Out of the blue we received a notification that our Energy Provider had instructed a contractor to install a SMART Meter in our home.
We received nothing from the Energy company and on investigating this I found that it is NOT compulsory and we can refuse to have it.
I also found that despite the installer saying it would cost us nothing, if there is no power supply out close to BOTH your Gas & Electricity meters, you’d have to get a contractor in to remedy that, plus making good the decorating afterwards at your own expense.
In our case it could easily be £200!
I’ve contacted both the Energy company and the contractor and told them I do not want a SMART Meter but, for those who may be worried about this, here’s the info from Which?: -
[FONT=“Times New Roman”]What if I accept a smart meter now?
The official national smart meter roll-out will start in 2015 and finish in 2020.
But some energy companies have already started to install smart meters despite some of the guidelines on smart meter specifications not being finalised.
So there’s a risk that if you get a smart meter before the official roll-out, you’d need to get your meter changed again or upgraded if the specifications change.
There’s also the likelihood that if you wanted to switch energy supplier before we all have smart meters, your new supplier would not be able to use your meter in its smart mode.
And if you’re a prepayment energy customer you would need to have a new meter installed. Can I refuse a smart meter?
Yes you can, especially now that the official roll-out hasn’t even started. Smart meters are not mandatory.
Even once the programme is in full roll-out, the EU directive has a target of 80% penetration for smart meters by 2020. So that leaves 20% who can refuse smart meters or for those installations that are too difficult.
But beware that if your energy company has contacted you to change your energy meter to a smart meter because your current meter needs replacing (ie it’s too old), then you should get it replaced as it could be a safety hazard not to.
You can refuse for the new meter to be a smart meter though and ask for a conventional ‘dumb’ meter instead. The company can’t force you to have a smart meter.
A government code of practice, rolled out in July 2013, sets out the minimum standards that energy suppliers have to follow when installing smart meters into customer’s homes.
The code allows you to make choices on how much data your energy supplier collects from your smart meter; whether your supplier shares details about your energy consumption with other organisations; and whether your supplier can use your meter reads for sales and marketing purposes. [/FONT] stevmk2
We recently had our leccy meter changed because of its age,talking to the guy who fitted it I asked if it would last as long as the previous one (27 yrs) his reply was its likely to be replaced again in a couple of yrs when its decided to introduce the smart meter.
I understand it is going to cost the country 11 billion pounds to install this ‘nonsense’ …:twisted:
So where is this 11 billion coming from the customer ultimately .
While having a smart meter installed is free, you may incur the cost indirectly through your bills.
At the moment, the roll-out, at an estimated cost of at least £11 billion, is being led by the energy companies with no checks in place to make sure that costs don’t spiral.
This cost will be paid by consumers through their energy bills, so we want to make sure it is as low as possible, which is why we are campaigning to ensure the government reviews the smart meter roll-out.
The Idea is the meters will save people money firstly because their meters will not have to be read manually and secondly because when people see how much electricity they are using they will switch things off and use less.
That is of no use to me, I read my own meter already and I don’t need some meter to show me I can save money by switching things off , I do that anyway as do most people living on a small income .
One thing we are not being told is that as our national power supplies become squeezed by the decommissioning of some nuclear power station and waiting for the next generation of stations to come online (at a very high cost) the new smart meters will give the power companies total control of our power consumption .
What this means is they will have the ability to charge different prices at various times of the day such as ‘busy times’ or even to switch the power off to try to get people to spread their usage.
I can see the smart meters resulting in higher prices all round for consumers.
Just another expensive sop to the green lobby and which, like windmills and solar panels, will do absolutely nothing to alter the climate but will cost us all an absolute and never ending fortune in subsidies.
When I fitted a monitor to my electricity (not ‘leccy’ - how I detest that ‘word’!) meter, it was a novelty at first - went round switching things off and on for a week or so. It did pinpoint some surprises - the fluorescent strip light in the kitchen, and the microwave cooker - both using far more than I would have expected. Also the standby current was amazingly high. So some good can come from monitoring, but smart meters are a bit overkill when you can use your own cheap device. Readings can be input on the provider’s web-site, so no need there. Really just a nice little earner for the manufacturers and the fitters - all to inflate our future bills of course - no surprise there then.
The MIL has a Water Meter, (being a newish property she had no choice) she consoled herself that it would save money, only paying for what she used. She hardly uses any water, and is a customer of the same supplier as us, but pays the same as us yearly, and we are liberal water users, she still can’t get her head round only paying for what you use is a diversion, and means nothing if a glass of water costs 10p. Smart meters mean instant price adjustments, and instant supply restriction in some instances.
That’s odd - my water meter which I asked for and paid for has saved me hundreds of pounds compared with the property rateable value it was based on before. I still only pay a fiver a month after about 15 years of supply. She should have her water use/meter checked - there must be something wrong.
I will get her to check it out, we pay £43.00 per month over ten months, I have a full bath every day, we car wash etc etc, there is only the Mother and father in law in a bungalow, and they are very frugal, last week I saw the letter informing them that their direct debit is to be raised to £37.00 per month (over 12 months) so something is wrong
Depends where you are of course, but my supplier has a ‘low user’ tariff which can help if not much water is used. It’s worth a check at the meter with all taps etc. off that it’s not still turning due to a leak. I used to do this regularly, but the neighbours began to mutter about this old codger crouching over a hole in the pavement, and the novelty soon wore off. Funniest thing was when the water co. came and replaced the meter because my usage was so low - made not one iota of difference, but it amused me.
I received confirmation that we will not now get a SMART meter so I will continue to do my own readings and keep an eye on our consumption as I’ve always done.
My provider OVO now bills us for the amounts of gas and electricity we have used monthly using MY meter readings and not their estimates so I’m happy with the outcome.
If you don’t like the sound of having a SMART meter tell them you don’t want one. stevmk2
This is totally arse about face the point being that currently there is no incentive to use power cheaply so generation has to have the capacity to cope with the two peak periods morning and afternoon when everybody is cooking for a period of a couple of hours. The rest of the day the generators are under used or even idle.
At night off peak power is offerred at a very cheaprate just to keep generating plant in service because stopping and starting costs more than running it all day. Smart meters eliminate the need for a separate off peak supply.
The idea of smart meters is that power can be priced at different prices throughout the day, obviously the most expensive from 5pm to 8pm and the cheapest during the night.
By looking at the smart meter you can decide whether to use your expensive oven when power is cheaper.
The smart meter is driven NOT by green groups but by the power generators so they can spread the load more evenly during the day and invest in less plant capacity.
Bruce I can do that already with economy 7 although that isn’t necessarily cheaper because although the night units cost less they up the price of day units to more than that of people who do not have economy 7 .
I can’t see any benefit for me from smart meters and I can see the cost of electricity going up to recoup the cost of installing them. .
I’m afraid I must concur Meg, I think anyone with half a brain knows that if you leave something switched on it will increase the power bill. We try to use cheap overnight power when we can, so why we need a different meter to teach us the obvious I can’t imagine and if anyone actually believes it’s for our benefit and not the power companies’ then they’ve a damned more faith in them than I have…
I agree with the last sentence as for the rest I have no idea what you are talking about. As a pensioner they are of little use to me, I was only telling why they are being pushed not approving of them.
The only advantage to me is that I can check my meter readings from my desk without going outside to the box, otherwise only tells me how much energy I have used in day/month, which if I haven’t wasted any energy is academic.
I am with OVO , was it they who contacted you about the meters or the people who own the meters and cables in my case Western Power.
