Smart meter ?

[Ivor Windybottom]

Nuts isn't it? Why everyone isn't on this tariff instead of standard escapes me completely.

There's a theoretical risk of paying £1/unit for a fortnight. But you're not going to.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I don't know how they charge for those on fixed DD, I've always paid variable DD so will continue to pay whatever amount we use each month instead of letting them borrow a load of my money all year.

There's no exit penalty.

 

[reds42]

I don't know how they charge for those on fixed DD

Like any other energy company I've been with. As ever I seem to be building up credit, but its easy to change the direct debit amount, when the payment is taken, and request credit to be returned to you online.

 

[reds42]

Nuts isn't it? Why everyone isn't on this tariff instead of standard escapes me completely.

The irrational refusal to have a smart meter will prevent many people.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The irrational refusal to have a smart meter will prevent many people.

Completely irrational, simply fear of the unknown, plus believing the all the conspiracy theories.

 

[Adam_151]

@Harry Bloomfield . If you want to try and maximise the benifiet on the electricty side, you can get a bit of a heads up on which way the price is going next by checking the carbon intensity on : https://www.carbonintensity.org.uk/ Generally the more carbon intense the grid is, the higher the price is going to be, however its not always a perfect correlation, as both agile and tracker are based on day ahead futures prices (I mistakenly attribututed this to the balancing prices, elsewhere), so what could happen is that the carbon intensity ends up quite high based on weather forcasts, knowledge of which generation plants are down for maintenance, etc and countless other factors, then at last moment sudden windy storm shows up in the forcast for 24 hours time, with a lot of wind on top of the generation they have locked in previously, there is a surplus of generation they have got to use up, so the price goes down (and actually goes negative on agile sometimes).

TLR: If you look on at the carbon intensity, you can work out whether you should run the washing machine today, tomorrow, or the day after.

The other takeaway, is that the way energy is traded and the balancing of the grid are rather interesting, and I'd have never started reading into it if it were not for the octipus tarriffs

 

[JohnW2]

Completely irrational, simply fear of the unknown, plus believing the all the conspiracy theories.

Quite so. I do personally think that some people's 'concerns' (essentially based on those 'conspiracy theories') are probably unnecessary and/or ill-founded, at least in relation to the many other things around in modern life about which they might be expected to be ' even more concerned'.

Furthermore, if looked at pragmatically, regardless of how/why the situation has arisen (and regardless of whether or not it 'should' have arisen),if, as we are always being reminded, every buyer of electricity is effectively paying for everyone (including oneself) having a 'smart' meter (whether one 'accepts' one oneself or not), as a matter of principle I would probably want one!

I normally very very rarely have any significant breakfast (beyond a cup of coffee), but if staying in a hotel where a 'free breakfast' is an unavoidable part of what I'm paying for, I will eat as much of their ('free'- a.k.a 'at no additional cost') breakfast as I can

Kind Regards,John

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

So, getting back to the original topic...

Smart Meter? No, don't get one, just pay £100s extra per year for maximum prices instead.

 

[Adam_151]

I normally very very rarely have any significant breakfast (beyond a cup of coffee), but if staying in a hotel where a 'free breakfast' is an unavoidable part of what I'm paying for, I will eat as much of their ('free'- a.k.a 'at no additional cost') breakfast as I can

And an extra bacon sarnie shooved into your jakcet pocket for the Journey, don't forget to swipe the tea bags and bickies from the room as well

 

[JohnW2]

And an extra bacon sarnie shooved into your jakcet pocket for the Journey, don't forget to swipe the tea bags and bickies from the room as well

All taken care of - if I'm paying for something whether I use/eat it or not, it seems to be a no-brainer

I have in the past attempted to negotiate discounts/refunds for not having any of the 'free' breakfast or not using any of the 'free' tea/coffee bags, biscuits or whatever, but never with any success -so they have brought my behaviour onto themselves

Similarly with 'free 0% credit' - again,I've never got anyone to agree to a discount for not 'taking advantage' of that offer - so, again, I usually accept the e'free credit' even though I don't really want/need it!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ebee]

And an extra bacon sarnie shooved into your jakcet pocket for the Journey, don't forget to swipe the tea bags and bickies from the room as well

Hoy, I thought that I had the monopoly on that one!

