Being bugged by my energy company / National grid to let them come and install smart meters, at no cost to me apparently.

Is there any reason not to let them do it? Are there any downsides to having smart meters installed?

Cheers

Is there any reason not to let them do it? Are there any downsides to having smart meters installed?

AIUI, there isn’t a “standard” for smart meters at the moment, so if you get one from energy supplier a, it more than likley won’t work fully if you switch to energy supplier b.

Also,
1)EDF still seem to use estimated readings on our bills, which seems daft.
2)Somebody will still visit occasionally to read your meter (or just to check you’re not fiddling the leccy).

Yeah i’m not bothering until they work for all energy companies.

Had this argument with EDF over meter and readings.
They will only pay for someone to read the meter ONCE a year so they don’t care if it’s estimated as it will reconcile then.
As for the smart meter – not until it’s standardised as otherwise switching becomes almost impossible.

Had them for about 2 years.
No issues to report.
Not switched in that time but happy with my supplier so a non-issue ATM.

No faffing with taking meter readings or having it read or estimated readings.

As above, I’d personally give it a miss until the tech becomes standardised and more reliable.

The benefit is in the mean time you get an accurate bill no faffing reading meters and being in credit/debit etc.

I have just got one for free via First Utility. Tried to engage my wife in the usefulness of knowing just how much the continual running of the tumble drier costs us but it is completely ignored. So the only useful purpose it serves is to send readings to my provider meaning I don’t need to do monthly readings.

Had one fitted by Green Energy that allows for 3 different rates. Means I get 4.99p Kwh from 11-7 to charge my car. penal rate of 24.99p from 4pm-7pm when we are never in and 11.99p rest of the day

Works for us.

I wouldn’t going off the experience I’ve had with em through work, an old boy we look after had his direct debit changed without notification from £60 a month to over £200 and he wasn’t even in debt but was over £100 in credit, for a one bedroom bungalow..
poor old sod nearly blew a gasket, the energy company couldn’t explain why it happened either, just said the ‘smart’ meter was playing up..
Various other tales as well..

There’s loads of guff on the conspiracy groups about them shooting out radiation and will kill you or something. They could also be used by ‘them’ to listen it to your conversations in the kitchen about your dinner.

on n power with smart meters.

they just estimate. waste of time!

Whole thing is a waste of money. The actual savings the customer makes are tiny and the cost of the meters far out weighs it. Main benefit is they don’t need to come and read your meter, not that they pass the saving on to you.

A very expensive white elephant.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/oct/01/smart-meter-energy-saving-revolution-cut-bills-gas-electricity

As for the smart meter – not until it’s standardised as otherwise switching becomes almost impossible.

The meter still counts up, they just won’t be able to read it remotely. You can still swap providers I think.

The meters are supposed to be replaced every so many years anyway (10?) as the calibration isn’t valid indefinitely. It doesn’t usually get done for domestic users though, hence why most people still have spinning meters.

Had one fitted by Green Energy that allows for 3 different rates.

@winston, how long did they take to do this from time of switching? We’ve just changed to them for the same reason, but there’s no indication of when they might actually do it…

We actually have a smart meter that Ovo installed less than two years ago. It didn’t matter for the switching process – it just needs reading the old fashioned way for now – but it is absurd that this wasn’t thought of right from the beginning.

Whole thing is a waste of money. The actual savings the customer makes are tiny and the cost of the meters far out weighs it. Main benefit is they don’t need to come and read your meter, not that they pass the saving on to you.

I didn’t have it to save money. I had to get an accurate bill without reading it and paying the archaic estimates system.

The benefit is in the mean time you get an accurate bill no faffing reading meters and being in credit/debit etc.

Oh come on, it takes 10 seconds to read a meter, rather than having an out of date bit of tech that cant be used by all providers.

I can see when the dial whizzes around at the moment how much juice we are using, when it spins slowly it uses less than when it spins round a lot.

The only benefit of the tech is for the provider. So they can charge more depending on the time of day etc.

We also like being in credit as Ovo is probably the best savings account out there at the moment being tax free and 3% interest.

I didn’t have it to save money. I had to get an accurate bill without reading it and paying the archaic estimates system.

Well you pay for it in higher bills as it costs more than a dumb meter.

My supplier sends me an email asking for a reading the week before they send out the bill….

Inaccurate, insecure, massively expensive.
(If the energy company says its free, ask them where their money comes from).

From:The Register

Can no-one, anywhere think of a better way to spend £11Bn over the next few years?

For those who don’t want to follow the link. They will cost £400+ each, and on average save £10 per year.

