Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2018
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- 3,393
That would be stupid for me as I would be paying more than I am now.
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Any downsides to a smart meter?
- Thread starter Minstadave
- Start date
What's your current rates?
Soldato
Unless you on a historic tariff, or a special economy 7 deal then something like Octopus Tracker will work out cheaper for almost everyone else. It is seriously worth looking in to.
Below is the tracker for last 30 days, the red line is the normal capped rate, the green line is tracker cost, somewhere between 25-33% cheaper per kWh.
Man of Honour
My replacement IHD came today and unlike the original that synced straight away this one is not picking up the two smart meters. I will give it until the morning and contact Octopus again if it still doesn't pick them up.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2018
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Thanks for the information.Unless you on a historic tariff, or a special economy 7 deal then something like Octopus Tracker will work out cheaper for almost everyone else. It is seriously worth looking in to.
Below is the tracker for last 30 days, the red line is the normal capped rate, the green line is tracker cost, somewhere between 25-33% cheaper per kWh.
I'm currently paying 19.08 KW/h so for now I'll be staying where I am till my current tariff ends and then see what the state of play is then.
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Caporegime
I own the house…these companies are not the crown. I am not fighting the calibration date…until then, they can wait their turn.
BTW, chapter and verse for the legislation where owning an old meter of a criminal offence please? If it’s functioning fine then why would it be illegal? But I would like to read this law where it says it’s illegal to have a old and working meter though.
Getting a smart meter installed
What smart meters are, when you can get one installed, whether you can refuse a smart meter, smart meter specifications and how to save money with a smart meter
It says “Refusing a smart meter
You don’t have to accept a smart meter if you don’t want one. If your supplier tells you that you must have one installed, contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline.
If you refuse a smart meter, you might find it hard to access all tariffs. This is because in future the cheaper tariffs offered by suppliers might only be available to customers with smart meters.”
I am happy with the 2nd paragraph. I laid the bed and happy to lay in it. The first paragraph suggest you are telling porkies. (If it’s fully working).
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Associate
- Joined
- 4 Jul 2006
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- 1,811
If you have not been switched yet try contacting them, when I switched to Tracker on Gas I didn't get an E-Mail so dropped them a message on twitter and asked if I screwed up as I never got an E-Mail stating my intention to change tariffs or to confirm any TOS and they said they saw I had requested it and processed it right then and there, no waiting.
Is that meant to be some sort of gotcha? Changing meters won't affect any legacy fix you have, tracker is usually cheaper than 19p anyway.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2018
- Posts
- 3,393
If it doesn't change the tariff then we are back to square one plus they're too many variables and pitfalls I mentioned above.
The savings as you can see are not big enough for me yet to take that risk.
Commissario
Good shout, I did that last night and they replied this morning, confirming they've switched me from yesterday. Thank you.
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Man of Honour
I own the house…these companies are not the crown. I am not fighting the calibration date…until then, they can wait their turn.
BTW, chapter and verse for the legislation where owning an old meter of a criminal offence please? If it’s functioning fine then why would it be illegal? But I would like to read this law where it says it’s illegal to have a old and working meter though.
Getting a smart meter installed
What smart meters are, when you can get one installed, whether you can refuse a smart meter, smart meter specifications and how to save money with a smart meterwww.citizensadvice.org.uk
It says “Refusing a smart meter
You don’t have to accept a smart meter if you don’t want one. If your supplier tells you that you must have one installed, contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline.
If you refuse a smart meter, you might find it hard to access all tariffs. This is because in future the cheaper tariffs offered by suppliers might only be available to customers with smart meters.”
I am happy with the 2nd paragraph. I laid the bed and happy to lay in it. The first paragraph suggest you are telling porkies. (If it’s fully working).
Not wishing to wade into a argument but I used to be against having smart meters but when my meters were due for renewal I gave the go ahead to switch them to smart ones. Both gas and electricity meters worked straight away and synced with the IHD. I am really glad I made the switch and coupled with the move to Octopus last April and getting on their Tracker tariff it has saved me several hundred pounds. Just the winter alone I have had massive savings and by now I would normally be using up the last of my credit and moving into a negative balance. Instead after getting my last lot of built up credit back in November I am again in credit to the tune of £324 so I will be getting another lot of money back soon. If someone is on a old tariff at a cheap rate it's not really worth it but if you are on a expensive rate or the price cap it's worth it just to get on the tracker which for me today is 18.59p per kWh for electricity and 3.96p per kWh for gas. The recent hike in standing charges wasn't welcome though and now I am 57.33p per day for electricity and 27.47p per day for gas.
Some of you are either far too kind, or have more energy to try and help people know about better options. I remember when I first started on forums and spent so much time explaining to others points they haven't considered. As I've gotten older I realise it's a waste of my time and I'm of the mindset "Ahh **** 'em" if it's too much effort.
I don't think you'll ever switch away, Octopus are really good in the ratings. People do have specific issues but generally they seem to be one of the companies trying to be a game changer.
I'm also not surprised they did that for you, but I'm far too pessimistic to think about it (tarnished by other experiences with companies). However a colleague of mine was with them for 6 months already when I mentioned we missed a chance of getting the referral bonus. Said colleague contacted them and mentioned they were meant to join with my code and they went and added the bonus for us both!
Just putting that out there in case you or anyone else thinks they may have missed that bonus option.
Commissario
No it isn't. Seriously, there's nothing illegal about having an old meter, how can you even think that?
That's like suggesting it's illegal to have a paper driving licence.
Caporegime
He works for them…
Which makes me even more against getting one…lies like that. Why lie?!
If the people who install them don’t even know the law…the very basic, it makes everything else he says have 0 credibility. Zero.
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Soldato
We were initially against a smart meter but had solar installed a couple of years ago, you cannot setup an export tariff without one, so we thought we would risk it to get the payments for the export.
We've had the smart meter in a year and so far no problems.
Getting an export tariff sorted out with Scottish Power is another story.......
We've had the smart meter in a year and so far no problems.
Getting an export tariff sorted out with Scottish Power is another story.......
Soldato
Depends on the defining who the party you are referencing is, if a meter is know to be faulty or out of spec/calibration it is the supplier who would be facing action against them not the person who's supply is metered by it. I believe the term old was likely used incorrectly in this instance, but words matter, so using old incorrectly is misleading as best.
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Soldato
Not sure where he got the impression it is illegal to have an old meter. The only reason we now have a smart meter is because we have solar panels and wanted to be able to feed in to the grid and reduce our bills. Octopus didn't care that we had an old meter when we moved to them and did not try to push a smart meter on us. To the contrary they were quite happy to let us stay on the analogue meter.
Oh, and I also have a paper driving licence, 'cos I haven't moved house since photo ID licences were introduced.
Oh, and I also have a paper driving licence, 'cos I haven't moved house since photo ID licences were introduced
.
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Caporegime
Not sure where he got the impression it is illegal to have an old meter. The only reason we now have a smart meter is because we have solar panels and wanted to be able to feed in to the grid and reduce our bills. Octopus didn't care that we had an old meter when we moved to them and did not try to push a smart meter on us. To the contrary they were quite happy to let us stay on the analogue meter.
Oh, and I also have a paper driving licence, 'cos I haven't moved house since photo ID licences were introduced
I’ll get one eventually in my own time, on my schedule or when the meter needs replacing. But not by pressure of ill informed energy company employees.