Hi all
I'm just considering whether we should go ahead with a smart energy meter installation?
On the face of it, smart meters seem to be a good idea as we can monitor our energy use.
However, I always smell a rat when companies are vague about the cost involved. According to EDF the meters are free of charge but their website is incredibly unclear about this.
On further investigation, and a call to EDF, I discover that, as I suspected, the charge is hidden in the standing charge (which can typically be between 11-20p per day apparently).
Well, that equates to about £55.00 per year.
But...I'm paying that anyway as apparently we are paying for the Smart Meter even if we don't have one ie everyone pays so we are paying for everyone else's meter.
This seems to be yet another charge deliberately concealed by energy firms.
I may well order a Smart Meter but I'll certainly be asking EDF why they are trying to mislead everyone.
Any thoughts
Martin
I wonder how much they will be saving (and, of course, not passing on to customers) by being able to read the meter remotely, or even having the meter sending them the readings automatically, instead of employing sending someone to pop around every now and then?
They ain't that smart, they can't cope with Economy 7 nor Economy 10 as they don't have the switching circuitry, plus in this block of flats the meters are not in the flats but in a locked meter room, key held by the building manager. As the meters are not in the flats the monitoring equipment will not work, it has to be within 10M of the meter.
Due to age and lack of mobility I can't get to read my meter so SSE have just informed me that my direct debit is to go up from £55/month to £186/month - blackmail!!!!!!!! So I need to go an a "vulnerable list" to get 3 monthly readings done for me, Citizens advice are sorting that for me.
@chrism (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=7182) that is where the problems lie.
We had a smart meter installed (sent to us in the post and rang to be told what to do) in 2016 by Eon. When we moved in in Nov 13 they told us to pay £144 a month for electricity, we have a kerosene oil tank for our heating, after 3 months I read the meter and rang them to tell them we weren't using the rate of electricity that we were paying for. We reduced our direct debit to £50 a month even though they suggested we drop to £35. We didn't want or need a massive bill from them!!!
Another 3 months and again the estimated bill had over 800hrs of units we weren't using.
12months in we dropped to £15 a month as we had over £140 of credit.
So when the smart meters, which all energy companies were forced into providing for every household by the government were brought in they said as the discrepancy with our bill was STILL ongoing 3 years later we were perfect for the smart meter.
It was plugged in and everything worked fine. We use between £0.95 and £1.25 a day apart from sunday when were washing clothes and cooking a nice dinner which is anywhere between £2.10 and if were really lavish £3.20. So Eon soon realised we weren't having them on and they do still owe us over £60 in over payment.
3 months after the installation a very confused man arrived at the house, introduced himself and said he was here to read the meter. He checked the smart meter and the flashing box on the wall and realised they were both telling the truth and no funny business was going on. Upon leaving he said "I'll see you in 3 months, at least I know how to get here now" I questioned why he needed to come back, to which he replied
"The problems with these smart meters and the ability to adapt them is that great, we will still be manually reading meters in 3 years time!!!!
What a great labour saving thing these are.
And in that is the problem, for the smart meter drive comes from 'The campaign for a smarter Britain' or something, nothing to do with energy companies!!!!
You are not in any way obliged to have a smart meter fitted, but as you say there appears to be an industry wide "charge" to all customers to support the role out.
They become interesting when providers only let you have the best tariff when you agree to have one installed, this is becoming increasingly common. Check the small print when you do a comparison (using a comparison website as well). You may well find that you agree to have one by accepting the tariff.
I waited for as long as possible to try and ensure we ended up a "SNETS 2" standard meter. This is a second generation standard which is (in theory at least) universal and can be used by all providers. This means they stay "smart" when you move from one provider to another. This wasn't the case for a very long time when the industry very slowly used up the earlier "SNETS 1" standard meters.
When I was offered a noticeably better tariff from Eon, I begrudgingly accepted a Smart Meter.
Just keep an eye on the "engineer" they send to install the meter.
Won't go into all the details (it is documented on "The Angry Thread"), but the idiot they sent to us managed to cause £90.00 worth of damage to our boiler.
Thankfully last week, on instruction from The Energy Ombudsman, we received our £150 settlement from Eon.
