Smart meter

LeeUK said:
But it's common sense that a kettle uses more leccy than a clock radio. But then again after working with the general public for many years like I did, I realise not many folk have common sense.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, but I can also see what effect my pc has at idle, gaming, or mining, without needing a socket reader. :p

Or lambast my wife for leaving the 65" tv on the youtube homepage when she isn't actually watching anything, being able to put a monetary value to it. ;)
 
LeeUK said:
I might be persuaded to have a new meter put in if they upgrade my meter tails and install an isolation switch at the same time but I somehow doubt it. As that wouldn't benefit them, only the meter does.
Click to expand...
It's chargeable from EDF to have an isolator installed, if you provide one most installers would fit it for you, but technically the tailer from the meter to your Cu are yours.
 
krooton said:
I remember reading somewhere that the national grid has a huge load uptick during the first ad break of some soap (Eastenders or Corrie, or something) as the vast majority of homes put the kettle on simultaneously.

What I do like about smart meters with in-house displays is you can see what effect different things have, without having to stick a reader plug on every appliance (which is not really viable for things like washing machines, driers, etc).
Click to expand...
Not to soap opera shame you but East Ender's doesn't have ads. /runs away in shame.

But yeah the kettle spike is a real think. Half time at football matches too. Dinorwig tour in Wales gave a few of these great tidbits of fact - also how it produces 1mw for every 3mw it takes to pump the water back to the top of the mountain :p benefit comes from instant power tho versus a month of refiring a coal station, hence why the juice is cheaper off peak!
 
LeeUK said:
An isolation switch between the meter and the CU so the CU can be isolated. Flicking a breaker is not going to isolate the CU.
Click to expand...
True, but why would you need to isolate the cu, and I'm sure there's a main breaker that the meter tails go into first so you could isolate everything after that. I'm not trying to be awkward but what do you need one for? Also not sure if fitting a new meter would give you new tails, as it would be turned off at that point so prime time to extend/change them. I wonder if where there are the peaks, if they would basically just open the floodgates just before to try and stop a dip out, I'm genuinely not sure what would happen if everybody turned the kettle on, would the voltage just drop nationally as the currant draw would be too high?
 
theone8181 said:
True, but why would you need to isolate the cu, and I'm sure there's a main breaker that the meter tails go into first so you could isolate everything after that. I'm not trying to be awkward but what do you need one for? Also not sure if fitting a new meter would give you new tails, as it would be turned off at that point so prime time to extend/change them.
Click to expand...

You're saying you are sure there is a main breaker already. Err that's what I'm asking for! The tails come out the cut-out fuse and into the meter and from the meter to CU. I don't have an isolation switch. :)

We're not really supposed to be touching the cut out fuse as it's "security tied".
 
LeeUK said:
You're saying you are sure there is a main breaker already. Err that's what I' asking for! The tails come out the cut-out fuse and into the meter and from the meter to CU. I don't have an isolation switch. :)
Click to expand...
Yes but you can isolate everything barring the main breaker in your cu surely:confused:. I'm starting to confuse myself now:cry:.
 
Most older cu's don't have double pole switching, they only switch the live line, neutrals tended to be left in as a point of electrical safety, this was changes a few years ago to include double pole switching.

As I have stated before this is my bread and butter, 99% of companies will change for an isolator to be installed (I believe it's £140 for EDF don't quite me on that through).

If you ask the installer nicely I'm sure they can install one you provide as long as it's new in box and meets current standards.
 
BigBoy said:
Most older cu's don't have double pole switching, they only switch the live line, neutrals tended to be left in as a point of electrical safety, this was changes a few years ago to include double pole switching.

As I have stated before this is my bread and butter, 99% of companies will change for an isolator to be installed (I believe it's £140 for EDF don't quite me on that through).

If you ask the installer nicely I'm sure they can install one you provide as long as it's new in box and meets current standards.
Click to expand...
I had a new cu fitted last year as part of an extension so my perception of whats fitted might be slightly skewed:p.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
What meters do you have? I was with First Utility who then became Shell Energy - they fitted the Secure Liberty 100 meters for both our gas and electricity. We recently switched to Eon and whilst the meters went dumb, the IHD still works. They've also started communicating again with Eon so must have been upgraded to the new firmware recently.
Click to expand...

