Been offered free installation and a free digital monitor thingy from my provider

I suppose they save you having to read your meter or estimate bills so should be more accurate.

Any STW wisdom on these meters?

Whats not to like, they never have to come into your house to read the meter.

And its free.

Go for it

I can’t believe these thing aren’t more widespread in this day and age. It’s a pretty outmoded concept of someone having to come around and read your meter. I’d go for it, if it was offered.

The industry hasn’t really decided what they want to do with the technology yet. It might just be to gain better insight to useage patterns. Or maybe one day they’ll control how much you get and when. Might be the only way forward when demand outstrips supply. Especially if people keep thinking wind farms are the answer.

Any ideas on how they connect to the net? Do you you just plug it into the phone line?

I was offered something by British Gas (on a sales call to try and sign me up). The guy didn’t seem to be able to answer my question on whether I had to manually read the smart meter and input into the PC (i.e. faff) or if it connected to the line/internet and reported completely automatically.

Any ideas on how they connect to the net? Do you you just plug it into the phone line?

Proper smart meters connect over 3G data connections.

Got both mine through provider, connect via 3G with option to link direct through broadband. FOC, fitted and monitored. Can’t say I bothered reading meters before installation so no difference IMHO, but the fact that I don’t pay by DD helps keep the company on their toes when it’s time to send the bill out.

I’ll never set up a DD again with any of them.

Personally, until they make them interoperable between energy suppliers, i’d avoid like the plague. We had them installed by First Utility last year, no other energy supplier can read the data, British Gas won’t let us submit reads using smartphone apps or internet or automated phone, as they are “smart meters”. We are now stuck in limbo, we can either go back to First Utility (who were were bad beyond beleif) or suffer with worse service than pretty much anybody else in the country because we have a smart meter

It has been a total nightmare from start to finish…wish i’d never touched them. I’d wait until they goverment gets it’s shit together and until then submit regular reads using a smartphone / use an external energy monitor.

Any ideas on how they connect to the net? Do you you just plug it into the phone line?

Some have GSM modems in them. 3G seems like overkill, though, they don’t need to transmit much data really.

There is some movement towards more open standards in the smart meter market but as far as I can tell all the power companies are lethargic dinosaurs when it comes to reacting to change. Plus IIRC British Gas decided it is big enough to go ahead with its own meters without any thought towards interoperability.

I’ll never set up a DD again with any of them.

Trouble is you can save about £60 pa by paying with DD if you’re on a duel fuel tariff.

Smart Meters aren’t supported by all suppliers as there are a few smart meter providers which don’t have a relationship with certain suppliers.

Best case is that when you switch the new supplier wont be able to support remote reads, worst case is that the new supplier wont be able to support it at all or offer you their standard tariffs.

They use for the most part mobile phone technology where signal is available but can be boosted by other means if for example your meter is located in a cellar.

Providing the support is there for when you decide to switch, they can be useful in ensuring you only pay for what you use but this of course is largely down to the supplier and how good their billing is.

Prime examples I’ve seen is that the monthly reads don’t go through to the supplier before the bill is issued meaning estimated bills, still.

Oh, and some can be remotely disconnected. But then that will only be an issue if you fancy not paying your bills for a bit.

Trouble is you can save about £60 pa by paying with DD if you’re on a duel fuel tariff.

Course you can.

worst case is that the new supplier wont be able to support it at all or offer you their standard tariffs

No, the worst case is that they will offer you standard tariff’s, and you will only be able to submit reads by phoning up and speaking to a person, no automated systems will work as their databases legally have to show your meters as ‘smart’.

If you stay with the supplier then you will get the monitor and accurate billing. The current SMS meters will be made ineroperable at some stage as gvnt has agreed to them staying on the wall to 2019.

In the mentime if you change supplier they will simply operate your meter as if it was dumb, ie read or estimated quaterly.

There has been little in the news of it but the mandated meter spec was confirmed by DECC last week

@lodious- sounds like you are on energy smart which is customer reads monthly. Bg can and do support acquired smart, but only as a dumb meter currently.

And as mentioned above I don’t think remote disconnection will ever become a reality as suppliers will switch the mode of the meter to prepay remotley and load up the debt

Course you can.

