Letter from electric supplier.

kindai

kindai

kindai

Sgarrista
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Had a letter from the leccy supplier+siemens this morning, basically saying my meter is too old now and needs to be replaced?

They are giving me the option (not forcing) to move to a smart meter also, but I assume this is because we have dual rates.

Anyway, im dubious to these claims that it >has< to be replaced due to age? Anyone else run into this?
 
I have had that letter every month or two for the last 14 months, still no sign of them actually coming around to replace it though.

Normally they are replaced every so often with a recalibrated meter.
 
I had ths. But the previous owners of the house put the meter in a place where some cupbioards in the utility room would have to be removed to do it. So I've ignored the letter. When someone came around to ask about it I told them they can do it if they don't remove the cupboards. They went away and didn't come back.

Yeah I stuck it to The Man... or something.
 
hyperseven said:
Why don't you want it replaced :confused:
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Because the last time someone from the leccy company came and did some work, not only was the place left in a total mess, there were ground cables (whatever you call them) left unattached to the sinks/baths. Don't ask me the technical details I don't know exactly for sure what the issue was, however it was only months later that when we had the solar panels installed that the guy who hooked them up looked in horror at the state things were and apparently left in a dangerous state.

Of course the leccy company denied this as "why wasnt the issue raised earlier" but how am I supposed to know what a safe job looks like? I ain't no sparky...
 
kindai said:
I ain't no sparky...
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Sounds like the title to one of those new fangled rap songs.

But assuming this is going to cost you nothing, except time, then just get a new one installed. As long as they don't change your rate, it should give you a more accurate reading. If they do a shoddy job, complain heavily and probably get compensation. Easy.
 
Got the same letter and they keep ringing me all the time.

I don't see the point (for me) as I still have to go and read the gas meter so doesn't save any time.

I see the benefits for them with constant usage stats and exact readings but I'm not going to take time off work to help them out.
 
Some people are saying the smart meter comms are not the most secure other than I don't see why you would not want it replaced as it wouldn't cost you anything.
 
I chased and chased and offered to pay for a Smart meter, no one wanted to do anything about it. So when I had the house redone I made some slight changes and built how I could. If they wanna change the leccy meter that fine, but when they come to change the gas meter they've got a proper mission on their hands haha.
 
When they do eventually replace the meter, make damned sure they take the correct readings from the old meter and the new meter. Confirm this photographically, record serials too.

If they screw this up, you'll be saddled with a huge bill as we did. Like in the thousands, got sorted in the end but not before massive amounts of WTF. Unfortunately this happened at the time I got into LiteCoin mining, so the Mrs gave me an extra grilling. Cue me calculating all sorts of stuff to prove it wasn't me. :D
 
MooMoo444 said:
Enjoy overpaying with you new meter :):)
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Stupid response

kindai said:
Had a letter from the leccy supplier+siemens this morning, basically saying my meter is too old now and needs to be replaced?

They are giving me the option (not forcing) to move to a smart meter also, but I assume this is because we have dual rates.

Anyway, im dubious to these claims that it >has< to be replaced due to age? Anyone else run into this?
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This is correct, the meters are certified for X years (15-20 generally) to be accurate and safe, they used to get re-certified when they reach their age limit if they were still safe and accurate but with the roll out of smart meters they are just replacing the old ones now.

Get the smart meter installed, it should eliminate estimated bills as they will just connect to the meter and poll the reading. Re your previous experience inspect the meter before they go and raise it with them if you aren't happy.

randal said:
When they do eventually replace the meter, make damned sure they take the correct readings from the old meter and the new meter. Confirm this photographically, record serials too.
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This too





Sidenote: For the majority of meters the first 3/4 numbers of your meter show the year of manufacture of the meter eg K87G***** was made i 1987, A01X***** was made in 2001. So you can check your meter if you are interested and see how old it is
 
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el_dazza said:
:confused:

Do explain.
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They are putting the costs of a national rollout on the bills. Also this was Ed Millibands grand plan for us to save electricity as a nation. Basically the costs will be £11 billion upon our bills. Bet your bottom the prices stay the same and they make us pay for new meters to stop a few ****** who rig them? The smart meter rollout is a complete scam to subsidise the power companys who should be paying for it up front in full and making sure our bills either stay the same or fall. Source is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...but-youll-be-lucky-if-yours-saves-you-30.html


The smart meter roll-out has reached millions of homes so far, with a projected total cost of £11billion. But the average saving per household stands at just £26 per year, British Gas has admitted.This is around 2pc of the average bill. Although official estimates suggests savings will mount over time, critics will seize on British Gas's early-stage data as evidence that the overall benefit of the scheme could be lower than anticipated.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECs, along with other network costs. C) puts the cost per household of installing smart meters at £214.50. This gets passed indirectly on to consumer

The hoped-for savings are dependent upon households altering their energy consumption habits. Smart meters are supposed to help this by displaying real-time energy use and costs, as a "nudge" to cut down.
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Scam is scam.
 
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You missed the part where he said he doesn't have to have a smart meter then?

What is a scam is companies like OVO charging 47.5ppd standing charge.
 
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You're not going to get charged more for having a smart meter though, they'll distribute the cost to all customers regardless.
 
el_dazza said:
You missed the part where he said he doesn't have to have a smart meter then?

What is a scam is companies like OVO charging 47.5ppd standing charge.
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Yea for now he can say no look at this.
Some people have concerns about:

Estimated cost Estimated at £11bn, this will ultimately be passed on to customers
Security & privacy Who can see your consumption data and what can they do with it?
Health Concerns about radio frequencies and electrico-magnetic radiations produced
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Having a smart meter is not mandatory
There's a risk that if you get a smart meter before the official roll-out that you'd have to get your smart meter upgraded
It's also likely that if you wanted to switch energy suppliers before the official roll-out, you wouldn't be able to use your meter in its smart mode and it might need to be replaced again
If your energy company has contacted you to change to a smart meter because your current meter needs replacing, it could be a safety hazard not to
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So, there's a risk that if you get a smart meter before the official roll-out, your meter would later need to be upgraded, although this should not require a visit to your home. So op pretty much just quote this and tell them to get stuffed for now. The national rollout starts in April 2016-2020.
 
They're no different to a mobile phone in their transmission of data. True, some suppliers can't use them (for some reason BG say they can't, but they can, yet they have them..) but that's their loss.
 
Rofflay said:
They are putting the costs of a national rollout on the bills. Also this was Ed Millibands grand plan for us to save electricity as a nation. Basically the costs will be £11 billion upon our bills. Bet your bottom the prices stay the same and they make us pay for new meters to stop a few ****** who rig them? The smart meter rollout is a complete scam to subsidise the power companys who should be paying for it up front in full and making sure our bills either stay the same or fall. Source is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...but-youll-be-lucky-if-yours-saves-you-30.html




Scam is scam.
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They are putting rates up to pay for the smart meters regardless if you actually have one or not. They put the rates up acorss the board. They don't have a special "screw you over" smart meter rate.

I have a smart meter and my tariff is exactly the same as it was before.

Its not a scam, one of the biggest benefits of smart meters is no more meter reading because they can read it remotely. How is that a scam !
 
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