Smart Meters

[Haliotis]

At one time standing charges, which are supposed to be for maintenance of the grid, were fairly stable and did not form a massive part of bills.  Now, these charges are fiddled with by energy suppliers.  Ofgem can’t be trusted (they are financed by the energy companies), so it’s about time the government stepped in and fixed a fair price for them.

It can cost a lot of money, even if the fuels were not even used.

[Cyker]

Yeah I think it is a bit of a cheek - I suspect it's because they're worried about people with solar panels eating into their profits, so if they load up the standing charge it doesn't impact them as much - Even if your entire house is powered off solar and you don't use any of their power, they can still screw you with the standing charge!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

31 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

they are financed by the energy companies

Ofgem is funded by an annual licence fee levied on energy companies, and the licence fee is recovered from these companies by Ofgem.

[Graham47]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

Now, these charges are fiddled with by energy suppliers.

Standing charge rates are set by Ofgem not the energy companies.

[Mjolinor]

I just watched the ch5 smart meter programme. An hour of my life that I will not get back and nothing learned.

It was total garbage.

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

4 hours ago, Mjolinor said:

I just watched the ch5 smart meter programme. An hour of my life that I will not get back and nothing learned.

It was total garbage.

 

I agree, it was so bland as to say nothing at all about anything.

No useful information whatsoever, just bla bla blah.

I could do better myself if ch5 would like to send me a pm.

[Mjolinor]

6 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

I agree, it was so bland as to say nothing at all about anything.

No useful information whatsoever, just bla bla blah.

I could do better myself if ch5 would like to send me a pm.

I bet you can't say your name as often as said his without being embarrassed. 🙂

If they took out the clips where he said who he was then it would have been twenty minutes long.

[Bper]

He that once deceives is ever suspected

[Haliotis]

At the end of the programme, it seemed to me that it was biased towards grooming doubtful viewers to to get one. Sneaky!

[Mjolinor]

It certainly was. The whole "it can save you a fortune" presentation was biased that way. I didn't see anything that made a saving that was directly related to Smart meters at all. The utility companies used to give away those power monitors a few years ago. Nothing more startling than if you aint using it turn it off and if you have variable rate make sure you use it when it is cheap.

 

[Cyker]

It always annoyed me that the biggest reason they gave for getting a smart meter was that it saved you money, which was just a big fat lie; If anything it costs you more as it's another always-on device that adds to the base load of your house!

When the most compelling reason they could come up with for having one is a total lie, it doesn't really give me much faith in them...

[Mjolinor]

I do wonder where it is getting its power from. The electricity smart meter can be run from the incoming supple before the meter so does not add to your cost but the gas meter must Shirley run from after your electricity meter because I think that running before it would be illegal.

 

[Haliotis]

1 hour ago, Mjolinor said:

I do wonder where it is getting its power from. The electricity smart meter can be run from the incoming supple before the meter so does not add to your cost but the gas meter must Shirley run from after your electricity meter because I think that running before it would be illegal.

 

I suppose, depending upon how the smart meter is circuited, it could either take its power before OR after the house current is charged.  Is it any different to how a standard meter takes its power?

Regarding a gas smart meter, I think this probably has its own long-life Battery.   My gas meter is accessed from outside, and there is no electricity circuit anywhere close to it.  To change that, it would require a disturbance I am not willing to allow.

Concerning TV documentaries, I always have the TV control ready, in case there is a more intelligent programme (Tom and Jerry, for example) on another channel! 😜

[Mjolinor]

23 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

Concerning TV documentaries, I always have the TV control ready, in case there is a more intelligent programme (Tom and Jerry, for example) on another channel! 😜

Such a sad loss. Not politically correct enough to be transmitted now. 😞

 

[Haliotis]

Coming back to the standing charge, is this the same for all users, regardless of supplier or tariff?  As the charge is supposed to be for grid maintenance, it certainly should be!

[Cyker]

For what I understand, OfGEM set the maximum allowed, but it's up to the suppliers what they charge. I suspect they all charge the maximum allowed...  

[roadster-rav]

At the insistence of EDF I had a smart meter fitted a couple of years ago. It has never actually worked and I  have always had to submit gas and electricity readings manually or accept their estimated readings. I complain about the smart meter not working time and time again and I get a conciliatory reply from a non-technical person saying it will be dealt with but there is never any follow up. They have even asked me to send a photograph of the meter but still no action to fix it. The portable local information display worked for a few weeks but that is now dead too. My tactic now is to refuse entry to meter readers until something is done, but I am continuing to pay the bills.