Come on then, cheeky chops. You could share your deeper knowledge for the good of the masses. Or remain cocking your snook at the poor people not as clever as you.

In the mentime if you change supplier they will simply operate your meter as if it was dumb, ie read or estimated quaterly.

Nope, that’s not true. BG don’t have a clue what to do with a smart meter that’s not been fitted by them. Coincidentally, i’ve been trying to submit meter readings this morning….

We’re sorry but there is a problem with some of the information you have submitted.
Account number 8500454xxxxx: Due to the meter type of your account, we are unable to accept your meter read online. Please call us on 0800 048 0505

BG has given us £100 to apologise for the smart meter support being so poor, as they promised it would be OK before we signed up.

The majority of our schemes have been using smart meters because of Secured by Design reasons. Definately a good thing if you don’t have to let strangers into your house. Am
I right in thinking that some energy providers aren’t ready for them? There was Definately aren’t one provider down here that wasn’t using them

I’ll never set up a DD again with any of them

Why not? Genuine question…..

interesting stuff – hadn’t thought that one provider wouldn’t be able to read another provider’s meter.
This would be a problem as I review my provider annually -think I’ll be staying with a standard meter for the time being.

Dawson – worth asking some in general. I know Suothern Electric are moving to SMs as they sent a letter to my house not that long ago and there are a few others but there are some companies that weren’t using it in certain areas.

The majority of our schemes have been using smart meters because of Secured by Design reasons.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/smart_meter_privacy_oops/

Oh the irony (but I do know what SBD is so I understand your point). Smart meters will allow remote control of the flow of gas and electricity into your home. There are various malicious or inadvertent scenarios that could subsequently prevent your feed from working (sunspots, cybercrime, rationing, misconfiguration, computer says no). Sure we have a massive reliance on IT and communications and these issues could also affect these (and others) services upstream from your home but I don’t see any advantages for the consumer here assuming they are already performing their own meter reading submissions online.

Oh jesus! Hope my SBD officers haven’t read that!

It’s a pretty outmoded concept of someone having to come around and read your meter.

Sure is. I have phone apps for my gas and leccy meter (British Gas and npower respectively).

Every now and then I get a reminder to read the meter, I tap it into the app and hit send. Job done. No need for a fancy supplier-specific “smart” meter.

No-one has decided on a standard yet, or what data can be collected and when and as such I’ll not be bothering until they do as they’ll not have cross-compatibility and they offer me no bonus, only the company.

That’s not to say I’m not interested in my energy usage, just that this doesn’t offer me anything for possible restrictions – I’d be expecting a notable rate reduction if they asked me to install one.

Smart meters are going much more than this though.

Time of use pricing, remote mode switch to prepay, yes those are benefits to the production and supply, but ultimatley they will be generic and interoperable.

Come on then, cheeky chops. You could share your deeper knowledge for the good of the masses. Or remain cocking your snook at the poor people not as clever as you.

Wasn’t been cheeky, just factual. Sorry if you took offence to my interwebwords. Sure you can “save” £60, but what is that £60 based on? Compared to having that suppliers standard tariffs for gas and elec separately? Compared to their highest prices? And is that a “here you go, have £60 credit” or “we estimate you could save up to £60”?

Point being as it’s widely acknowledged, domestic tariffs are extremely confusing, and often the “savings” shown on their websites or price comparison websites even after entering accurate consumption is misleading or just plain inaccurate.

With some suppliers offering a standing charge + unit rate tariff, and others a no standing charge but tiered unit rate tariff (ie X no units at one rate and then all units after that at another), and some offering both it’s no wonder most people are confused, and the actual savings hard to see.

No, the worst case is that they will offer you standard tariff’s, and you will only be able to submit reads by phoning up and speaking to a person, no automated systems will work as their databases legally have to show your meters as ‘smart’.

No, really, the worst case is that they wont be able to support it at all. I’m not sure how the minor inconvenience of having to call someone up is the “worst case” when you could end up with months of headache as the supplier is unable to bill you at all?

Not being able to accept meter reads from you online really is a BG issue, but not one I’m surprised about!