Smart Meter removal

I have had Smart Meters installed and they are far to complicated to read, There are all sorts of data displayed which is not explained what they are for. In order to check the conventional Kwh and M3 you have to press a keypad but the suppliers do not tell you how to do it albeit simple to do. I had to resort to internet searches to find the process.
Now I have had them installed, do I have the option to have the old type reinstated?

I doubt it. You're now part of a government approved rip off scheme to put our money in suppliers pockets.

Since the old type won't do the things which a SM could do if you could use it, why not just stop trying to make the "smart" features work, then you'll be where you would if you had them replaced, but without having to go through the process of getting them replaced.

Change your supplier, then the "smart" features won't work.

Yes I could change suppliers but the Smart Meters will still be in my home albeit not readable by the new supplier (at the moment). As the meters are installed then the perceived issue of Hacking still remains. The fact that Smart Meters are not universally readable demonstrates that the installation process has not been fully worked out and a mishmash of various meters are being installed that are not standardised. Another example of government departments not understanding what they are doing with regards to technology. The least that should have been insisted upon was Standardisation.

I agree, they should be standardised., and it's a ridiculous system. But, they really arent a problem.
You don't need to read the meter for one thing, it does it for you and sends it to eh supplier. Secondly, if you did, its a simple matter of pressing the right button on the meter itself (not the receiver).

I've got a smart meter on my electric, my new supplier doesnt use them. So, i pretty much ignore it and just go outside and read it when required.

As mwatsonxx has said you are now in the scammers loop along with gullibles that have installed water meters etc.

pete50 said:

As mwatsonxx has said you are now in the scammers loop along with gullibles that have installed water meters etc.

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water meters are different thing surely ??
no electronics to record or cut off supply remotely like electric ??
and a water meter reduced my bills by 60% without any change in water use

I know you can have a water meter removed again within a set time of fitting, but not a clue about smart meters.

With electric can't see the point, amps is close enough to watts to make no never mind, so amps times volts times hours = Wh which of course is wrong unit for energy so times by 360 (seconds in an hour) and you get Joules the international standards organisation unit for energy. Or at least it was when I went to school.

Gas is very different, a Therm = 1055.05585 joules or 252.164401 kCalories or 0.293071 Wh but when I read my bill it seems to have so many bits to it that it really is gobbledygook. However it is only used for central heating so it is rather simple, the more heating is used the more I pay, so why do I need to know anything other than the total bill that I need to pay? Well yes I suppose if there is a meter which shows the watts of gas used, then I can see if the boiler is flat out or ticking over, unlike electric I can't clip an ammeter on the gas pipe and work out watts being used.

This looks good, at last a watt meter for gas, however until one tries to use it one does not know how often is this refreshed? It says kW but is it instant or average and if the latter over what time? When my central heating turns on in the morning I want to see if it uses full 28 kW or if I have a fault in the plumbing which is causing it to reduce output, if sample rate is once a minute then I can see what it going on, if once an hour it is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

My father-in-law had one fitted, my brother-in-law says they never asked him, and he has power of attorney so they should have done, but since meter outside they it seems just got on with it, and left my father-in-law with no central heating as the pilot flame went out, not the way to treat a 91 year old, the remote control he was given is on a shelve in the garage and is clearly of no interest to him.

As to if my brother-in-law takes it home it will still work I don't think so, the real question is can we see what he is using so if he leaves the pan on the cooker we can see the hob is running? The boiler is not condensate so that should be a set wattage, so we should be able to see, but how?

big-all said:

water meters are different thing surely ?? no electronics to record or cut off supply remotely like electric ?? and a water meter reduced my bills by 60% without any change in water use

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Same here - a very substantial reduction in bills as a result of having a water meter installed ... and, as you imply, no reason for the fears about 'sinister' used of the meter like some people have in relation to electricity 'smart meters'.

Mine does have some (water-powered!) electronics for 'remotely' reading the (indoor) meter, but it's a rather laughable system ... it apparently has a range of only about 50m, so they have to drive here and park their van outside my house to read the meter 'remotely'. It therefore just spares them any problems of having to gain access to my house to read the meter, but that's about all!

Kind Regards, John

Hysteresis said:

As the meters are installed then the perceived issue of Hacking still remains.

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Is it a real issue?

Or is it just perception?

But whatever - if your perception is that there is a hacking issue, WOE did you have the things installed in the first place?

The fact that Smart Meters are not universally readable demonstrates that the installation process has not been fully worked out and a mishmash of various meters are being installed that are not standardised.

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They are standardised: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=smets+1

Well, I had smart meters fitted by BG. Saved me having to give monthly readings. Just changed to OVO energy. The smart meters wont work on their system so presumably the 3g connection doesn't work for them and I have gone back to submitting readings so with no remote connection, there's no 'fear' of them switching me off remotely although I don't know why they would do that anyway.
The smart remote thingy still works though as it basically connects wirelessly to both gas and electricity meters and shows the current consumption of both.

ericmark said:

I know you can have a water meter removed again within a set time of fitting, but not a clue about smart meters.

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No quite. It won't be removed, but you can go back to the old system of paying. Once you move out the new owner has no choice but to go on the installed meter.

ericmark said:

With electric can't see the point, amps is close enough to watts to make no never mind, so amps times volts times hours = Wh

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Not really. Many items* in a domestic household have a poor power factor, and I'd be pretty annoyed if power factor was not taken into account.

* LED lighting often around 0.5.
Vacuum cleaners quite low.

w.r.t. ericmarks's comment regarding Amps being good enough. Not really mate, you would have to record continuously the current bring drawn, as it is very variable, then integrate the graph to get ampere hours then multiply the result by the Voltage to derive at Watt Hours. Not many consumers have an ampere recorder at hand, I certainly haven't.
Your suggestion is only useful for instantaneous power consumption in kw, but not total kwh which is what you are billed on and the whole point of the Smart meters is not only that there is no need to send in meter reading but also to know what your present charges are rather than to waiting for a bill to arrive.

Hysteresis said:

record continuously the current bring drawn,

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Frequent samples will be good enough.