Regardless of what the electricity company says, there is no legal requirement to have a smart meter installed.
This link is the official guidance on smart meters by Ofgem Getting a smart meter
and if you click on the button that says ‘Show’ on the question ‘Are smart meters mandatory?’, you will see the response is ‘No’.
I get the impression those of us who don’t want a smart meter will be ‘frozen out’ :twisted:
I have been with OVO energy for many years and have always sent in my meter readings on time on the last day of the month and made sure there was plenty of credit in my account going into the winter .
The website has changed and when I tried to submit my meter readings for June (2 of them because I have economy 7) I was unable to do so because there was only one ‘box’ to enter the numbers and a note saying I had already submitted the number for this month 
When I looked again yesterday an estimated bill had been generated for a third more electricity than I normally use :twisted:
A smart meter would be no good here anyway in an area with a poor mobile signal (my phone is 2G)
Smart meters communicate with energy suppliers using mobile technology (network coverage) and a weak signal can prevent a meter sending reads. If you live in certain rural areas or those notorious for having bad mobile phone signals, the chances are that a smart meter may struggle to work in your house.
So I requested a refund to lower my credit balance, changed my Direct Debit to half and switched supplier to Octopus who have good reviews on WHICH.
The final insult was a ‘sorry you are leaving’ email from OVO telling me how to take a final reading from my smart meter :twisted:
OVO used to be a great company but took over other Electricity Providers and became ‘too big for their boots’ with little thought for loyal customers.
No way will I have a smart meter. I have an amazing device known as a brain with which I can calculate to the last 5p exactly how much gas/electricity I have used. That is all I need to know and - so long as I pay my bills - that is all British Gas needs to know.
I’m with you on this Silver Tabby - I will never have a smart meter, I can’t see the need for one.
Exactly ST.
I also started getting emails from OVO telling me they would now decide what my monthly Direct debit should be :shock:
I told them they would do no such thing, it was my money and I would decide and as someone who is always in credit and never late sending my meter readings they would do well to leave me alone :twisted:
Two good reasons why you should not have a smart energy meter are they won’t save you any money and, if you happen to change suppliers, very often the different software used by suppliers will be incompatible with your meter. “SMART” is the new word for “DIGITAL”. What I mean here is it is the new buzzword used by marketing dept’s to convince us that our existing equipment is old, useless and has seen better days, when in reality it is pefectly up to the task. Bit like myself really!
Val had exactly the same happen with our supplier, nPower. Just last month nPower wanted to increase our DD by £30/month because our dual fuel usage had gone up by that amount over the previous 6months. V gave them short shrift and explained that, if they looked at their records, they would see we were still about £50-55 in credit and we were just entering into summer when our usage would be extremely low, and our account credit would actually be increasing again ready for the winter period next year.
Dunno. But then I’m just a poor fool with a silly old degree.
I got one over three years ago
One of the best things I ever did.
The system in the UK must be different to here. Having a smart meter has allowed us to switch plans if we so desire. Our hot water for example is now “controlled”, that is it only draws power during off peak times and the rate per kwh is about half. If we were still a full size family this might result in running out of hot water but just for the 2 of us it results in a cheaper system. We can have an option of 3 different plans but now we are retired we can choose whatever is best for our needs. It also allows us to swap suppliers if we are offered a better deal .
Good luck with your system! 
Couldn’t agree more, Tabs.
I told them a long while ago that I must have told them 50 times I do not want a smart meter, so would make sure it is noted on my records and would they stop keep pestering me.
I am quite capable of reading my own meters and I then give them the readings when my bill is due, as I will not pay their estimated bills. I do this with gas, electric and the water meter too.
I am always well in credit, so I think - if it aint broke, don’t fix it.
Eventually I think they will win though.
They will put the prices up and up for us still using the old style meters, to make us change over that way.
I too have off peak hot water but it is the old system controlled by a tone and a separate meter.
The tank is over 200litres a leftover from when I was a family of five. If it packs it in I will probably get a smaller tank.
Solar power, for which you do need a smart meter if you don’t want to give away your surplus for free, has changed the whole concept of “off peak” with too much capacity during the day causing generation and network stability problems
Solar and uk weather!
Certainly do not go together!
Donkeyman!
You might be surprised, remember you have much longer days in summer. There are charts to give you “solar hours” for any location.
Maybe Brucy, l had solar water heating in SA and it certainly
worked great!
But in uk l think it would need extra collector panels and a
double size insulated storage tank so it becomes expensive to
install?
Donkeyman!
Hi
I want one, well two, one for the electric and one for the case.
It fits in with my home automation system.
Also don’t overlook that today’s central heating systems no longer use copper hot water cylinders. These days the water heating side of the central heating systems heat water as and when required. Cold water storage tanks are also no longer needed, along with the copper cylinders these are taken out when a new heating system is installed. 
Just be careful when you want to change to a new tariff because the new tariff will come with a condition that a smart meter be installed as part of the contract. There are tariffs that do not come with the smart meter clause BUT those tariffs are always higher.
I read ours everyday and slap the readings on the spreadsheet, I don’t give a toss how much energy we use and I certianly don’t stress about it. I just need to know if the capitalistic bustards try ripping me off, I’ll be on um like a ton of bricks. 
