a smart meter.
"I've stopped arguing with idiots. They will only bring me down to their level and beat me with experience.”

Paraphrased from George Carlin

Fred Smiff

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #10 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:41:14 PM »
I've got one for my elec. usage.....happy to know the billing is accurate , no more estimated bills .
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Phil

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #11 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:42:12 PM »
To be perfectly honest we've not looked into smart meters but have property that we rent out which have pay as you go meters and have said to tenants that they have the option to change back to billing  opposed to payment meters but for whatever reason they have stuck to the pay as you go?  Not really understand it but if they are happy so are we. :o

There are smart prepayment meters which make topping up easier.
"I've stopped arguing with idiots. They will only bring me down to their level and beat me with experience.”

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fortyone

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #12 on: Apr 14, 2018, 09:52:39 PM »
We're on our second. I had a cheap deal with British Gas and had one of theirs. When that deal ended we switched to Ovo this time on a 2 year fix and got one of their meters.  If we switch again which is likely we'll need yet another meter.  Crazy.  It's the fault of the EU - look it up.

The BG in room display was OK but the Ovo one is crap and we'd don't use it. I mostly use the internet to check usage but that isn't real time - it runs at least a day behind and sometimes more.  The reason I wanted one was because we spend so much time away from home in the summer. That means we use no gas and very little electric for weeks at a time.  I got fed up with the constant "safety checks" the suppliers wanted to do on the meters - ie checking if I'd bypassed them.

Maddie Malone

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #13 on: Apr 15, 2018, 05:37:42 AM »
We’ve had one for a while now .
Supposed to have been left a gadget to be able to read usage but they said they had run out and would send us one .
Still waiting for it .
Apart from not having to have someone come and read the metre or do it ourselves we don’t really take much notice of it .
We did have a letter the other week saying about reading the metre every day or every hour ( WHY would we want that ) .
We had to ring them up and say we didn’t want that and to carry on just reading it once a month .
Made me wonder if it was another way to start charging more but I see there putting their prices up again anyway 🙄

Phil

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Re: Smart meters
« Reply #14 on: Apr 15, 2018, 07:34:29 AM »
We’ve had one for a while now .
Supposed to have been left a gadget to be able to read usage but they said they had run out and would send us one .
Still waiting for it .
Apart from not having to have someone come and read the metre or do it ourselves we don’t really take much notice of it .
We did have a letter the other week saying about reading the metre every day or every hour ( WHY would we want that ) .
We had to ring them up and say we didn’t want that and to carry on just reading it once a month .
Made me wonder if it was another way to start charging more but I see there putting their prices up again anyway 🙄

We've got the digital display that came with the electricity meter but we've never used it as there are only the two of us & I know the wattage ratings of our appliances & understanding kilowatt hours has never presented any challenge to me.

I can see a display being of benefit in a household with several kids where they forget to switch off 3kW fan heaters or the immersion heater etc.

The idea of remotely reading a smart meter every hour is for the energy supplier to be able to provide virtually real time information to a customer about their energy usage.

Again, it would be of little value to us, but the family with 3 teenage kids might find it useful to be told that every evening between 22:00 hrs & 00:00 hrs their electricity usage suddenly spikes from 1kWh to 10kWh & they find that each kid has stuck on a fan heater for a couple of hours in their bedrooms whilst using social media.
"I've stopped arguing with idiots. They will only bring me down to their level and beat me with experience.”

Paraphrased from George Carlin