Gas - Secure Liberty EG4v11
Electricity - Secure Liberty 100

Pure Planet hope to get things sorted by the end of the year apparently.
IHD is useless at the moment. I spent some time flicking through the screens/options and it just shows up blank.
 
So I did a bit more digging and I only have a SMETS1 electric meter that still hasn't been updated to SMETS2.

I've tried querying this with the DCC.

Maybe I'll just see if E on will give me a pair of SMETS2 meters.
 
BallistixOnZ490 said:
So I did a bit more digging and I only have a SMETS1 electric meter that still hasn't been updated to SMETS2.

I've tried querying this with the DCC.

Maybe I'll just see if E on will give me a pair of SMETS2 meters.
Click to expand...
If you have a working SMETS1 meter your supplieris not.going to replace it unless it's defective or the switch to SMETS2 functions fails to work.
 
LeeUK said:
I might be persuaded to have a new meter put in if they upgrade my meter tails and install an isolation switch at the same time but I somehow doubt it. As that wouldn't benefit them, only the meter does.
Click to expand...

We got a smart meter fitted this morning an isolator switch was put in at the same time at no cost.

I asked the fitter and they do them as standard with smart meter installs if not present.
 
BallistixOnZ490 said:
So I did a bit more digging and I only have a SMETS1 electric meter that still hasn't been updated to SMETS2.

I've tried querying this with the DCC.

Maybe I'll just see if E on will give me a pair of SMETS2 meters.
Click to expand...
Wait it out. Mine randomly came online for no reason other than it was next on their list I presume.
 
I'm quite happy with my smart meter.
I use a fair bit of electricity - my hot water heating and space heating are all electric, so I was averaging around 100 a month on electric.

Got a smart meter fitted and moved to Octopus Energy's Agile tariff for a while, now on their Go Faster tariff - I'm paying around 14p a unit except for from 20:30-01:30 daily when it's 5.5p/unit. Right when I'm playing games, or when it's chilly in the evening - and that's exactly when I run the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, water heater timer, etc.
Without a smart meter I'd be unable to get on that tariff, so I'd be stuck paying the going rate - looking around this seems to be 13-16p/unit for the cheapest non-time-based (i.e. dumb meter) tariff.

Just for shuffling some timings around, it's really not a big deal as far as I can see. I've seen that british gas have a tariff which offers you free electricity all weekend (admittedly in the week it's a bit dearer to compensate) - but that might be just the perfect deal for some households.


Overall though, for the points about efficiency - there need to be changes all over. If the government said "yes, we're going to spend billions to upgrade to graphene powerlines, and the ROI will take 100 years - but meanwhile please continue to use filament light bulbs", that's not much use. There'll no doubt be improvements being made to the transmission network - efficiency losses in transmission will just be a waste of someone's money so there's undoubtedly going to be work going on there to improve it. Sure, there'll be some households where people have miniscule bills due to being careful/frugal anyway, but then there'll be others who then see the cost of leaving stuff on & start to use less. Averaged out nationwide and we can start to see some substantial savings in power - there's probably a good few megawatts of energy being wasted right this second by stuff that's been left on by mistake. Be nice to fix that wouldn't it?
 
Dangerous Dave said:
Same tariff I have been on for a few months which was before the recent price increases.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks, the only way you used to be able to get one when it used to be First Utility was to sign up to a smart tariff which was substantially more expensive than their cheapest online tariff so you ended up paying for the meter.
 
Cadder said:
Gas - Secure Liberty EG4v11
Electricity - Secure Liberty 100

Pure Planet hope to get things sorted by the end of the year apparently.
IHD is useless at the moment. I spent some time flicking through the screens/options and it just shows up blank.
Click to expand...

Same as mine then - it sounds like a supplier issue as my IHD was working fine during the period that my meters went dumb after changing supplier.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom