Smart Meter - worth changing to?

Associate
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There are obvious benefits to having real time usage montoring and breakdown. Having said that, I’ve not bothered. SSE must have sent reminders through the post about 5 times, they are pushing them very heavily. My guess is that it will save them money on people going round in vans readings meters, and allow them to cost cut. No other reason why they’d push them so heavily.

I think you have a point.
 
Soldato
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Caporegime
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26 Dec 2003
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Even when V2 meters hit what are the actual benefits in getting one? I suspect the long term plan is to have every electrical device connected to the smart network and feeding back information to a central system. George Orwell would be proud.
 
Soldato
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Glasgow
Wait for SMETS2.

I work in the industry, specifically involved with the newer smart meter technology. Being able to switch providers on the fly is going to really shake things up.

It seems baffling to me that the rollout was even started with meters that wouldn't work with different suppliers. Was that because the suppliers themselves wanted to try to "lock" people in or was it another example of a decent idea being poorly-executed?
 
Soldato
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They have given up on forcing us, it's now optional.

Nobody should ever have been forced, just some suppliers were being naughty and wording it in such a way that people didn't think they had a choice.

Personally I think the main reason suppliers are pushing it is that they think it will lock in some customers, my parents for example don't want to switch supplier because their meter will go dumb.

I blame the government, they should have made sure meters would work between suppliers before going ahead. It was supposed to be sorted years back but has been delayed loads.
 
Associate
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My concern is how companies will use/sell your useage data

i.e they will know from your useage what times you are at home or when the home is empty...... I think you can opt to have these data readings uploaded daily rather than hourly.

Anyone know if the supplier can turn off the smart meter remotely?
 
Soldato
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Surrey
Also good for charging up storage heaters.
My point was that it appears to be both a negative that smart meters can charge you by time of day in thw future and that it doesn't do that already today. Nice lose lose scenario.

Current smart meters can already do Eco 7. Some non-smart meters do Eco 7. My normal old school meter does not do Eco 7. I'd like Eco 7 to charge my car. There is a negative for people on Eco 7, for those who use more electricity in the day than at night, but there are scenarios when it does make sense. The new Nissan Leaf has a feature where it can act as storage and can power your house. So you could charge it cheap at night, then use it to power your house during the day.
 
Soldato
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5 Dec 2006
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15,370
So got had one of these installed the other day but I cant seem to access any smart features or even get any data off the thing. Tried plugging it into my computer but the USB port is just a dumb DC charging socket designed to imitate a USB connector lol who are they trying to fool.

Do I need to unlock the smart features or something? I thought I could at least look at some interesting graphs but it's just a cheap bog standard watt meter with an external display, I don't understand what's smart about this thing?

Thought I might at least be able to switch to a time of day based tariff but cant even switch to one of those lol. All they can do is reduce my unit price by 1 penny if i sign a new 12 month contract.
 
Soldato
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We have one for our British gas and its easier in sense that I don't worry about giving readings. Before that I was having to pull fridge out which was a pain and painful due to my back.

However moving to another company when on a smart meter from what I'm told by a friend is a nightmare
 
Soldato
Joined
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6,558
It seems baffling to me that the rollout was even started with meters that wouldn't work with different suppliers. Was that because the suppliers themselves wanted to try to "lock" people in or was it another example of a decent idea being poorly-executed?

The latter. Basically the government have set targets for all suppliers to roll out Smart meters.

The energy companies are now scrambling to hit those targets or face fines.

I work in the industry and am aware of senior execs at one big energy company beating up the company they've contracted to get Smart meter appointments for not being being to convince the consumer to get one installed while admitting with the next breath there's no chance they'd have one installed themselves.
 
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