I was hoping to be put on a dual rate but of course that couldn't happen so my next car won't be a plug in hybrid!

The channel 5 program was heavily biased in favour of smart meters and was full of half truths about energy savings. Some of us with a bit of technical know-how use in line meters to determine the typical consumption of our appliances and certainly don't need lessons on energy saving which actually have nothing whatsoever to do with smart meters!

 

[Bper]

5 minutes ago, roadster-rav said:

At the insistence of EDF I had a smart meter fitted a couple of years ago. It has never actually worked and I  have always had to submit gas and electricity readings manually or accept their estimated readings. I complain about the smart meter not working time and time again and I get a conciliatory reply from a non-technical person saying it will be dealt with but there is never any follow up. They have even asked me to send a photograph of the meter but still no action to fix it. The portable local information display worked for a few weeks but that is now dead too. My tactic now is to refuse entry to meter readers until something is done, but I am continuing to pay the bills.

I was hoping to be put on a dual rate but of course that couldn't happen so my next car won't be a plug in hybrid!

The channel 5 program was heavily biased in favour of smart meters and was full of half truths about energy savings. Some of us with a bit of technical know-how use in line meters to determine the typical consumption of our appliances and certainly don't need lessons on energy saving which actually have nothing whatsoever to do with smart meters!

 

Heavily biased in favour of smart meters is due to the governments net zero policy. It will never favour customers it wasn't designed to.☹️

[Haliotis]

Everything the government turns its hand to ends up a failure and, if Labour win the election, there is no reason to believe that the failures will not continue.  So, perhaps smart meters will in the same way fall by the wayside.

[Mjolinor]

3 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

Everything the government turns its hand to ends up a failure and, if Labour win the election, there is no reason to believe that the failures will not continue.  So, perhaps smart meters will in the same way fall by the wayside.

It will not happen. Eventually everyone will have one and they will work correctly allowing variable tariffs for all.

I was involved in the early days (1990s) in to remote meter reading research and developed a system using the power line for communications. Unfortunately GSM came along in the 90s though it was expensive then wifi came along in the early 2000s and pretty much ended the need.

It absolutely has to happen so that demand can be flattened and tailored to supply.

 

[Bper]

7 minutes ago, Mjolinor said:

It will not happen. Eventually everyone will have one and they will work correctly allowing variable tariffs for all.

I was involved in the early days (1990s) in to remote meter reading research and developed a system using the power line for communications. Unfortunately GSM came along in the 90s though it was expensive then wifi came along in the early 2000s and pretty much ended the need.

It absolutely has to happen so that demand can be flattened and tailored to supply.

 

John,I don't believe everyone will have a smart meter, numerous properties have electrical installation locations which makes smart meter installation useless along with zero signal reception.

Upgrading or relocation will cost a fortune and this will not be met by landlords,tenants or homeowners. At some stage they will realise that reliance on green energy and poor planning in Nuclear power stations will bring their net zero policies crashing. 😀

Business and homeowners will rapidly turn on the government if they loose money or can't heat their homes due to power cuts.☹️

 

[Mjolinor]

But they do not have to use the mobile network. The can use your own broadband or comms over the powerline to the local sub, I am sure there will be other options such as satellite that will come along in the next few years.

[Roy124]

1 hour ago, roadster-rav said:

At the insistence of EDF I had a smart meter fitted a couple of years ago. It has never actually worked and I  have always had to submit gas and electricity readings manually or accept their estimated readings. 

Winter 22/23 my smart meter shut down.   It was 2 months and a £30 missed appointment payment before a man came, switched it off then on and it worked. 

They asked me to send monthly readings.  I declined. 

I am registered as a vulnerable customer and they agreed to come and read the meter monthly.   I could have read the meters but didn't  want to get wet and cold unnecessarily.   Indeed the gas meter, in the ground, is difficult to read and i would have had difficulty standing up again. 

Just insist they read it.

[Roy124]

3 minutes ago, Mjolinor said:

The can use your own broadband

Which is predicated on you having broadband. 

[Cyker]

Yeah no way would I let someone else use my net connection; They've shown they have no clue about network security and I wouldn't allow some unknown device potentially compromising the security of my network!