Had a Smart Meter fitted today. Cant find info in the booklet.
Q1. The smart meter downloads meter readings and data to energy provider. How?
Q2. Are latest tariffs uploaded automatically to the meter monitor to give correct pricing of energy used?
|
1. Mobile phone network. Two ways of doing it - each meter has its own SIM or you have a small box with a few flashing lights on it that both meters talk to.
2. Yes. The meters are programmed remotely with the tariffs and they sync that to the monitor.
|
"A consumer’s energy supplier will communicate
remotely with smart metering equipment to take meter
readings, including on change of supplier or change of
tenancy, as well as to update configuration and pricing
information. "
From Government leaflet here tinyurl.com/zxmf4ft
|
>> "A consumer’s energy supplier will communicate
>> remotely with smart metering equipment to take meter
>> readings, including on change of supplier or change of
>> tenancy, as well as to update configuration and pricing
>> information. "
Yeah, I can see that working!
|
|
I think it already does.. :-)
|
Has Data and Communications Company (DCC) finally delivered the infrastructure? There had been numerous delays. There were ways for it to work before this was delivered of course.
Smart meters like Internet of Things is another passing fad. And 3D TVs too.
What does a smart meter really provide apart from a decent revenue stream for installing and making them?
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 4 Jan 17 at 23:44
|
|
I don't suppose many people realise just how time consuming it proves to send meter readings on-line monthly to your energy supplier.......
|
|
I had mine fitted recently, mainly on convenience grounds, ours plan required a reading every week. In the winter i just found it a bit of a faff, having to go outside and mess about with those locks that never seemed to open or close properly, go through the mud, take a torch etc. Now I don't have to worry about any of that. It sends an update every 30 minutes and since it's subsidised I figured I'd already paid for it.
|
A reading every WEEK, Sooty? That does sound like a faff. I'd only want to take on a tariff like that if it was significantly going to save me some cash. Are you prepared to say how much you pay?
Fwiw, ours at present is approximately 19.5p per day standing, 13.2p per unit, both prices including VAT, fixed until next November. No nasty direct debit every month, I just read the meter every quarter and they take the exact amount I owe.
I'm know I could do better though.
|
We had smart meters fitted a few years ago, together with the usual energy monitor.
(I could not be bothered staring at an LED screen telling me I was using energy: my use is what it is). Dumped the monitor after a week or so.
Our next energy supplier(s) did not support smart metering.
Now we are, at least until the fix expires, with SSE and they have offered to install their own smart meters.
I have declined.
They may be "scare" stories, but I do not want my energy to be subject to time-of-day pricing as has been mooted.
We, being retired, are at home most of the day when variable charges are likely to be highest and we like to be warm in the colder months!
If such a pricing scheme comes in, I do not want to be part of it - at least not by choice.
Similarly, as discussed before some time ago, I do not want a water meter, as I want to use water as my needs require - including watering the grass. The fact that we have a low rateable value, set years ago, also helps!
Last edited by: Roger. on Thu 5 Jan 17 at 08:24
|
>> to time-of-day pricing as has been mooted.
>> If such a pricing scheme comes in, I do not want to be part of it - at least not by choice.
>>
Green Energy are now offering a choice of "Tide" electricity pricing with their smart meters.
TIDE Electricity
Daily Fixed Charge 24.00p
WEEKDAY
23:00 – 06:00 unit/kWh 4.99p
06:00 – 16:00 unit/kWh 11.99p
16:00 – 19:00 unit/kWh 24.99p
19:00 – 23:00 unit/kWh 11.99p
WEEKEND
23:00 – 06:00 unit/kWh 4.99p
06:00 – 23:00 unit/kWh 11.99p
Gas
Daily Fixed Charge 25.00p
Per unit/kWh 3.59p
|
>>16:00 – 19:00 unit/kWh 24.99p
Ouch! No good us old wrinklies who are at home all day.
|
>> >>16:00 – 19:00 unit/kWh 24.99p
>>
>> Ouch! No good us old wrinklies who are at home all day.
>>
That's the whole point of smart meters. They wouldn't be advertising them so much if there wasn't an alternative plan to get us to pay more and more!
Expect peak usage fees to get worse in an attempt to keep the need / demand for new power stations to a minimum.
There will also be so many different tariffs that it will become very difficult to make reasonable comparisons.
As it is the watchdog is looking to allow comparison sites to list only the tariffs that give the site a commission - which makes the sites totally biased!
