Oh Dear

[ebee]

Smart meters: Almost three million still not working

Mum-of-11 Sharlene Peppard is one of 2.7 million customers facing incorrect bills.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Fred Blogs]

And everybody knew, or should have known, what a debacle smart meters were going to be right from the outset. Apparently the government want 80% of households to have smart meters by the end of 2025. Assuming we haven't blown ourselves to kingdom come in the interim before 2025 I will definetly be in the 20% left unless of course whichever bunch of numpties are in control bring in legislation to compell me to have one. Oh yeah I wont be buying an EV any time soon either or a heat pump.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Oh, Fred.

You know the people telling governments what to do only have your best interests at heart.

 

[Notch7]

And everybody knew, or should have known, what a debacle smart meters were going to be right from the outset. Apparently the government want 80% of households to have smart meters by the end of 2025. Assuming we haven't blown ourselves to kingdom come in the interim before 2025 I will definetly be in the 20% left unless of course whichever bunch of numpties are in control bring in legislation to compell me to have one. Oh yeah I wont be buying an EV any time soon either or a heat pump.

There is nothing wrong with heat pumps

The problem is we don't have people skilled to install them properly.

Have a look at heat geeks - a business set upto to train people properly

 

[jurassic sparkk]

If you think about it, getting a smart meter installed can be better.

No real reason to avoid getting it installed tbh.

 

[johnny2007]

I hate saying: "I told you", but...

I told you!

 

[ericmark]

We are being forced to get smart meters, or we have to loose money, in my case until fitted any export to grid is not paid for.

It was due to be fitted 28th last month, but it seems job set to meter fitter was on his phone not tablet so he couldn't fit it, now mid Jan before it will be fitted.

Without smart meter I can see in real time, import, export, solar generation, and battery state, I fail to see what the smart meter will tell me which I don't already know?

If you think about it, getting a smart meter installed can be better.

No real reason to avoid getting it installed tbh.

Also if you think about it the reverse is also true. I can't see a single gain using a smart meter, except they refuse to pay me without one.

As to central heating, I lived through the winter of discontent, and will not rely on electric power again. Nothing wrong with an oil or gas powered heat pump, but not electric.

 

[JohnW2]

We are being forced to get smart meters, or we have to loose money, in my case until fitted any export to grid is not paid for.

You keep telling us that, and I'm sorry to hear that is the case. However, is that true just your particular supplier, or it is 'across the board' of all suppliers?

Kind Regards, John

 

[flameport]

I fail to see what the smart meter will tell me which I don't already know?

It doesn't tell you anything.
It provides the data to your supplier so they can pay you and bill you for whatever is exported and used.

Smart meters have nothing to do with telling people how much or when they use energy. Such facilities have been available for decades via various other devices if people wanted that.

 

[JohnW2]

Smart meters have nothing to do with telling people how much or when they use energy. Such facilities have been available for decades via various other devices if people wanted that.

I'm certainly not one to be saying anything in support of 'smart' meters (which always get those quote marks from me, since they are dramatically less 'smart' than a high proportion of electronic things around today!) but I'm not sure that your statement is totally fair ...

... whilst everything you say is true, the great majority of people have not chosen to use (or, probably in most cases, even been aware of) those devices that have been available for decades, so the government have been persuaded to 'nudge' them, by 'pushing' those devices onto people, in the belief/hope that it will mean that a lot more people will become more aware of the amount and pattern of their energy usage, and hence maybe reduce, or change the pattern of, their usage.

The whole concept seems flawed by thee fact that, as far as I can see, very few of those who acquire this facility (as a result of having had a 'smart' meter fitted) seem to even look at it after thee novelty has worn off - after the first few days or weeks!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Smart meters: Almost three million still not working

Mum-of-11 Sharlene Peppard is one of 2.7 million customers facing incorrect bills.

www.bbc.co.uk

From what I gather, it's mostly a backlog in sorting out and incorporating the meters which are fitted, into the reporting system. I waited many, many months after BG took over my account, before my SM's once again, limped along. By contrast, my recent moved to Octopus, so them working in a day or two.

 

[plugwash]

Afaict from the industries point of view smart meters have several advantages over traditional meters.

1. They save on employing meter readers.
2. The allow a customer to be switched from postpay to prepay or vice-versa without an engineer visit.
3. They allow consumer electricity to be measured in the same way as wholesale electricity. Rather than having to rely on some messy "average" to reconcile the two.
4. As a result of 3 they allow new tarrifs to be introduced in a sane manner. Some tarriffs would not be possible at all with conventional meters. Others would be technically possible but would require the industry to define a new set of assumptions for reconciling the wholesale and retail electricity.
5. As part of a larger smart tech push they may allow better balancing of generation and consumption. This is starting with EV chargers, as EV charging is both relatively easy to move temporally and can represent a substantial chunk of electricty consumption. I suspect it will spread to heating/cooling loads at some point.

 

[mattylad]

I would love a working smart meter, it would mean I do not have to clear all the crap from my cellar steps, climb over what's left to get to the stone stairs going down and risk an accident by climbing through all the other crap to get to my my electricity meter so I can take a reading (I take a photo the come back up). It would also mean I do not have to empty all the crap out of the corner cupboard in the kitchen and take a photo of the gas meter.
Not a task I relish doing so I try to forget to do it for a few months, the gas I'm OK with but the leccy - I'd rather not.

So a working smart meter setup would IMO be easier on me.
However, I'm pretty sure that no smart meter fitter will want to venture down into my cellar unless I spend loads and loads of time making it "safe" for them. I'm also pretty sure that the pair of meters will not be able to communicate with each other so I'm sure I would end up with problems.

I think I'll look into a wifi camera on a bracket pointing at the leccy meter instead
If anyone can reccomend a nice wifi enabled camera that has an adjustable lens to work at about a foot away I'd appreciate it lol

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I would love a working smart meter, it would mean I do not have to clear all the crap from my cellar steps, climb over what's left to get to the stone stairs going down and risk an accident by climbing through all the other crap to get to my my electricity meter so I can take a reading (I take a photo the come back up). It would also mean I do not have to empty all the crap out of the corner cupboard in the kitchen and take a photo of the gas meter.
Not a task I relish doing so I try to forget to do it for a few months, the gas I'm OK with but the leccy - I'd rather not.

Invite them to change them, then you will find out whether they work or not. There are a number of solutions, to communication problems.

 

[mattylad]

NAh, no way I am inviting them to as I know they will refuse to go down into Hades and I CBA to clear the stairs