Smart meters. Wish you hadn't?

[ARHarh]

Rough101 said:

21TonyK said:

Do smart meters work if you have solar feeding back as well?

You would be daft to have PV without a smart meter!

Why? What advantage will a smart meter give you?

[Alickadoo]

Silvanus said:

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.

Some people love a tin foil hat conspiracy

I do enjoy a good conspiracy theory.

The trouble is that the quality of conspiracy theories has dropped right off since Brexit and Covid.

I am not quite sure who to blame.

Any ideas?

[Silvanus]

Alickadoo said:

Silvanus said:

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.

Some people love a tin foil hat conspiracy

I do enjoy a good conspiracy theory.

The trouble is that the quality of conspiracy theories has dropped right off since Brexit and Covid.

I am not quite sure who to blame.

Any ideas?

Try the GB news or Kia Starmer thread

[wyson]

I started switching off at the sockets overnight now, after figuring out that my devices on standby were consuming about £200 - £300 of energy a year.

Plus, I don’t need to give meter readings.

Plus should I ever want an electric car, I think a smart meter makes getting a variable EV tariff much easier.

I much prefer a smart meter.

[Countdown]

I have a smart meter.

No meter readings
Can monitor energy usage on the app

I'm not sure what the downsides are, if any.

[Baldchap]

We have one and I'm indifferent. We still have to do readings occasionally so I don't really see what it wins us but it's interesting seeing from a cost perspective in real time how our solar installation impacts the bills.

[Evanivitch]

ashleyman said:

Don’t have one. Don’t want one. I’d obsess over it even and I don’t want that.

There's no need to obsess, the In House Display isn't required, unplug and throw in a draw.

[kambites]

For me the upsides are minor (not having to read the meter mostly) but I can't see any downsides at all so I'm definitely in the "prefer it" category.

[James6112]

No downsides
I have had one for about a year, recently switched to an EV tariff, 8p kwh for 5 hours overnight (had to have a smart meter for that)
Now almost half of our usage is during that period, timed appliances/cars.
Bill is about the same, so EV charging effectively free. Saving £200 a month in fossil fuel bills.
Happy days!

[Mont Blanc]

We have had smart meters for the last 10 years, in our previous house, and in our current one.

Downsides: None.
Upsides. Don't have to read the meters and submit readings.

Can't see why you wouldn't want one to be honest, unless you are some kind of tin foil nutcase. The business case for the energy companies is quite simple: It costs them a lot less to install smart meters than send humans all round the country in vans reading them, plus, OFGEM have mandated that they are installed so that customers can have live energy spend data.

[bigpriest]

Evanivitch said:

ashleyman said:

Don’t have one. Don’t want one. I’d obsess over it even and I don’t want that.

There's no need to obsess, the In House Display isn't required, unplug and throw in a draw.

Which is what tends to happen after 2 days of saying "ooh, look at how much electricity the kettle uses".

[OMITN]

I suspect we could do with one.

We’re part of the sizeable minority in the country who are partially off grid (no mains gas - LPG for us), so we don’t get to
Participate in the dual fuel deals offers by the energy providers.

But WFH means we’re here much more than we used to be and so in reality the energy usage monitoring alone could well prove valuable.

[Hondashark]

Smart meters are designed for stupid people to realise how much electric they have used so they can save money.
The problem is stupid people think it's a conspiracy and won't get them fitted.

I have one, it doesn't tell me anything that I didn't already know but I don't have to do any meter readings anymore.

[21TonyK]

ARHarh said:

Rough101 said:

21TonyK said:

Do smart meters work if you have solar feeding back as well?

You would be daft to have PV without a smart meter!

Why? What advantage will a smart meter give you?

I ask because my Dad lives abroad most of the year and his house in the UK has PV panels. I have to take manual readings regularly for him so he can "get money back".

Just wondered if this was a reason he was still on an old meter.

[Evanivitch]

21TonyK said:

ARHarh said:

Rough101 said:

21TonyK said:

Do smart meters work if you have solar feeding back as well?

You would be daft to have PV without a smart meter!

Why? What advantage will a smart meter give you?

I ask because my Dad lives abroad most of the year and his house in the UK has PV panels. I have to take manual readings regularly for him so he can "get money back".

Just wondered if this was a reason he was still on an old meter.

On a FiT with assumed 50% export he may be losing out if he's not in the house much of the time. A smart meter would give real exports.

[harrycovert]

Had one fitted by EDF just over a year ago, keep getting emails asking for update meter reading!!
When I send one they reply,that doesn't look right. Load of rubbish

[ashleyman]

Evanivitch said:

ashleyman said:

Don’t have one. Don’t want one. I’d obsess over it even and I don’t want that.

There's no need to obsess, the In House Display isn't required, unplug and throw in a draw.

Unfortunately neurodiversity is not that simple!

[James6112]

Hondashark said:

Smart meters are designed for stupid people to realise how much electric they have used so they can save money.
The problem is stupid people think it's a conspiracy and won't get them fitted.

I have one, it doesn't tell me anything that I didn't already know but I don't have to do any meter readings anymore.

Sensible people have Smart Meter fitted to take advantage of cheap periods, a pre-condition.

[Alex Z]

ARHarh said:

Rough101 said:

21TonyK said:

Do smart meters work if you have solar feeding back as well?

You would be daft to have PV without a smart meter!

Why? What advantage will a smart meter give you?

It will let you know whether your generated electricity exceeds your consumption at that moment in time, so you can maximise the savings and run extra items if needed.

[ARHarh]

Evanivitch said:

21TonyK said:

ARHarh said:

Rough101 said:

21TonyK said:

Do smart meters work if you have solar feeding back as well?

You would be daft to have PV without a smart meter!

Why? What advantage will a smart meter give you?

I ask because my Dad lives abroad most of the year and his house in the UK has PV panels. I have to take manual readings regularly for him so he can "get money back".

Just wondered if this was a reason he was still on an old meter.

On a FiT with assumed 50% export he may be losing out if he's not in the house much of the time. A smart meter would give real exports.

But fit is worth far more than the export payments and the meter is checked by a person every 2 years as are all non smart meters so even if he never came back to the house he would still get his payments. If you don't send a meter reading every 3 months it doesn't matter as next time you do it will still show kow much you generated since the last reading.