Explain
Smart meter
- Thread starter LabR@t
- Start date
Explain
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2004
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- 7,051
Who's covering the cost of their installation, manufacture etc? Everyone is paying for this via increased prices accross the board, or taxation. All for something that nobody needs.
Soldato
Everything these days is about saving time. So what do you actually do once you have saved all this time?
Considering smart meters usually offer the cheapest tariff you are talking nonsense.
We got a smart meter with a previous supplier a few years back. We switch pretty much every year and have to provide manual readings.
It seemed a good idea but clearly it has been poorly executed. Not being able to retain smart function when switching supplier is pretty silly really.
It seemed a good idea but clearly it has been poorly executed. Not being able to retain smart function when switching supplier is pretty silly really.
Well yes, it has to be paid for somewhere. But we all need it. The grid needs this data to be able to predict and respond to energy demand. It's all a bit tricky to plan an aircrafts maintenance if all you have is an average usage being reported when seasonality and localisation is such a huge factor. It's a bit like the census but for utilities. Or real time tax if you're in accounting.
Soldato
But all houses need meters. Are smart meters actually any more expensive than dumb? All the older dumb metres will need replacing at some point, when maintenance starts costing more than replacement
Check again, I had this issue and bulb got me back online after a period of 'not really waiting'.
Soldato
Post on here
Associate
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- 4 Jun 2020
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My house came with a smart meter for the electric but not gas.
While I asked British Gas for and was offered smart meter installation for the gas, they wouldn't bring back up power for my fridge / freezer so I refused it because I didn't want any of my food to ruin.
Will maybe try asking again after my Eon switch happens soon.
While I asked British Gas for and was offered smart meter installation for the gas, they wouldn't bring back up power for my fridge / freezer so I refused it because I didn't want any of my food to ruin.
Will maybe try asking again after my Eon switch happens soon.
I'd say considerably more. My mum still has the original meter in her house versus a meter with a monthly subscription to a Telco and all the backend IT to receive, process and make the data available.
We have a smart meter. Took 3 attempts to install it properly. We switched to OVO and it now no longer works and barely ever did anyway due to the location in the basement - never gets a signal.
OVO want to upgrade us to a newer meter which I’ll ignore for as long as I can. The tech needs to actually work properly and the installers need to be better at their jobs.
OVO want to upgrade us to a newer meter which I’ll ignore for as long as I can. The tech needs to actually work properly and the installers need to be better at their jobs.
Associate
- Joined
- 4 Jun 2020
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- 2,401
Is this really the case? If so I've lost interest in wanting to update my manual gas meter.
Yeah but with a smart meter they don't nedd to send round somebody to measure the manual meters periodically saving them money.
Soldato
Also Bulb only have time slots starting at 8am with the last time slot starting at 2pm mon-fri for installing smart meters in my area. No good as I'm at work in those hours unless they can guarantee to come at around 5pm when I'm home from work. I'm certainly not taking a morning/afternoon off work unpaid, it'll take a lifetime of promised savings to make back the lost earnings. 
Soldato
How long does it take to install a meter? My power was turned off for 4 hours last month (whole street) for emergency works and my fridge was still cold when the power went back on.
Permabanned
right now...
Just had to give my readings to Pure Planet today. I'll get in touch with them and see what the craic is.
Yeah, worked fine year 1 with original supplier. In fact we got so used to not providing readings that we didn't for a year or two with the suppliers we switched to. That ended up in a large bill when we switched to Pure Planet, due to WFH for the best part of a year and being billed based on estimated readings.
Now we manually read the "smart" meter every month and provide readings through the app.
Today was different though, we were greeted by flashing lights, one next to the numpad and the other is the WAN one. I might have to dig out the smart monitor and charge it to see what's happening there.