 

[ebee]

Completely irrational, simply fear of the unknown, plus believing the all the conspiracy theories.

Yes I know some conpiracy theorists, bye gum some of them will try allsorts of non-logic/dual-logic to prove their theorys.
Daft as those "Metric Martyrs" we heard a lot about some years back.
Not that I`d accept every gov/orginisation advice without some modicom of valid proof and peer testing either though.
"Just because you are paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get you" sort of thoughts

 

[ericmark]

I think marketing is the problem, if they said we have a disconnection relay built into smart meters so one meter fits all be it pre-payment or not, then there would not be so much resistance, but I lived through the winter of discontent and I was thinking they were getting ready to do the same again, as could not see any reason for fitting the disconnection relay when they said it would not be used.

In other countries like France one can select the maximum power you want, the lower the maximum the less the charge, and before the smart meter they would fit 16 amp fuses, and the way a fuse works did allow a small over load for a short time, but when smart meters were fitted they were disconnecting with very short overloads, I read about it some time ago, so can't remember how meters were reset, however due to how used in other countries, stories have been generated which are simply not true in this country.

But the adverts are nothing short of daft, they do not show any of the advantages which are really there, but show a Freddy Boswell look alike doing some daft things like clapping hands to turn lights on/off, which is simply not true. They could advertise the tariffs available once a smart meter is fitted, but have selected not to.

It seems over a centenary ago we use to have duel tariffs and supplies, one for lighting and one for power, it was illegal to use the lighting supply for power, and I remember my grandads house with all radial circuits, and a row of fuses, seem to remember only 2 x 15 amp sockets, one in hall and one on landing, and to do the ironing my gran would use an adaptor plugged into the lights, great idea as it kept the lead out of the way.

I suppose today nothing to stop me plugging into the lights, I have ceiling sockets it would be easy enough to plug in. But what I am leading to is it is also possible to split the supply to essential and non essential, I have to an extent already done this, 4 kitchen sockets (used for freezers) and the FCU for central heating are on an UPS.

When new builds are wired, there is no reason why it should not have two consumer units one for essential and one for non essential and have a smart meter where the supplier can turn off the non essential supply when there is a unexpected heavy demand, and to encourage the use of non essential supplies offer a reduced tariff for them.

But this is for rewires and new builds, not existing homes, new builds should be designed to have essential and non essential and have roofs facing the sun with built in access for solar panels.

 

[ebee]

new builds should be designed to have essential and non essential and have roofs facing the sun with built in access for solar panels.

interesting idea Eric

In fact I remember some of the old improvement grants split light and power to different catogories of grant too, even if all wired from the same consumer unit.

Mind you, there have been times where the rateable value of properties have been linked to how many windows or how many rooms irrepective of size etc. Even to the extent that if you put a dividing wall into a room it was now classed as two rooms but if you left sufficient gap top or bottom it was still classed as one room.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

as could not see any reason for fitting the disconnection relay when they said it would not be used.

Handy for emergency use, and none payers - I see nothing wrong with that.

so can't remember how meters were reset, however due to how used in other countries, stories have been generated which are simply not true in this country.

No reason why they cannot be reset, the same way they are switched off, remotely.

It seems over a centenary ago we use to have duel tariffs and supplies, one for lighting and one for power, it was illegal to use the lighting supply for power, and I remember my grandads house with all radial circuits, and a row of fuses, seem to remember only 2 x 15 amp sockets, one in hall and one on landing, and to do the ironing my gran would use an adaptor plugged into the lights, great idea as it kept the lead out of the way.

Such a useful idea, I installed several overhead sockets in my garage/workshop - much better than the trip hazard, of extension leads trailing across the floor.