Smart Meters.

Gas man came to fit mine - a asked him if the problems were sorted - he advised to keep old meters..

 

We have a smart meter for electricity (we don't have mains gas) however when we changed supplier they can't read it because its a SMET1 type apparently. If you have the later SMET2 type it can be 'read' by any new supplier, but the older type like ours can't. Its not that old, we only had it fitted a couple of years ago so that was a waste of time and effort! Our new electricity supplier has said they will fit us a new SMET2 type but in the interim I'm back to reading the meter every month in order to get an accurate bill. Actually having a smart meter isn't a bad thing IMO, there were some initial horror stories about them giving wildly inaccurate readings and people getting massive bills but in our case the thing has worked ok during its (short) lifetime.

 

I believe that when the majority of households have them the energy suppliers will enforce variable tariffs. When demand is, they say, high, i.e. cold weather, the price will instantly increase and only drop off when demand is low. I don't believe its all about getting accurate bills.

Oldfart

 

What are you trying to accomplish? A Smart meter may be a whizzo gadget but the price you pay for energy is more relevant. You might deflect the whole thing for now by simply switching to another supplier and getting a better deal.....

 

I work in the gas industry and I don't know why your scared of a meter, it saves a load of faff and safer that an old knackered meter that's been in use for years, its more finding the right tariff for yourself to save money.

 

I'm all for technology but they wont be fitting one in my house.

 

Don't blame ya mate, they're evil things and honestly they plan to take over the world at some point.

 

I've got smart meters. It took Bulb about nine months to be able to read the electric meter remotely. They still can't read the gas meter so i'm still doing monthly readings. "You'll never have to read a meter again" they said. Bollocks I say, lying cockwombles even. I've got my fourth complaint in at the moment, i've already been waiting two weeks for a reply. Oh and the little display that tells you how much energy you are using, thats never worked either.

 

British Gas fitted dual fuel meters in my house. I later changed supplier to iSupply, they couldn't read the meters. Then I changed to EDF energy and they can't read the meters. Waste of time.

 

Our energy supplier (e-on) convinced me to have a smart meter recently (both electricity and gas). I did ensure it was a sencond generation one(SMET-2) though, which is compatible with most other suppliers. Like @andypandy it all worked fine for a couple of weeks, then the gas readings stopped working. I get billed quarterly, so not had a bill yet. I'm expecting an estimated bill for the gas. When this happens I will be asking some difficult questions to e-on.

 

Unfortunately Smart meters will eventually be forced on us. The only way out is to be off-grid. But these things do come with a health warning for your wallet. Make sure that you know how much energy you are using so you are not charged for crap readings. These things, especially “smart” gas meters are not infallible. Some time ago my gas meter said that I had used one winter month’s gas in one day (gas meters read every day where as electricity meters read constantly and typically record every 15 minutes). The next day the same and so on for a few days. Then there were some days where no gas was used at all.

I’m a good complainer and rarely loose a case. My initial opening is always in writing, snail mail or email. If I phone, I record who, when, where and send them a confirmation of the call. One day my gas meter threw a hissy fit. My gas bill for one month should have been about £60 but their record, from the “smart meter”, showed I owed £750. You’ll not be surprised to hear that First Energy, like most others, employ totally useless grasping tarts who haven’t clue about common sense, maths, statists or the physical world. Eventually I got to speak with someone who did understand but was not allowed to say he did (the modern corporate world). First Utility’s corporate line was that I used the gas therefore I pay. You’ll also not be surprised that the bastards also deleted all the data - but I had already downloaded the files - yes, they tried to stay there was no record!

It took a few weeks but I nailed the bastards with my numbers. As I said above, they are mathematically stupid and but I walked away in profit as I also scored some compo. What really got me was that they didn’t care a f**k about the fault. These bastards knew I was consuming gas at a ridiculous rate but did nothing. This could have been a gas leak - but they don’t care. This could have been a little old dear getting turned over but a bunch of millennial cretins with “soshall mejah” degrees or a young family trying to make ends meet getting underserved black marks on their credit record. To be clear, this is not libellous as it happens and I still have the evidence. First Utility are shitbags, don’t give toss and have dreadful customer service ably assisted by Smart meters.

On the other side, Smart meters will help shift worker get better deals on electricity. Suppliers buy “profiles” ie. X amount of energy per 30 minute block. If you are a user at oddball hours then you can score a better tariff per kWh with your supplier.

 

I’ve got a feeling here that those who don’t want smart meters are the same as those who don’t want the Corvid vaccine

 

As @Tallpaul says, if you get one, it’s quite difficult for you to swap supply to another apparently.
They should make it seamless but no, it’s not.
And, the savings are about £10-£15 a year (if you are lucky)

 

i wont have one, i can work out how to use my services effectively myself, just doing some poor bugger out of a job in my opinion

 

Yes i got one for electric but Tracy does all the sums on that. The meter they gave us is in a drawer this last two years.
Joe

 

You could be on to something there. I only held out until I was sure it would be a SMET-2 meter that I got. I am a bit p!ssed that the gas meter has stopped communicating though

 

What a very strange analogy.