Last edited by: zippy on Thu 5 Jan 17 at 17:10
|
Our leccy : 9.72p per kWh
Standing charge :19.31p per day
Plus 5% VAT
Our gas: 2.14 per kWh.
Standing charge: 19.31 per day.
Plus 5% VAT.
That's on a 12 month dual fuel fix.
I rushed the change a bit as our old deal expired in August, before the MSE collective deal came out in September, so it may not have been the very best I could have one - BUT I got a £30 switching cashback. :-)
|
>> Green Energy are now offering a choice of "Tide" electricity pricing with their smart meters.
>>
Not particularly cheap is it?
|
>> We had smart meters fitted a few years ago, I do not want a water meter, as I want to use water as my needs require - including watering the grass. The fact that we have a low rateable value, set years ago, also helps!
>>
I bet you'd still save money with a meter, even with a garden to water. Rates are pretty high even low ones.
|
>> I bet you'd still save money with a meter, even with a garden to water.
>> Rates are pretty high even low ones.
I refused to be metered for water when they were fitted several years ago, until I had a chance to compare usage. So glad I did. SWMBO's love of the dishwasher and washing machine meant it was never beneficial for the two of us (in a 3-bed semi !)
Neighbours couldn't understand our reluctance, but as the metered rate has increased far beyond the rateable amount (and they can't revert) so I've been justified.
|
We have a dishwasher and obviously washing machine. Metered water is around half the price of non-metered for this house.
We didn't have a choice - the meter was in when we bought the house. But if you have it installed you can of course go back to non-metered. The next owner/occupant cannot though.
|
>> We have a dishwasher and obviously washing machine. Metered water is around half the price
>> of non-metered for this house.
Those taking advantage of still paying 'water rates' rather then metered charges are, I suspect, overwhelmingly amongst the better off in society.
If you're poor or in straightened circumstances there are social tariffs as required by the Consumer Council for Water. Otherwise, regimes like Anglian Water's Aquacare Plus or Watersure charges limit costs for low income/large family or those who's medical conditions demand use above normal for size of household.
|
Severn Trent water bill: £300.69 for the year.
We use a fair amount of water: every on-line estimate I've done, using the water industry's calculations, has confirmed that non-metered is better for us.
|
|
I'm surprised so many are better off on rates. When we switched we saved 60% over the year. Sure you've not got leaky taps ;)
|
>> I do not want a water meter, as
>> I want to use water as my needs require - including watering the grass. The
>> fact that we have a low rateable value, set years ago, also helps!
>>
In some localities, in order to use a hosepipe, you used to need either a licence or have a meter. Use of a watering can without a licence or meter was allowed.
|
When some mates changed to metered a few years back they were extolling the virtues. Last time I checked ours the estimated cost for a meter would be about the same as we're paying for non-metered. So I'm happy to stick with non-metered for as long as poss, and it looks like metered may have gone up faster in this area.
SE Water
Water In is £312
Water Out is £279
Total bill is therefore quite a bit!! (3 bed semi)
EDIT what actually happens today in the online calculator is the
Water In becomes £236 (quite a drop)
Water Out (sewerage) becomes £380 (quite an increase)
totalling more than I am currently paying. I may have been over-generous in some parameters but not by much...
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 6 Jan 17 at 08:35
|
>> A reading every WEEK, Sooty? That does sound like a faff. I'd only want to
>> take on a tariff like that if it was significantly going to save me some
>> cash. Are you prepared to say how much you pay?
Well that's how often they send me a reminder. I can't remember the exact figures but i want to say about 12 or 13p during the day about 8/9p at night. Standing charge i don't know, not without looking it up.
|
>> I don't suppose many people realise just how time consuming it proves to send meter
>> readings on-line monthly to your energy supplier.......
>>
I am with eDF, and get a reminder to submit a reading only once every six months.
|
>>
>> Smart meters like Internet of Things is another passing fad. And 3D TVs too.
>>
>> What does a smart meter really provide apart from a decent revenue stream for installing
>> and making them?
>>
Nothing, apart from the capability for somebody in a call centre on the far side of the world to disconnect your electricity supply....and if you swap energy supplier then your "smart" meter likely becomes a dumb meter again. Still, they're only spending 11 billion of our money on this stupidity.
|
First Utility fitted a smart meter last year.
Switched to EON who do not support it..
What a shambles...
|
Received a letter from Scot Power re not taking up the new digital meter on offer.
2nd letter followed the 1st into recycling.
