Smart Meters

[Mikefromlondon]

Sorry Mike, but the EU, being so arrogant, would impose it in an instant if anyone gave them the idea, so please don't spread this any further.

deleted the prompt. Please delete my quote to avoid them getting ideas. You know our councils and Government is good at squeezing every last drop of our blood and sweat money, my local council is now very hot on monitoring all yellow junction boxes, and have introduced many more new boxes and armed them with latest CCTV cameras, so as to milk more money out of already hard hit motorist, I think Drones would really come handy now, equipped with black spray canisters to block camera lenses that spy on us, and used for milking more money out of us for small inadvertent errors.

This week alone, I might have picked up two yellow box contraventions, one where a BMW driver stopped for a stupid reason, even though the road ahead of him was clear all the way, but he stopped just because the space was just a bit tight for him to pass through a narrow gap caused by a road side traffic cone left by workers, and the oncoming cars, so he did not want to risk touching the cone even though I could see a tank could have passed through that narrow gap, instead he just stopped near this cone forcing me to pull behind him and half a length of my car was still in the yellow box, I tooted him to get going but he refused to move on, forcing me to stop in this yellow box, he got annoyed when i tooted him, and refused to move on, so I had to get out of my car knocked on his window, to ask him why he stopped in the middle of the road for no good reason, and forcing me to stop in a yellow box, I told him he was such an inconsiderate ****! he replied he didn't want risk catching on the cone, but I shouted at him that there was at least a foot between his car and the cone, and I replied so who is going to pay my friggin £100 fine now, and drove off saying that is my problem. That is BMW drivers for you. ( I took his number plate down and will use that as an evidence if should I receive a fine in post)

Yesterday I entered a 3 lane yellow box at a round about and I was in left lane to turn left, my exist was totally clear, so as I started to proceed, there was only one driver inside the round about who had approached from my right and he was going around the round about in the 3rd lane, there was one other driver in a black Transit van in the right lane next to me, so as he started to proceed straight on intending to go either straight or turn right, as he inched forward, i also started to proceed to enter the round about, but then he suddenly stopped, I could not tell why he stopped as my view was now blocked by him, so I also stopped, just in case a car had suddenly appeared fast into the round about from the right, so i decided to play it safe and stopped as well, so by now we were both in the yellow hatched area and had to stop, as a car had entered the round about fast, so if I had carried on, then who knows I may have run into him or him running into me, my car was nearly 1/3 into the box when i had to stop, due to van blocking my view.

I am now dreading two fines, which i am intending to appeal if I get them. I never pay fines where I consider myself not be in any contravention, so if it comes to and appeals are not successful, I will pack my bags before going to the court for a dispute and if the judge decides i am guilty, I will look forward to new life in a prison. So you guys will have to excuse me for a while if I do go in as I wouldn't be able to post anything!

 

[noseall]

if you had the evidence to back it up you wouldn't be scurrying off.

Unlike the torrent of information that you and EFLI provided on the downside of smart meters LOL.

You lot are just frightened you may have to pay your fair share. Paranoid and deluded springs to mind.

 

[anobium]

That will include the £300+ cost of the thing.


EFL There is no direct charge to the customer for the meters or the fitting.

 

[EFLImpudence]

That will include the £300+ cost of the thing.


EFL There is no direct charge to the customer for the meters or the fitting.

It depends what you mean by direct.
There is a surcharge on the bills to pay for them - whether you have one or not.

Obviously they will be compulsory eventually.
Do you expect the supply companies to pay the eleven billion?

 

[HawkEye244]

Unlike the torrent of information that you and EFLI provided on the downside of smart meters LOL.

You lot are just frightened you may have to pay your fair share. Paranoid and deluded springs to mind.

PM me for sex mate, you clearly want it. Anything I post you find a way to post quote something stupid.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Likewise - apart from the sex bit.

 

[foxhole]

Used to work for electricity company, 30 years ago when smart meters were an idea for the future , they would be connected to your phone line ( before wifi etc) . The idea at the time was to charge everyone directly without any credit period , linked to your bank account you would be literally paying as you go. Saving million for power companies as they eliminate the current quarterly billing method , and monthly DD.

 

[Ihavenojob]

I have to wear lipstick and down a blonde wig and wear a black face mask to leave my house and pretend I am Dianna Abbott with dyed hair.

I've got wood !

 

[Doggit]

EFL There is no direct charge to the customer for the meters or the fitting

There is a surcharge on the bills to pay for them - whether you have one or not.

It's not an actual surcharge as such; there's no way that you could identify anything in your bills and challenge it. They've incorporated the cost (which they say is only about £60 - yeah) and increased the prices, which means that a higher usage would mean a higher price for their smart meter. In reality, we have no way of knowing what the real cost of these things is. Just as we don't know how much we're paying for all the green energy options. Only Ed Milliband could have thought there was any sense in telling people that they had to pay higher bills to make sure that they didn't pay even higher ones.

