Why does one need a smart meter to turn down central heating?

[JohnW2]

I quite like my smart meter, its currently saving me lots of money. I'm on the Octopus tracker tariff ....

Yes, as often discussed, Octopus customers are the few who actually can currently 'save' (money, not energy) by having a 'smart' meter - but I can but presume that other suppliers will eventually offer similar tariffs.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JP_]

Smart meters are smart for company profits. Not much else, although the payments for not using energy at peak times might be nice, if I didn't need to use energy at peak times.

 

[JohnW2]

Smart meters are smart for company profits. Not much else,

I think that's largely true, but .....

although the payments for not using energy at peak times might be nice, if I didn't need to use energy at peak times.

... for those who are fairly flexible about when they use energy, there is certainly currently scope (e.g. with Octopus-like tariffs) to make (money) 'savings'- but only so long as only a minority of people do that (essentially 'subsidised' by those who don't). If a high proportion of people shifted appreciable amounts of usage to traditionally 'low demand' times of day, they would cease to be 'low demand times', and hence the financial incentives would probably disappear.

Kind Regards, John