Any downsides to a smart meter?

[Haze]

Free energy? Sounds like another bonus for the smart meter! (I'm assuming this case is specific for Gas right?)

Had the same problem with the electric meter last year, guess they were both fitted at the same time, but I got an extra 6 months out of the gas meter

 

[MartinPrince]

Smart meter figures: Nearly four million not working properly

Customers report being hit by hefty bills caused by smart meters not working properly.

www.bbc.co.uk

- I know a link to a related article was posted earlier, just thought for some BBC would hold more credibility.



Won't be in any hurry to get ours replaced. I embrace tech but this is just silly, smart meters have been around since 2011, it is silly that after 14 years we still have issues....

We'll end up paying for the suppliers replacing these meters despite this being their issue.

This is one reason I'll be sticking with my old meter for the foreseeable future.

I'd love to be able to have real-time cost usage but the fact that some companies have abused them by changing the billing structure without going through the necessary procedure has put me off.

Years ago I went to court with an electricity company that wanted to fit a prepaid meter over a dispute with a huge bill that turned out to be their fault.

They lost in court and the bill was zero'd but the fact that with smart meters they may have the ability to cut out that step of having to obtain a court order is a red flag for me.

I'll stick to manually submitting a meter reading on the 1st of the month and dusting off the old calculator.

 

[Barry Smalley]

Mine is way out compared to the proper readings. EON are using these readings automaticllay and I keep having to contact them to correct it.

 

[Haze]

Mine is way out compared to the proper readings. EON are using these readings automaticllay and I keep having to contact them to correct it.

I have never checked , They had a meter reading when i moved in, and give one every 12 months after

 

[Barry Smalley]

I’ve been waiting for 12 months for them to investigate it. They’ve tried to charge more, but I’ve always contested in so the bill has stayed the same.

 

[200sols]

What do you mean proper readings?

 

[Grim5]

1 - It needs electricity to run....which you have to pay for, I know it's low but it is not free energy.
2 - The old ones, becomes useless when you switch supplier
3 - They can report mistakes and suddenly you end up with a bill in the 5 figures (see plenty of news on this....unlikely but does happen).
4 - It's a good idea to check the meter box now and again, to spot any potential issues in that area.
5 - Don't really want the companies to monitor my daily usage or habit/patterns, more data = easier to target and move peak / off-peak.

I might be getting too cynical and tin foil on the last one but the apart from convenience, I don't see why I need them.

For 1. The meter will use about 1kWh every 6 months

3. That can happen if they investigate the dumb meter as well because it's broken or because your stole power

You forgot about number 6. 5g signal will give you cancer and bill gates will control your mind and give you coronavirus

And no I'm not joking some people believe coronavirus is spread through smart meters

 

[Grim5]

I don't know if they do this but they are capable of measuring voltage. This is useful for suppliers to know because it can be early indication of faults. For instance if you have a problem out on your 3phase in the street (neutral failure) it can in instances result in yours/your neighbours load affecting each other’s supplies. Its possible if you draw a huge amount and your neighbours less so to fry everything in their house as they end up getting 400v+. Again, no idea if this is sent/acted upon but its a good way to automatically fault find.

On that note above, since smart meters have the ability to disconnect then its possible there could be a safety feature that allows automatic disconnection if incoming voltage is too high. Again speculation but something that is technically possible.

I'm not sure if there is smart meters now that measure voltage or frequency, older ones certainly do not because your power bill is not defined by the voltage or frequency so there was no need for it . Power companies are also looking at modems as a way to detect outages - so if a bunch of house on your street suddenly lose internet then a message can be sent to the power company saying there is a power outage

 

[Barry Smalley]

What do you mean proper readings?

What I read from the meter is entirely different to the readings they have.

 

[Grim5]

What I read from the meter is entirely different to the readings they have.

Either the billed reading from them is an estimate or your meter has a multiplier

 

[Barry Smalley]

Either the billed reading from them is an estimate or your meter has a multiplier

It is not an estimate. The meter has an issue and we are still waiting for them to investigate this - they even admit it is wrong.