Regards
Skyline2uk
My mother keeps being pestered to have smart meters but her energy company can't seem to get their heads round the fact she uses whatever energy she needs and no more. At 86, she's hardly likely to turn the heating down to save a few quid :no:
I had the things installed some 4 years ago and, in the second year, the gas one malfunctioned and recorded no gas being used. I told them and they replaced the meter but have never charged me for the years central heating I got free :)
Smart meters will also give the PowerCo the ability to switch the power OFF remotely in an area to prevent brownouts.
So when everyone comes home and plugs the car in for the night...
Ours works well enough in terms of sending readings to EDF and I can view it all online if I care to, but the little remote display has never managed to pair up and work despite being positioned indoors about 3m from the meter sitting in its little box outside.
As a qualified electrician, with an HNC, and thirty years of experience, I am not legally allowed to touch/modify/etc. a meter...
...so if they think I'll let some random turkey with two weeks training anywhere near the electrics in my house they've another think coming.
And they've been told that in no uncertain terms.
Quote..so if they think I'll let some random turkey with two weeks training anywhere near the electrics in my house they've another think coming.
And they've been told that in no uncertain terms.
With the benefit of hindsight I can't help but agree with you. Seeing as my particular Turkey couldn't operate and on/off switch without breaking it, I did shudder at the thought of him touching a GAS meter.
Skyline2uk
The excellent Aussie electronics mag Silicon Chip has published a number of energy meter projects over the years, some of them being quite sophisticated.
As you build and install it yourself, you know you're not getting ripped off by the energy companies!
You can monitor your usage using clip on monitors and remote displays without a smart meter. Smart meters are all about the supply side, not any advantage for the customers. They can massively cut down on meter readers, build a profile of power usage (in half-hourly chunks) and then use that to create tariffs that suit them. Instead of building enough power stations or contracting for guaranteed supplies, they can load the tariffs so that they are at their most expensive at peak times, to drive down peak demand. Unfortunately the downside for users is that their power will become a lot more expensive or they'll have to re-organise their lives - want to cook and eat when you get in? Too pricey, you'll have to do it later, even though that disrupts your evening. Want to charge the car when you get home in case you get an "emergency" call from an elderly relative that you are responsible for helping? Hard-luck you'll have to pay extortionate, peak-rate charges every day. Want to wash your children's muddy PE kit as they'll need it again tomorrow? Peak rate, or you'll have to stay up late to wash and get it dry for the morning and be tired all day at work. Like most people, my life is very busy (maybe particularly so with three children and a disabled wife). Anything that forces me to do things at times that do not suit fitting in everything that I need to do or that ups my already high bills will not be appreciated!
Quote from: Bealman on January 22, 2020, 11:00:17 PM
As you build and install it yourself, you know you're not getting ripped off by the energy companies!
Maybe not but, in my case, the end results could be disastrous! :worried:
Yeah, me too. Model railways run on 12V and psychobot runs on 5.
Even though I have constructed a couple of 240V projects, I remain to this day very wary of 240V. ;)
You don't need 240V equipment for monitoring. You can see the current taken from a current transformer wrapped around one of the meter tails and work from that. Or a simple optical sensor timing the interval between flashes of the LED on the meter - the details are on the label on the meter (assuming that you have a non-smart, digital meter).
Quote from: Newportnobby on January 23, 2020, 09:36:17 AM
Maybe not but, in my case, the end results could be disastrous! :worried:
I am with Mick on this. I do not mind playing about with 12v DC, the worse thing I have ever done is make something go 'phut', but 240v AC - :no:
Quote from: dannyboy on January 23, 2020, 10:00:55 AM
Quote from: Newportnobby on January 23, 2020, 09:36:17 AM
Maybe not but, in my case, the end results could be disastrous! :worried:
I am with Mick on this. I do not mind playing about with 12v DC, the worse thing I have ever done is make something go 'phut', but 240v AC - :no:
It just a bigger 'phut'...
...much bigger!
To be honest, if your consumer unit has a 30ma trip built into it, any shock you get feels less painful than a static shock from that bri-nylon shirt your mother used to make you wear.