It told me I could monitor usage "live"
It told me I would know the billing was accurate.
Currently I read the meter 3 monthly & it is billed electronically - they take monthly amounts & there is a £50-£80 buffer amount in the account. The system works - so why change it?
There are too many issues ( different standards in use by other suppliers) & potential - Hacking!
I will stay where I am.
Last edited by: Falkirk Bairn on Thu 5 Jan 17 at 14:38
|
EDF (on home ground) is pushing us to have a smart meter fitted. Over here it's called a 'linky'. They have appointed a sub-contractor to do the job and the sub-contractor has appointed a sub-contractor. I'm not being rushed into it. I can't be bothered with mobile phone apps and all that stuff - our internet speed here is 1.5mb anyway. At the moment I do an on-line meter reading every two months and EDF reads the meter twice a year. We have a direct debit and the system has worked fine up to now. I can't believe any change in our pattern of usage could make much difference.
|
|
We are with British Gas dual fuel. The person comes to read the gas meter now and again, it's outside so easy for them to access. The electric meter is inside so it's random whether anyone's in. However they put a card through the door and we can submit our reading on the website, over the phone or by app. It's worked perfectly all these years and I see no need to change the process.
|
I had a smart meter fitted by BG about a year ago.
The monitor box was interesting in that you can see when people turn things on / off what impact it has, but I soon got bored and popped it into the drawer.
The meter reading bit is good though - I never have to think about it, and when I log in it always has the latest data
|
An earlier thread re smart meters here:
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=9301&v=f (2012/2016)
I decided not to have one fitted, following an invitation last year.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Fri 6 Jan 17 at 08:23
|
|
Well whatever a Smart meter tell me what my current Gas/Electricity costs are, I won't try to reduce these as we need the heat and cooking as it is. Currently, we hardly ever see a meter reader so about every 90 days or so I read my two meters and phone through my meter readings accordingly.
|
>>I read my two meters and phone through my meter readings accordingly.
Why don't you do-it-all on-line, you Oldgit.
I get reminder emails every 1/4 from nPower, then read my meter and submit the reading on-line. What could be easier?
Old Dog.
|
Even if you phone in your readings at the moment the Energy Co still has to send out a meter reader from time to time as a check. We would all be using remarkably little gas and electricity otherwise.
I knew someone who did the job for a while. Not an easy way to make a living. The job is subcontracted by the Energy Co to the lowest bidder and the targets they set for their employees are near impossible to meet.
|
>>Even if you phone in your readings at the moment the Energy Co still has to send out a meter reader from time to time as a check
Affirmative. My meter is read bi-annually, usually in February & July.
>>I knew someone who did the job for a while. Not an easy way to make a living. The job is subcontracted by the Energy Co to the lowest bidder and the targets they set for their employees are near impossible to meet.
Interesting. I thought about giving it a go some years back. Seemed like an easy way to pocket a few shekels,
driving around Cornwall, visiting isolated properties, and being greeted by Rottweilers & Mastiffs.
|
>> I get reminder emails every 1/4 from nPower, then read my meter and submit the
>> reading on-line. What could be easier?
Same here ,Perro. They send the cost right back but I don't pay until the proper bill comes 'cos of standing charge and VAT added. I pay on-line then...simples.
They put me a new digital meter in a few years back. Trubble is, it's about 6 inches above the floor under the stairs. I can only read it if I lie on me belly and squint through me bi-focals with a torch.........so I get my bride to do it !
Gas man told me some scrotes rob a meter from an empty house and use it for most of the quarter then put the original back a couple of weeks before the meter reader comes. Then put the hooky one back. Looks easy enough unless they check the serial no.
Old Ted
Last edited by: Ted on Fri 6 Jan 17 at 22:57
|
>>. They send the cost right back but I don't pay until the proper bill comes 'cos of standing charge and VAT added. I pay on-line then...simples.
I pays 'em by direct debit. Never had any probs with doing it that way, although I've heard BIG probs a'plenty from some peops on the wireless.
>>Gas man told me some scrotes rob a meter from an empty house and use it for most of the quarter then put the original back a couple of weeks before the meter reader comes. Then put the hooky one back. Looks easy enough unless they check the serial no.
My late brother - ex HMP Brixton and Parkhurst (Albany) used to turn his meter upside down, reckons it stopped the thing from clocking up?? - hot enough where he is now I 'spect :)
|
Email reminder every 90 days or so, logon & fill it in online - pay by Direct Debit- easy.