 

[cuke2u]

I believe it isn't that smart meters have issues per say but they are either incorrectly setup by the person who installs them, as the energy companies sub out to contractors, and when there are issues the same energy companies are slow at resolving them.
4 million out of 34 isn't that bad but like EV's the media have it in for them..

 

[Raymond Lin]

For 1. The meter will use about 1kWh every 6 months

3. That can happen if they investigate the dumb meter as well because it's broken or because your stole power

You forgot about number 6. 5g signal will give you cancer and bill gates will control your mind and give you coronavirus

And no I'm not joking some people believe coronavirus is spread through smart meters

Meh, 4 million users, that’s not 4 million people, reported errors shows the percentage is stupidly high.

No thank you!

It just validated my concerns on point 3.

People go nuts when 0.0001% of iPhone users reports a problem, 4 million users out of a population of 60mil is insane. How many household is that? 20, 30milion? And how many of those are on smart meter…and 4 million has errors. I’ll sign up when the error rate is under 1%, as it should be. I’ll happy to pay “over” the odds thank you very much.

 

[Demon]

3. That can happen if they investigate the dumb meter as well because it's broken or because your stole power

Yup..

I had a old fashioned spinny wheel meter, working perfectly, but lets say after some hilarity over my trailblazing IoT energy monitoring (thinking I was tampering with the meter) they elected to fit a digital meter (not smart).. My usage instantly increase 2.8x.. even my not so accurate OWL current sensing energy monitor didn't align by a factor of 3.. yet they refused to do anything.. I paid £2.4k more than normal until the meter display packed in.. then they decided it might be faulty and so I requested it be checked for calibration and lo and behold, because the meter display was dead they said it couldn't be checked and I had to swallow the £2.4k..

I couldn't wait for a Smart meter, it went in, my usage was back down to normal levels instantly.. and for a while I was getting amazing access from Bulb to Samsungs Smartthings so could monitor it, compare to the current sensing monitor and even my own direct reading from the led on the meter all correlate really nicely.. so I'm happy mine is finally 'correct'..

I see no downsides to the smart meters that didn't exist before.. I had many odd readings taken over 10 years, the smart meter has it's own display, so it's all easy correlated just like a misreading of a traditional meter..

 

[b0rn2sk8]

My electric bill for March will be negative, and will continue to be until October.

You won’t get that with a regular meter….

 

[200sols]

Meh, 4 million users, that’s not 4 million people, reported errors shows the percentage is stupidly high.

No thank you!

It just validated my concerns on point 3.

People go nuts when 0.0001% of iPhone users reports a problem, 4 million users out of a population of 60mil is insane. How many household is that? 20, 30milion? And how many of those are on smart meter…and 4 million has errors. I’ll sign up when the error rate is under 1%, as it should be. I’ll happy to pay “over” the odds thank you very much.

Dont forget most houses have 2 meters. Its still higher than it should be, but basically if you choose not to upgrade its only you who loses out.

 

[Raymond Lin]

My electric bill for March will be negative, and will continue to be until October.

You won’t get that with a regular meter….

Weirdly, I am not tempted, even if it's free..because of this risk or errors....and it's not like it is isolated, but 4 million!

I am happy to pay OVER THE ODDS for electricity and put in the work and report it myself...it's weird, but I don't mind it. The more people push it to me, the more I harder I want to reject it. I have never felt this about anything else before. I actually don't even CARE about the snooping, or data collecting, I have a tone of loyalty card but the harder they push (and they have), the HARDER I want to tell hem to go away. Same with people here, the more people trying to sell it, the more I want to stick...it's really weird.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Dont forget most houses have 2 meters. Its still higher than it should be, but basically if you choose not to upgrade its only you who loses out.

But tell that to the 4million customers?

 

[200sols]

But tell that to the 4million customers?

Those 4 million are in exactly the same situation as you. They just manually upload a reading.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Those 4 million are in exactly the same situation as you. They just manually upload a reading.

Smart meter figures: Nearly four million not working properly

Customers report being hit by hefty bills caused by smart meters not working properly.

www.bbc.co.uk

SMART meter.

I am not on a smart meter, they are not in the EXACT situation at all...is it?