Smart Meters

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Caporegime
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I've been getting calls everyday for like a month now from Scottish Power to install a smart meter, is it necessary and mandatory?
 
Not mandatory yet. Will be one day. There's government pressure on suppliers to use them as some idiot somewhere said they were a good idea. Probably someone with a vested intetested in the supply of them.
Andi.
 
I got mine a few months ago after a few phone calls apparently they can take readings up to every 30 mins for a more accurate bill, only put my bills up
 
Raymond Lin said:
I've been getting calls everyday for like a month now from Scottish Power to install a smart meter, is it necessary and mandatory?
Click to expand...

You can tell them to stop calling you. If you ask to get taken off their calling lists, they have to do so (you'll still get letters). I haven't had a call from SSE since the middle of last year, but then I did seem to know more about the smart meters than their sales people did.
 
Interesting question (don't rememeber it answered in smart meter thread!)
but I assume they could demand access to premises to replace an old meter, but evidently they aren't doing that so you can tell them no....
are scottish power your best option ? maybe their premium electricity units are better quality though.
 
If you have to have one fitted, and you dont want one fitted, wrap it in copious layers of tin foil!
 
or a 'Faraday cage', though I do recall that it is illegal to deliberately interfere with or limit a mobile phone signal?
 
i just blocked whichever company Solarplicity were using to install their smart meters, calls 2-3 times a day on occasion
 
Solarplicity were an absolute pain about it. I don't want one and I'm not obliged to have one. After about 15 calls they finally took the hint - just as I moved into my no penalty exit period and scarpered to another provider.
 
Dad had someone come to fit a smart meter a few weeks ago spent most of the day trying to get it to work,failed in the end and had to fit a new `ordinary` meter back in :D
Not so smart ehh
 
Just had one installed, seems OK to me, allowed me to see my daily drain, I was running about 400w whilst family was asleep, now down to 140w after unplugging a couple of things we didn't really need attached 24/7, should probably be lower but I'm not going to obsess about it.

Our bill has gone up after installation though, but perhaps we weren't paying the right amount in the first place, new larger house.
 
Just had the standard meters re-fitted to our house.Changed suppliers and the smart meters were not compatable with the new supplier.
Better off waiting till a standard version that works across all suppliers comes out.
 
I've got a SP meter and it's now dumb because I recently switched suppliers but the smart readout has been useful and still is for monitoring my daily usage. I now use the kwh readings rather than the £ (no tariff updates) to monitor my usage so yeah there has been a positive affect for me as I'm more aware of what was a drain and my usage in general.

I'm on the shortlist for my current supplier to fit a SMETS2 meter and again I should be able to get a live readout of £/kwh usage and will then be looking for a split tariff for my EV charging. So far it's only cost be an hour or 2 while being installed

Just to add I'm never going to trust any utility supplier and have and will always be entering readings manually on a regular basis as a check. Don't accept a SMETS1 meter though as they are defunct.
 
billysielu said:
Smart meters are worse than dumb meters. Say no to smart meters.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/six-reasons-say-no-smart-meter/
https://moneyweek.com/495707/say-no-to-smart-meters/
Click to expand...


Neither of those articles re relevant to the new SMET2 meters which are being rolled out though which will allow cross supplier compatibility.

Plus their arguments against are basically that they don't save people money, they can only do that for people who reduce their usage based on the smart meters output. It can't just magically cut bills.

I think they're worth it for the convinience of not having to take manual readings if nothing else.
 
People need to think long term.
There'll be software and hardware updates, security vulnerabilities, bugs, shorter lifespan than dumb meter, ability for the energy company to actually cut you off, variable tarriffs that charge you more at peak times. Someone's getting money to do all this maintenance for ever, we're all paying for it in our bills, and for a minor convenience of not taking meter readings?
Compared to a dumb meter which basically sits there and works pretty much indefinitely, at a cost of pretty much nothing.
Should be illegal to call these things "smart" IMO.
 
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