Moral dilemma....

[emjaybee]

We're constantly being told, "turn off electrical appliances and equipment that aren't needed, save electricity."

So to help the population understand this they want people to have...

...a smart meter.

Which is never turned off, and very rarely looked at.

I'm going to do my bit for the planet...

...I'm not having one!

Gosh, I feel so empowered by all this eco-warrioring.

[guest311]

I think the main eco effects of a smart meter are actually ..

save having to employ people to go round and read meters

save having to give them cars or vans so they can get to where they are going to be reading meters

of course there is a downside ....

those  annoying TV smart meter adverts which result in millions of people heading to the kitchen and putting the kettle on 

[AndyRA]

The older I get the less I trust anything that is prefaced with 'Smart' in front of it. 

[guest311]

there is one other positive to a smart meter .......

the remote part which lets you worry about how much you are using came with batteries, which are exactly the right size for my central heating control box 

I was therefore able to recycle them .... into the central heating controller, and save having to buy fresh ones.

it's a win win situation 

[Hiawatha]

They want people to have a smart meter ...

... because they are so inaccurate it is de facto a 500% price increase.

https://www.powergrid.news/2018-10-17-smart-meters-are-wildly-inaccurate.html

(The study is three years old but I doubt that there have been significant improvements.)

[emjaybee]

They want people to have a smart meter ...

... because they are so inaccurate it is de facto a 500% price increase.

https://www.powergrid.news/2018-10-17-smart-meters-are-wildly-inaccurate.html

(The study is three years old but I doubt that there have been significant improvements.)

I would suggest caution linking articles like that.

As an electrician I would suggest that the only likely way a 'smart meter' is going to cause you harm is:

A: You swallow it.
B: You fire it at yourself from a cannon.

You probably get more emf from your model railway controller.

[Hiawatha]

I wasn't referring to the health issues but that they found them to be inaccurate up to 581%. And the two involved Dutch universities are not The Sun or Fox News ...

[railsquid]

The linked article sneakily tries to conflate a genuine study on the accuracy of smart meters with alleged health effects, and the video in the middle of that page titled "Smart meters cook us with microwave pulses every day, while collecting our private information" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in it as a source.

Here's the IEEE link (which should be free of "OMG teh radiation!!"-style pseudoscience): Static energy meter errors caused by conducted electromagnetic interference.

[njee20]

I wasn't referring to the health issues but that they found them to be inaccurate up to 581%. And the two involved Dutch universities are not The Sun or Fox News ...

Rubbish! Ignoring the click bait article just think logically, do you think anyone switching to a smart meter would just accept a 6-fold increase in their bill? Even a 50% increase would raise eyebrows. Why would they be inaccurate anyway, it's not like people were on estimated bills, you just didn't get the insight as regularly.

[Yet_Another]

Our electric smart meter, fitted in the summer, is excellent. It doesn't talk to the power company, so they don't know how much we're using. It also doesn't talk to the remote display, or respond in any way to the buttons on the front of the meter itself, so we don't know how much we're using either. 

[Newportnobby]

Does some numpty out there in 'Power World' think I'm going to change my habits?
"Oh, dear – I'm using too much power so must reduce the temperature/times on my thermostat and become cold"
Do they believe I'm going to discumknackerate my self attempting to crawl into a TV cabinet to unplug items that are on standby and then do it again when I have need of them?
Should I unplug my cordless land phones and only plug them in when the battery is flat and I can't take/make calls?
The answers are all "Of course not"
All the appliances I have are necessary for me to live and I don't waste power so it's pointless telling me how much I use. I see the amount on my bills and can use that to change supplier if I wish.  That's all I need to know.

[ntpntpntp]

Perfectly happy with our smart meter on the leccy.  If it save a bloke coming round in a van and knocking on the door for permission to read the meter that's fine by me.

OK the little display box has never managed to pair with the meter but that doesn't bother me as I'm not desperate to watch our usage every waking moment. The meter itself is talking to the power company and logging regular readings should I want to go and take a look at my account (I never do).

I've honestly never understood what some folk have against them, seems to be mainly the tin-foil helmet and conspiracy theory brigade

[emjaybee]

My objections are thusly...

...I'm a time served electrician of 30+ years, and an Electrical HNC.

I'm not allowed to do anything with the meter. But the powers to be see nothing wrong with some 'jobber' having a fortnight's course, and sending them out to fit meters.

I've had quite a number of calls from the public at large to problems that have occurred since smart meters have been fitted. Bare copper showing, night storage heaters no longer working, meters not fixed securely, and my favourite, "is the cable supposed to be smoking?." The electrickery companies response is, " you'll need to have the problem looked at by a qualified electrician before contacting us."

Not likely. I don't know of any electrician that's dumb enough to get involved. As the next thing is, "ah well, your electrician has done something, so he needs to sort it out, it's not our responsibility."

The electrickery people's attitude is like playground tag, the last person to touch it, is 'it'.

As for their point. If it's turned on, and you're not using it, turn it off.

They also won't work in most stone houses, 50's council houses with a steel frame, and a lot of new builds where the stud walls are made of steel sections.

[GAD]

A friend of mine on the inside of the energy industry told me to avoid the 1st generation meters as they only work with some suppliers, mainly the one that supplied it to you. To avoid 2nd generation for much the same reasons. And to await the 3rd or 4th generation ones if/when they come out.

The issue was that, when they were introduced no proper standard was dictated by the regulator, so each supplier started with a clean piece of paper. The resultant beggars muddle is still with us.

[njee20]

And all that means is that if you swap supplier (which of course you can still do exactly the same) you lose the smart-ness and you're back where you started.

Like ntpntpntpntpntpntpntp I also struggle a bit with why people are so against them. Ours does pair with the 'monitor' and give feedback. I don't really heed it insofar as I don't rush around the house turning things off, but I find it interesting to look at, because I like data.