Smart meters (again...)

Yes, it's tricky really. I personally can't see any advantage to me from having one, and what with CV19 as well currently, there's no benefit to me, so I'm inclined to just ignore them until they turn up in person.

That said, obviously the meter(s) does belong to them (not to me), so they COULD argue (but haven't yet) that they need access to the house to maintain it...

Colin Brenton said:

Yes, it's tricky really. I personally can't see any advantage to me from having one, and what with CV19 as well currently, there's no benefit to me, so I'm inclined to just ignore them until they turn up in person. That said, obviously the meter(s) does belong to them (not to me), so they COULD argue (but haven't yet) that they need access to the house to maintain it...

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Exactly. As I've just said, even though I doubt it was really necessary, I've been told four times that my meter needed to be 'routinely replaced', and it would presumably be difficult to argue with that - and, as I said, one they have decided that it needs to be replaced, I'm not at all sure what influence I can have over what they decide to replace it with (provided it is something that can accurately measure my electricity consumption).

Kind Regards, John

I said with mothers house you can fit a smart gas meter but don't want a smart electric meter, and they refused to fit a smart gas meter without fitting a smart electric meter, so I said fair enough I will note you refused to fit the smart gas meter. They did not like it, but seems they can't fit a smart gas meter unless there is a smart electric meter.

Meters do need to be routinely changed. They are certified for a set period of time which varies according to the type of meter so once they reach their certified life they are changed, overhauled and then reinstalled in another property. Modern meters (pre smart) are cheaper to manufacture than it is to calibrate and certify the older “black” meters so eventually all the old large black meters will disappear from service. At some stage we will all get a smart meter whether we like it or not as the suppliers will stop fitting dumb meters.

ericmark said:

. but seems they can't fit a smart gas meter unless there is a smart electric meter.

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The smart gas meter relays the info to the electric meter both to the supplier and remote display. Hence they cant fit the gas meter without a smart electric meter as the smart bit wont work.

Old Salt said:

Meters do need to be routinely changed. They are certified for a set period of time which varies according to the type of meter so once they reach their certified life they are changed, overhauled and then reinstalled in another property. Modern meters (pre smart) are cheaper to manufacture than it is to calibrate and certify the older “black” meters so eventually all the old large black meters will disappear from service.

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I'm sure that's all true, up to a point, but I suspect it's as much due to changing attitudes to "certified life" and re-calibration as anything else. At least in my experience, the old "black" electro-mechanical meters were (and maybe still are) usually left in service literally for many decades without any attention of re-calibration yet, as I said, more recently I have had four 'routine meter changes' in just over 30 years.

Old Salt said:

At some stage we will all get a smart meter whether we like it or not as the suppliers will stop fitting dumb meters.

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I'm sure that is true, as well, not the least because the day will come when dumb meters are no longer manufactured. However, at least theoretically, the fact that a meter has been manufactured to be 'smart' (actually seems pretty 'dumb' to me ) does not necessarily mean that it has to be 'used as' "smart" - so the option to have a meter which is functionally non-smart will presumably always exist.

Kind Regards, John