Rollout of free smart meters

DB_SamX · 4 Jan 2017 at 14:21

Scottish Power are offering to install mine soon.

Any reason NOT to get it done, or things to be mindful of before I tell them to go ahead?

I own my flat leasehold but apparently in all tenancy/ownership cases, it is the bill payer who decides whether they want it installed or not.

Minstadave · 4 Jan 2017 at 14:24

I declined one recently because for our supplier you can't have economy 7 and a smart meter - their meter only supported a single rate.

the-evaluator · 4 Jan 2017 at 14:40

No reason that I can think of. We've got one which is working OK now. For the first few months the gas meter would occasionally lose connection to the electricity meter so we had to make manual gas meter readings but it's been fine for a few months back.

If you switch then make sure you have a meter reading from the old meters. When ours were switched over they didn't take a reading from the old meters so our bills were totally messed up. It took ages to get it sorted.

platypus · 4 Jan 2017 at 18:44

Until they settle on a standard across all suppliers I'm not going near one with a barge pole.

LOAM · 4 Jan 2017 at 19:29

Minstadave said:
I declined one recently because for our supplier you can't have economy 7 and a smart meter - their meter only supported a single rate.

Same

platypus said:
Until they settle on a standard across all suppliers I'm not going near one with a barge pole.

Same also, I'm getting one because some suppliers wont use them and some will only use certain types which then limits who you can move to.

darkgen · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:17

platypus said:
Until they settle on a standard across all suppliers I'm not going near one with a barge pole.

This. I change suppliers annually to get the best deal so would rather wait for a standard. It only takes a minute to manually provide readings each month.

neil_g · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:30

We had ours fitted in about 15 mins, hardly a drama if you change supplier.

LOAM · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:33

neil_g said:
We had ours fitted in about 15 mins, hardly a drama if you change supplier.

Unless the supplier you want to move to doesn't support them or the model you have installed.

neil_g · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:37

LOAM said:
Unless the supplier you want to move to doesn't support them or the model you have installed.

They swapped our entire meter in that time.

LOAM · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:40

neil_g said:
They swapped our entire meter in that time.

Are you saying that you can get a new meter every time you switch? When we moved to our current one they wouldn't take you as a customer if you had a smart meter and they wouldn't swap it for an analogue one either.

darkgen · 4 Jan 2017 at 20:53

This is exactly why they can poke it until a standard is agreed.

Psycho Sonny · 4 Jan 2017 at 22:34

neil_g said:
They swapped our entire meter in that time.

Do you think a new supplier is going to pay for an engineer to install new meters every year when they will likely at best make very little profit off you in a year?

Good luck changing suppliers in future

I'll wait until a standard is in place.

a1ex2001 · 4 Jan 2017 at 22:39

Ours couldn't be fitted as the mobile signal in our cellar wasn't strong enough can see that being a pretty major headache!

DB_SamX · 4 Jan 2017 at 22:53

Thanks for the advice. I think I won't go for it. My current tariff ends in two weeks so I'll be reviewing my supplier anyway next week.

LeeUK · 5 Jan 2017 at 01:01

Won't go near one with a yard stick until they release an industry standard that all suppliers will use, similar to the current white box LCD standard meters they install these days.

Even then you're open to hackers and government spying.

jpaul · 5 Jan 2017 at 07:57

If there is a preferential tarrif to accompany the smart meter then it could be economic;
as said, manually reading/sending the reading once a month is trivial, but if they had a tarif, say 10p unit 5-7pm, 5p unit 7-12pm then could be worth considering, but I think only British Gas have such a tarif and theirs is dubious. (free sat or sun and was it 12p unit other times)

robj20 · 5 Jan 2017 at 08:03

Psycho Sonny said:
Do you think a new supplier is going to pay for an engineer to install new meters every year when they will likely at best make very little profit off you in a year?

Good luck changing suppliers in future

I'll wait until a standard is in place.

It makes no difference to changing supplier. Only reason im not having one is they dont want to do it at a time that suites me, they phoned a few times about fitting one i said anytime after 6pm week days or a sunday is fine. Nope they want me to take a day off work, now thats not going to happen.

bimbleuk · 5 Jan 2017 at 08:21

When mine were installed they wrote the old meter ID and readings on a label so I had a reference when the website wasn't updated to the new gas meter. It was corrected while on the phone so no drama but I still put readings in occasionally just to check my direct debit is covering usage.

Oh and they come with the LCD unit so you can see the usage in numbers and set warnings etc. if you interested in that.

Participant · 5 Jan 2017 at 08:45

Do the sceptics think Ofgem would allow energy retailers to lock customers in just because they'd chosen a smart meter that the government is supporting?

I'd be very surprised if companies were allowed to turn down customers for new supply based on the suitability of their meter.

Interesting area I'd never considered though. I had assumed all the meters were cross compatible.

Jez · 5 Jan 2017 at 09:04

a1ex2001 said:
Ours couldn't be fitted as the mobile signal in our cellar wasn't strong enough can see that being a pretty major headache!

That's a very good point, we don't get cell reception around here really, a unit won't get anything unless it has a huge aerial (I've got an old car phone with aerial built into the car which does get weak signal, mobile phones do not).

I wonder what network the meters use? Ee (orange) does sometimes give a bar on mobile here.