 

[Deleted member 63160]

PM me for sex mate, you clearly want it. Anything I post you find a way to post quote something stupid.

 

[Doggit]

MFL. it sounds as though you need a dash cam to help fight these situations, but I've got to add that the highway code does state that you shouldn't enter the box area unless your exit is clear.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It's not an actual surcharge as such; there's no way that you could identify anything in your bills and challenge it.

I realise that - it's the same as FITs - but everyone is paying more than they would be without smart meters.

The supplier has to make eleven billion more than without them.

11,000,000,000 / 36,666,666 (don't know exact no.) = £300




The same as off-shore wind generation costs 15% more than it need do because of rent to the Crown.


Double the present cost has already been guaranteed for the new nuclear generators.


Ever feel ripped-off?

 

[Doggit]

Sorry EFL, I pretty much realised that you knew there was no actual surcharge, but I used your comment to expand the discussion.

I didn't know about the crown rents, but I was horrified when I found that they get paid if it's too windy, because they are losing revenue. Yet that just suggests their technology isn't sufficiently self regulating enough to keep working during the high winds. We lose out on the electricity that could have been generated, yet they still get paid, so we're actually paying a much higher rate for what we do get. Just what sort of idiot negotiated and agreed these terms.

I felt ripped off before you told me about the crown rents; even more so now.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

MFL. it sounds as though you need a dash cam to help fight these situations, but I've got to add that the highway code does state that you shouldn't enter the box area unless your exit is clear.

So that means that when you know the exit is clear and you have a car in front of you as well, so when he starts moving you should remain until he has cleared well past one length of car after the box? Would that be very practical and will this help avoid huge tail backs? will this also help contribute more to pollution? (Obviously if the car in front of you decides to stop just past the yellow box, then you would be caught sitting in one with your exit blocked! and snapped by a CCTV camera.

In another scenario, say you were approaching a junction from a side street, and were stopped at red traffic lights and were to turn left, traffic on the main road that you were to join was very heavy, such that it was hardly moving more than one or two cars at a time per lights change, so when your light were green, you could not enter the box as your exit to left was busy with stationary traffic, and as soon as the traffic begins to move your lights go Red again, so you stayed put at that junction, and then the cleared space gets filled in again from other cars whose lights were green, and by the time your lights go green again, you still cannot enter the box as the exist is blocked with stationary cars, so if this scenario repeats 3 or 4 or more times, before you get lucky, you could be sat there forever! so what would you do?

I will give you some options:
1. You proceed taking a risk, and fight the battle in a court, expected result you are shafted dry by the Courts.
2. You bring your camping gear and hook a tent behind your car, and open a can of chilled Coke and just relax and wait for the tarffic to subside.
3. sit there like an idiot and bear the brunt of insults from drivers behind you
4. or you put some sense in the heads of the law makers that sometimes these schemes are not very practical and must allow for people to enter and not get fined. (in other words yellow boxes are impractical in heavy traffic) They do not work fairly for all mnotorist.

(What we need is an intelligent traffic light system that gives equal opportunities to traffic from all sides, to keep all sides flowing, so it should monitor how many cars have crossed from one section to another and then remain Red until cars from other sections have also moved and then allow the first section to go green again.
it is a simple logical scheme and does not even require a computer to work out, just a simple electronic counter that checks how many cars have crossed from one set of lights and then checks how many cars have managed to cross through from adjacent set of lights and as long as cars are waiting to cross, it stays green for that side, once two or three cars have crossed lights go reg again, and then allows Pedestrians to cross before going green for the first section and allows three or four cars to cross before going green again for the adjacent side. Perhaps I should do a model and present it to thick heads to implement an intelligent scheme and system of traffic control, might see Saddiq Khan about it and get rich! this little logic and car detectors can be interfaced with traffic lights when roads or traffic gets busy, at other times it could work out which side needs priority. This would keep a balanced flow. They allow you to enter when turning right and so why not when turning left?

I think we could do with a thread on Yellow Box Junctions and people can post their experiences and suggest alternative ideas to ease and help traffic flow, DIYnot have so many professionals on here see who can come up with a brilliant idea and win a Nobel Prize. I think I will start a thread now.

 

[Doggit]

At the end of the day Mike, you can give as many possible scenarios as you like, but if you get caught in the yellow box, you need to be able to show why you had good reason to be there. If someone cuts across into your lane, then the dash cam will exonerate you, but if cars keep coming from the side road, and don't give you a clear exit, then you'd be violating the rules - and you'd get done.

I have complete sympathy for your predicament, and most days, you need to make a judgement call to keep the traffic flowing, but you need to keep the rules in the back of your mind as well.

Traffic control was meant to make things better, until a lot of councils realised they were a cash cow waiting to be milked. It's going to take a lot more debate before the government realises that it's not so much diesel cars causing the pollution, as it is the traffic lights etc keeping you sitting there for way longer than necessary.