They never turned up to fit my smart meter

[stuman]

Not sure how having a smart meter is going to get me cheaper bills especially if they bring in surge pricing. Unless I sit in the dark during peak times.

you think they’ll let you have a cheap ride because you refuse a smart meter? All they’ll do is charge you a massive flat rate price plus a little extra for forcing the company to continue to employ meter readers etc.

You’re not on the smart (excuse the pun) side of this.

 

[SDK^]

What can a smart meter achieve that a regular meter can't?

A smart meter can automatically send your energy supplier meter readings every 30minutes.

What is the benefit of this?
Means you can join a time of use tariff allowing you to use cheap energy at certain times.

 

[Diddums]

If I didn’t have a smart meter I wouldn’t and couldn’t be paying 5p/unit for electric.

thanks.

Which supplier are you on? I find it very hard to believe that energy companies are giving you cheaper rates because you have a smart meter.

 

[Diddums]

Means you can join a time of use tariff allowing you to use cheap energy at certain times

Which you can also join without a smart meter

 

[Journey]

Which supplier are you on? I find it very hard to believe that energy companies are giving you cheaper rates because you have a smart meter.

Really?

 

[Diddums]

Really?

Yes, really. Nobody seems to want to explain this, is it some kind of black magic or something?

 

[john_smith]

Octopus Go. I, and all of the other smart people, could not access that tariff without having a smart meter.

 

[touch]

Yes, really. Nobody seems to want to explain this, is it some kind of black magic or something?

How do you let them know what times you're using the electricity if you don't have a smart meter?

Have you still got an old Economy7 meter? (do they still exist?)

 

[SDK^]

Which you can also join without a smart meter

Well, you could join one but you wouldn’t able to take advantage of the cheaper rates because your supplier doesn’t know when you are using energy in the cheap rate time, because a normal meter doesn’t auto submit readings every 30mins….. or ever.

 

[SDK^]

Which supplier are you on? I find it very hard to believe that energy companies are giving you cheaper rates because you have a smart meter.

Octopus do several tariffs which you can join if you have a smart meter, which have cheap off peak rates.
Octopus Go is currently 7.5p kWh from 00:30 to 04:30, rather than the current electric cap price of ~28p kWh, so 4x cheaper.
Means I can charge my electric car with 200 miles for about £5, rather than £25 on the price cap.

 

[Mickie]

Yes, really. Nobody seems to want to explain this, is it some kind of black magic or something?

 

[Diddums]

Octopus do several tariffs which you can join if you have a smart meter which have cheap off peak rates.

Aha! A straight answer, cheers

Seems quite new still, and it does look like it could be quite beneficial.

https://octopus.energy/joining-smart-tariff/

I don't know how widespread this is, or if its just Octopus but it does seem to help. I'll look in to it

 

[Journey]

Yes, really. Nobody seems to want to explain this, is it some kind of black magic or something?

Octopus Agile which I was on previously, the cost per kWh changed every 30 mins, sometimes they paid you to use energy. Now on Octopus Go Faster 5.5p from 20:30 to 01:30.

 

[DXP55]

Most interesting reading - My only reason is I am now fed up of going out into the garage every Monday morning to do a meter reading - especially in cold and wind - No indoor access to our garage.
I have been giving readings every week for years - I think it was because of reading about people who had suddenly had a massive bill drop through letter box.
My bills will go up in June (approx 65-70 units a week)but at least I have made 30 quid out of it. - and got a clean garage to show for it.

 

[john_smith]

Aha! A straight answer, cheers

Seems quite new still, and it does look like it could be quite beneficial.

https://octopus.energy/joining-smart-tariff/

I don't know how widespread this is, or if its just Octopus but it does seem to help. I'll look in to it

EDF energy do one as well.

 

[Diddums]

Octopus Agile which I was on previously, the cost per kWh changed every 30 mins, sometimes they paid you to use energy. Now on Octopus Go Faster 5.5p from 20:30 to 01:30.

Gotcha, cheers.

It does seem odd that you need a smart meter for this as they could simply monitor their demand and tell you when to use your leccy, but I guess it helps them with their load balancing.

 

[Surveyor]

Octopus Go. I, and all of the other smart people, could not access that tariff without having a smart meter.

It's only smart if you're able to take advantage of the reduced rate from 00:30 to 04:30. For many it would be dumb.

 

[john_smith]

Yes, as I said earlier you need to be smart and also have a smart meter to enable the savings.

If you don’t shift your usage into the cheaper period you won’t see a benefit.

 

[SDK^]

Octopus Go works really well for charging EV’s
I have a timer setting in the apps for my car and home charger, to start and stop charging at set times/days. I use the the charger app - Pod Point. So I plug the charger into the car and it only charges the car during the time I set.

Every day is like this.

 

[Surveyor]

Yes, as I said earlier you need to be smart and also have a smart meter to enable the savings.

If you don’t shift your usage into the cheaper period you won’t see a benefit.

And many don't have usage they can shift into the cheaper period and would end up worse off because of the higher daytime rate. They're being smart by not going down that route.