Every 10-12 months a meter reader comes along - I borrow his/her torch & shout it out.
On the Invoices they differentiate Customer Readings & Actual Readings!
The problems the Electricity suppliers have are not the 80-90% who have meters read & pay up but the people that are into by-passing meters, fiddling on old meters with the disk spinning (wire pushed in to slow down the rotation) etc etc.
|
I had an old-style meter when I first got my solar panels, one of those with the disc which turned showing you how fast you were using power.
However it wasn't "solar aware" and any power being generated registered as negative on the meter - so when I was generating more than I was using (often in summer days) the disc and meter (and disc) went backwards. It made for some very low electricity bills for the first summer I had the panels!! And in fact EON seemed in no rush to change it, even though I reported it, though I gather it was quite a widespread problem..
|
>> >>I read my two meters and phone through my meter readings accordingly.
>>
>> Why don't you do-it-all on-line, you Oldgit.
>>
>> I get reminder emails every 1/4 from nPower, then read my meter and submit the
>> reading on-line. What could be easier?
>>
>> Old Dog.
>>
Believe me, I would but at my age and with the difficulty of my partner sorting out online matters should I pop my clogs, I try and keep it simple and basic and in a state where things can be sorted out over the phone or by letter.
|
Say n'more guvnor.
Give a wave to Keston Lakes for me next time you drive by there. My uncle used to take us there in his old Austin back in the late 50's early 60's Many a good time spent in the beer garden of the pub there.
|
>> Say n'more guvnor.
>>
>> Give a wave to Keston Lakes for me next time you drive by there. My
>> uncle used to take us there in his old Austin back in the late 50's
>> early 60's Many a good time spent in the beer garden of the pub there.
>>
Will do. Was only passing that way yesterday and being careful to negotiate that new expensive overkill roundabout that has just been finished.
|
Probably a silly question....
Are smart meters compatible with all energy suppliers - i.e. if I get one from EDF will it work with EON etc?
Thanks.
|
Nope.
My First Direct one does not work with EON.
In my view it's very expensive and a waste of time for comsumers.
|
>> My First Direct one does not work with EON.
I would expect that, might be handy for checking your bank balance though!
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 18 Feb 17 at 16:35
|
>> My First Direct one does not work with EON.
'Proper' smart meters are compliant with a national standard. Some companies though have jumped the gun and offered other devices:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/getting-a-smart-meter-installed/
|
>> >> My First Direct one does not work with EON.
>>
>> 'Proper' smart meters are compliant with a national standard. Some companies though have jumped the
>> gun and offered other devices:
>>
>> www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/getting-a-smart-meter-installed/
>>
Thanks Bromptonaut,
That is really silly, it just means more change and more costs down the line.
|
Smart meters on gas are going to be a very expensive disaster... - usually exposed in a box well away from electrical supplies.
Are gas meter is in a stone box outside teh house - with no electrical supply and 2 -3 foot stone walls to go through..
|
|
No idea what powers my gas smart meter- cant see any power source going into it, and its on the outside with no wires running between in and the house
|
I've got two - neither work with my current supplier, nor will they ever be changed (as in a previous thread) to allow the implementation of smart metering, if I have a choice.
Thin end of a time-of-day-multi-pricing wedge, IMO.
|
Ah, this is why they are promoting smart meters...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39169313
|
>>No idea what powers my gas smart meter- cant see any power source going into it, and its on the outside with no wires running between in and the house
I was puzzled by this when I had a smart meter for electricity. I concluded mine was powered by some kind of induction, which might explain failures due to very thick walls.
|
|
Or maybe a wireless signal between the main meter and the smart meter. Mine was very inaccurate and is long gone.
|
|
They use a dedicated and sophisticated SIM based network don't they? Quite a magnificent network it is too. (Couldn't rely on household WiFi as not everyone has it!!)
|
|
The gas smart meters are powered by a long life battery. Consumption is ver low - estimated 10 years. When battery is running out it sends a message to supplier who will arrange for battery to be changed.
|
|
Can't be that smart after all! - charging some Customers up to £3000 for a days worth of juice!
|
|
I thought some of the SSE meters had said £33k for a day.
|
|
An indication in today's telegraph that use of LEDs in the home can upset the wave pattern of electricity and lead to false readings.
|
|
Caught taile end of an interesting discussion on smart meters on today's Jeremy Vine show. Ended about 12:20 so presumably began shortly after start of his show at noon.
|
Smart Meter Query - Fursty Ferret
