Electric Smart Meters

Yes I think it amounts to about £200 per customer all paid via your present bills.

Smets2 meters are compatible across all energy suppliers who are DCC compliant (DCC = Data Communications Company, the central hub for 2nd generation smart meter interoperability). This includes all the major suppliers such as SSE, British Gas, EON, EDF and a lot of the smaller ones. I fit for one of the smaller energy suppliers and we can now fit E7 Smets2 smart meters, so it is worth asking your energy supplier if they have them available, things have moved on quite a bit recently, we also have pre-payment Smets2 meters available.

Gray

Apparently they haven't got one that can switch the heating circuit in and out.

Neil

<Edit> Just seen Gray's post... probably not worth the disruption now as house will be on the market soon, but when I move...

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 13/10/2020 15:58:01

When First Utility was taken over By Shell the tariffs available changed markedly with Non Smart Meter Tariffs becoming more expensive and I wanted to continue to enjoy an Economy 7 Non Smart Meter tariff but the only one that was available was a 3 year fixed tariff. I reluctantly took up the 3 year fixed contract but not without complaining bitterly ( I am a grumpy old man ), their attitude was take it or leave it, I wasn’t prepared at that time to trawl around looking for a new supplier, I found most suppliers would only take on new customers with forcing a Smart Meter on them. Having done some limited research on suppliers I am of the opinion if forced to have a Smart Meter then I would probably opt to go with Octopus Energy, if they are still around then, they have some radical ideas which appeal to my philosophy on where energy suppliers should be going. I shall of course be hanging on to my non smart meter for as long as I am able.
Dave W

I have smart meters fitted for both electric and gas, they have caused me no issues and have saved me money and time. The electric meters are fitted where the original meters were which is right at the back of our pantry at floor level under the stone slab and to read the old meters required the pantry to be partially cleared by us to gain access and it was a slide under the shelf on my belly, the money saved would have been the meters being moved at my cost to the outside for better access.

The electronic display shows, particularly my wife, how much it costs us and she can see what not to leave on in the house.

Martin P

The missing word is remotely - any meter can be disconnected if an engineer visits and they have a statutory right of entry to your home (in the UK) to do so.

Indeed,
They did not openly advertise the fact that smart meters have a contactor that can be used to disconnect the supply remotely. Current law stops the supplier disconnecting you but a change in the law could chang all that. The is also the possibility of a software error, operator error or even a cyber attack disconnecting consumers. Unlikely but not impossible.

If the fear of disconnection ever does materialise then a Faraday cage could sort that out

Mike

Surely the smart meter talks to the supply company through the mains?

I may be wrong and it would not work for gas.

JA

I believe it connects using a private mobile phone type network.

Mike

My smart meter stopped working so I phoned my supplier and explained the unit had failed I was then told i was not entitled to a new one, I asked why and in fewer words they said they had fulfilled their obligation to fit one !

H

So how can they bill you if the meter has actually failed?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret your statement, Nick, but it is my belief that, under the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act 1954,:

"(1) No right of entry to which this Act applies shall be exercisable in respect of any premises except—

(a)with consent given by or on behalf of the occupier of the premises, or

(b)under the authority of a warrant granted under the next following section:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply where entry is required in a case of emergency."

There are a lot of misunderstandings about smart meters.

I suspect that a lot of people think the ‘In home display’ is the smart meter, when the actual gas or electricity meter is the ‘smart meter’.

I don’t know why the TV adverts are allowed since they suggest that the smart meter will save you money, when the only way you will save money is if you change your own behaviour by reacting to the information on the display.

The possible savings and advantages are with the suppliers and possibly network operators, though some of the suggested benefits will not happen because of security concerns and the use of data for individual properties.

One of the possible benefits would be to allow network operators to remotely switch on and off certain appliances to manage the electricity network if or when we all have electric cars and electric heating.

I have found this website which seems to have a lot of impartial (I think) information:

**LINK**

Stuart

Edited By Stuart Smith 5 on 13/10/2020 19:42:45

Edited By Stuart Smith 5 on 13/10/2020 19:43:08

I have been chased by several of the electric companies to fit a smart meter. It appears their Sales teams do not realise that they do not (as yet apparently) have smart meters that will work on 3 phase.

Colin

I agreed to have smart meters. They fitted the electricity meter fine, but when they came to fit the gas meter they found that the bracket in the box in the wall had damage to one of the lugs, not the one that holds it up, one that is supposed to hold a security seal. 'You'll have to get the distribution company to sort that out' he says, so I ring them. 'Nothing to do with us' was the reply, get on to your supplier. Now in stalemate, and 'procedures' say that I can't have a smart electric and a dumb gas meter.

The one certainty is that I am not paying to have the bracket fixed, whoever fitted the meter broke it, they can fix it. Every month I get an email, read the meters and send it in, easy peasy and I get a prompt to keep track of it.

I believe the latest meters are universal and you don't need a new one when you change supplier. Sooner or later they will make it so you pay more of you don't have smart meters, that's when Ill get really wound up to find out whose responsibility it is. Perhaps before that the ridiculous all electric promise will have come to pass. Was that a pig that just flew past the window?

Simple? How can anyone read the meter if it is not working? Ie. not recording your leccy usage? All the meters I have ever come across that have stopped working haven’t shown any increased readings. Yours must be the first

Perhaps SS5’s post just above applies to you? If it was not working, I would certainly not be bothering to take readings. My meter (non-smart type) is working but I do occasionally check that it is recording in the correct ball park. I also have had a digital device, which gives me an (almost) instantaneous indication of power usage, for likely the best part of ten years. My wife ignores it, so a total waste of effort to reduce leccy use by her, while I have a good idea of where leccy is being wasted. Plenty of power-used meters around the place.

Back to you: Has it really failed, or not?