Inaccurate, insecure, massively expensive.

and yet more core infrastructure under Chinese government control. A smart meter can disconnect you remotely, just needs an SMS with the right code. As they’re all made in China, the Chinese government know the codes, so can remotely disconnect all users if we ever have a proper cyber war. Mind you, we let them build BT’s core network, so they can switch off that as well….

Until they become universal between suppliers then I’m not bothered. It doesn’t take much to read a meter 4 times a year and knowing how much energy is being used at any point in time will make no differences to how many lights I have switch off that had been left on.

@phiil don’t hold your breath – it took them about 6 months! However we were one of the first subscribers to Tide in the country (they didn’t even have a website up) I think they have got the role out a bit quicker now but still no smart gas meter not that we care as we only wanted the cheap rate night tariff for our car.

jimdubleyou – Member
AIUI, there isn’t a “standard” for smart meters at the moment, so if you get one from energy supplier a, it more than likley won’t work fully if you switch to energy supplier b.

Technically, there is a standard (SMETS-2) but as yet there are no meters that adhere to it and the back-end systems it requires are not yet in place and as they’re a big government IT project they keep on being delayed.

footflaps – Member
and yet more core infrastructure under Chinese government control. A smart meter can disconnect you remotely, just needs an SMS with the right code. As they’re all made in China, the Chinese government know the codes, so can remotely disconnect all users if we ever have a proper cyber war. Mind you, we let them build BT’s core network, so they can switch off that as well….

Some smart meters can disconnect remotely but that’s not always the case. The ones I’ve worked on have not been built in China. SMETS-2 seems to require public key encryption, so provided it’s implemented well it should be fairly secure.

SMETS-2 seems to require public key encryption, so provided it’s implemented well it should be fairly secure.

You mean assuming they can keep the private part of the key private…

I was going to have one installed but have since found out that:

1) When I switch, and I’m a serial switcher, the meter won’t work any more.
2) Because we have an in the ground gas meter, they were going to have to fit a box on top and said we’d probably have to cut down the bush next to it so the fitter could get access.
3) There is no benefit to me the consumer.

I politely declined their offer.

Massive waste of money.
If it was needed it should have been done once the right meters were ready. Installation should have been rolled out on a street by street basis. Got. to be cheaper than random installation.

Takes me 2 minutes to supply reading s online. I know which appliances use most powerful

No benefit to me. 11bn cost to consumers

Well you pay for it in higher bills as it costs more than a dumb meter.

My leccy is cheap?

Oh come on, it takes 10 seconds to read a meter, rather than having an out of date bit of tech that cant be used by all providers.

No. My meter is a bit of pain to read actually.

There is no downside for us. It’s fine, the price is good. Job done.

Swapping providers is a pain in the ass actually. As is getting money out of them when you’ve built a surplus up.

Not against them but don’t see the benefit either.

I submit meter readings via the app on my phone. It even has a handy torch function. Takes me literally 30 seconds every couple of months.

Just out of interest is this smart meter roll out subsidised by us tax payers?

Taxpayers? No. Getting paid by adding cost to electric and gas bills.

£420 per household and rising on your bills

Taxpayers? No. Getting paid by adding cost to electric and gas bills.

Yep, £11bn is what it’s costing us. Just think how many wind farms that could have built (or tidal systems) etc….

Instead you get a small plastic meter which has to be replaced every 10 years (IIRC).

Ok I see we get to pay for them cutting costs and getting rid of meter readers. Suppose prices will come down when they have recovered the costs like they always do 😆

Yay. I hate reading meters – mine are buried in a cupboard full of spiders.

I’m assuming they’re still there since I’ve not given a meter reading in over a year, and I get free electricity on Sundays (in the winter the power line is virtually glowing with the load of electric fires / washing machine / tumble-drier / oven etc).

Damn Russkies will shut you down.

If they are offering you smets1 then definitely NO. They are the original and being phased out. With s1 if you change supplier then they just return to being a dumb meter.

If they are the new smets2 then you could and you will be able to change supplier.

However this tech is all so new and very complicated infrastructure I’d personally wait a while longer.

EDF phoned me up whilst I was at a house I am renovating.
Guy said we are coming round tomorrow to fit your new smart meter. Reply went something like the F you are. But your meter is out of date. Me said well I am looking at the meter and it was renewed in 2008 so don’t Lie to me.
Phone went dead at that point.
Hopefully it was recorded for training purposes so they dont phone this Grumpy old git again. 😀

I know a few people who don’t want one because they don’t go backwards when used with solar panels, so effectively exporting at the same price as importing instead of the much lower “proper” rate.

It amazes me that if they’re trying to encourage smart meter adoption they didn’t make having one a condition of receiving FIT payments.