Who's got one and, more to the point, is it working?
Had one installed on Tuesday and told it could take a day or 2 for the data to start showing. 3 days in now and still nothing..
why did you get one, I'm struggling to see the benefits of them.
I got just so I don’t have to bother with meter readings anymore, and no more estimated bills.
You still get estimated bills, just slightly more accurate. I was never able to persuade an energy company to move from their "we'll overcharge you in the summer for your own good" mindset.
Flaperon
Member
You still get estimated bills, just slightly more accurate. I was never able to persuade an energy company to move from their “we’ll overcharge you in the summer for your own good” mindset.
With bulb? Strange if so because if you've given readings in the two days before the bill then they use that rather than an estimate. You would think a smart meter would be the same as manually giving a reading.
You still get estimated bills...
No I don’t. I get billed based on the smart readings.
Like a phone bill? They only ever used the smart meter to tweak the monthly direct debit slightly but the account still used to go into credit so they could steal the interest (SSE and British Gas).
Overall it was marginally more accurate and slightly easier than having a firkle in the meter cupboard once a month.
Still have smart meters but since moving to ecotricity they don’t work properly. On the bright side I can read the meter from the lounge now, but they just send me a giant bill for electricity once a year because their system can’t cope with a meter that used to have two tariffs on it.
Had them installed last week. Check out the green lights on the meter, according to the engineer if they all flash in unison every 5 secs or so, its all working correctly and pinging data back to the central hub, which feeds Bulb. If you've only got an elec meter then I think less lights will flash.
The main benefit to me is never having to access the meter every month to keep our pricing schedule in check, we always use lower than their estimate. The rest I can do on the website.
As an aside, I think bulb have some billing issues with the new SMETS2 meter roll out. I've been automatically cretitied all the actual readings energy costs since joining and will be correctly invoiced again at some point in the next week or two. Bulb couldn't really explain the issue other than saying it's glitch they're in the process of resolving.
Like a phone bill? They only ever used the smart meter to tweak the monthly direct debit slightly but the account still used to go into credit so they could steal the interest (SSE and British Gas).
Change supplier in Autumn then?
then you can “steal the interest” from them by letting the account go into debit over winter before catching up in summer when you don’t use as much👍
FWIW. That’s not an issue with estimated billing. That sounds like the supplier being sensible and equalising the monthly payment over the year.
As this is the most recent thread i can find (and conveniently its about Bulb), have the thoughts on Smart Meters changed at all? Or still all a bit 'meh'? Just been offered a gen 2 (so can be transferred between suppliers, apparently) meter from Bulb but not sure whether to bother
why did you get one, I’m struggling to see the benefits of them.
For me I am looking forward to it as I am on a dual tariff. Two massive meters plus a radio switching box. The off peak is an entirely separate circuit that means I can't set the washing BN machine going at night to use off peak and I can't boost the heating during the day.
If it were just for normal electric tariff I would not be so bothered.
As this is the most recent thread i can find (and conveniently its about Bulb), have the thoughts on Smart Meters changed at all? Or still all a bit ‘meh’? Just been offered a gen 2 (so can be transferred between suppliers, apparently) meter from Bulb but not sure whether to bother
gen 2 will mean if you change supplier you wont lose the smart functionality as you would have with gen 1,(although that is changing for gen 1 meters now).
The smart meter will mean you wont need to give them readings and if you opt for the reads to be passed from the meter to the supplier every 30mins they'll have some sort of energy use charts/graphs on their website for you to look at what you use and when over typically a day/week or month period, the display they leave will show real time info but isn't that handy when looking back over trends etc
TBH other than having to be at home for the install I dont see any downsides.
I'm booked in to have one installed. I'm going on a tariff which gives me perkwh prices every half hour so requires a smart meter to monitor that. Then I guess it's up to me to make it work out cheaper by doing certain stuff when the rate is lowest.
Can we just call them meter-screens?
They are not smart.
Smarter than my older meters
Disclaimer, I know nothing about Bulb.
gen 2 will mean if you change supplier you wont lose the smart functionality as you would have with gen 1,(although that is changing for gen 1 meters now).
The term you're looking for here is SMETS1 and SMETS2. SMETS2 is supplier-agnostic, some SMETS1 meters can be upgraded to use the (national) DCC network but AFAIK not all of them.
Bulb smart meters?
Don't bother I had mine fitted 28th September still they don't work as smart meters,
Good prices for the gas and leccy though
Pm me for a referral code both get some money off
In answer to the OP, yes I got smart meters fitted by bulb before Christmas, not my idea, the wife wanted them for the 'in-house display unit', however they are not working. Bulb said it's an issue they were going to address early 2020. Not heard from them yet........my mates isn't working either, we may be in a weak signal area ???????
PS we're all in on the referral code band wagon ,lol.
The term you’re looking for here is SMETS1 and SMETS2. SMETS2 is supplier-agnostic, some SMETS1 meters can be upgraded to use the (national) DCC network but AFAIK not all of them
I'd avoided using the words SMETS as others had called it gen 1 and 2, all SMETS1 meters will be migrated to the DCC network during 2020, not all will be successful. Pre SMETS1 meters will not be migrated.
Bulb said it’s an issue they were going to address early 2020.
Migration to the DCC network if successful will sort this, occurring throughout 2020 for most suppliers
Managed to get an answer from bulb today it appears I live in an area that is a black spot, no signal for the new generation smart meters. My first gen smart meters worked with British gas but have been told the new meters use a different network.
Although it appears that's the whole country is a black spot in bulbs case