Smart meters. Wish you hadn't?
Poll: Smart meters. Wish you hadn't?
Total Members Polled: 599
Discussion
We are on Economy 10 which works well with our electric boiler with radiators (no gas in village). Economy 10 gives cheaper electric during the afternoon and evening. We use about two thirds of our electricity on the cheaper rate.
No electricity provider is offering a smart meter with E10 and we won't be switching over until they do.
A lot in our village are on E10 and I am thinking of starting a group to try and lobby the local MP to investigate.
No electricity provider is offering a smart meter with E10 and we won't be switching over until they do.
A lot in our village are on E10 and I am thinking of starting a group to try and lobby the local MP to investigate.
You missed "The energy company fitted one and it doesn't work"
I had a call asking if I wanted one fitted. I said yes but I must warn you there is no O2 phone signal here so it is unlikely to work, they said they will be able to make it work. They couldn't and after the fitter spending hours trying to get it to connect, and borrowing my phone to phone up HQ as his phone had no signal he gave up and went home never to be heard from again. 4 years on it still doesn't work.
I had a call asking if I wanted one fitted. I said yes but I must warn you there is no O2 phone signal here so it is unlikely to work, they said they will be able to make it work. They couldn't and after the fitter spending hours trying to get it to connect, and borrowing my phone to phone up HQ as his phone had no signal he gave up and went home never to be heard from again. 4 years on it still doesn't work.
Pistom said:
Money making organisations are trying to force me to have one so there must be a reason fir me not to have one.
The urge not to have one is stronger than to have one so until that changes, I'm not having one.
They are fined by OFGEM for not meeting the targets for installing them set by the Government, the cost of installation far outweighs the cost of manually reading them.The urge not to have one is stronger than to have one so until that changes, I'm not having one.
Have one at home, one at the holiday cottage.
Glad we do!
Enabled us to get on cheaper rates for EV charging, which has saved us getting on for £2k p.a. in fuel costs for over 4 years now (yes, I do appreciate the car cost more up front than an equivalent ICE).
I love not having to send a regular meter reading in….especially for the holiday cottage.
Nice to have a more granular check from time to time on usage….
I cannot see any downside….unless you are a tinfoil hat believer that TheMan™ wants to be able to cut you off as an individual without any warning
I guess if you live in a spot where they cannot send the readings, then there would be no real advantage…
Glad we do!
Enabled us to get on cheaper rates for EV charging, which has saved us getting on for £2k p.a. in fuel costs for over 4 years now (yes, I do appreciate the car cost more up front than an equivalent ICE).
I love not having to send a regular meter reading in….especially for the holiday cottage.
Nice to have a more granular check from time to time on usage….
I cannot see any downside….unless you are a tinfoil hat believer that TheMan™ wants to be able to cut you off as an individual without any warning
I guess if you live in a spot where they cannot send the readings, then there would be no real advantage…
Pistom said:
Money making organisations are trying to force me to have one so there must be a reason fir me not to have one.
The urge not to have one is stronger than to have one so until that changes, I'm not having one.
Against my firm wishes, my Wife went ahead and got one last winter.The urge not to have one is stronger than to have one so until that changes, I'm not having one.
With my tin-foil hat pulled down tight on my head, I really don’t like having one in our home.
When smart meters came out there were a lot of advertisements which said
Installing a smart meter will reduce your energy bills.
There will be many who will say, no, that is not completely corrects and make their own minds up, there will be others who were taken by this claim and went ahead with a smart meter thinking that they need do nothing more than agree to the installation to have lower bills. This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
This went on for a year, the old bloke had to borrow money to pay the bill.
I know people that complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the wording of the advert who upheld the complaint and the wording was changed.
Installing a smart meter will reduce your energy bills.
There will be many who will say, no, that is not completely corrects and make their own minds up, there will be others who were taken by this claim and went ahead with a smart meter thinking that they need do nothing more than agree to the installation to have lower bills. This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
This went on for a year, the old bloke had to borrow money to pay the bill.
I know people that complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the wording of the advert who upheld the complaint and the wording was changed.
K87 said:
This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
That's nothing to do with the new meter being a smart meter though, it could have happened switching an obsolete meter to a new non-smart meter.Gareth79 said:
K87 said:
This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
That's nothing to do with the new meter being a smart meter though, it could have happened switching an obsolete meter to a new non-smart meter.K87 said:
When smart meters came out there were a lot of advertisements which said
Installing a smart meter will reduce your energy bills.
There will be many who will say, no, that is not completely corrects and make their own minds up, there will be others who were taken by this claim and went ahead with a smart meter thinking that they need do nothing more than agree to the installation to have lower bills. This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
This went on for a year, the old bloke had to borrow money to pay the bill.
I know people that complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the wording of the advert who upheld the complaint and the wording was changed.
What exactly has that got to do with a smart meter? Fundamentally, he changed supplier and either the meter reading from his old meter has been recorded incorrectly or he has been underpaying for years because his old meter was never read. The new smart meter would have started at zero, so that bit is irrelevant.Installing a smart meter will reduce your energy bills.
There will be many who will say, no, that is not completely corrects and make their own minds up, there will be others who were taken by this claim and went ahead with a smart meter thinking that they need do nothing more than agree to the installation to have lower bills. This includes my neighbour who changed supplier and had a smart meter. After 20 years of having bills no more than £100 pm his first bill was over £5000, he is elderly and came to me in tears. The new supplier said that they were acting on the figures from the old supplier and the old supplier said 'it is what it is' despite having a long record of steady useage figures. Obviously clerical error somewhere.
This went on for a year, the old bloke had to borrow money to pay the bill.
I know people that complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the wording of the advert who upheld the complaint and the wording was changed.
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