Smart meters

Looking for the Duck's thread on smart meters. 

Anyway  , Npower are pushing me for a date , which I ignore .  I'm thinking of changing suppliers anyway so I presume their meter won't be there for long .

I 'm not interested in their little box  that  .." Saves me all this money " .....and I don't particularly want a device transmitting data in my house every 1/2 hour  as they are saying .  

We already live  within a  God knows how many frequencies passing through us every day .  

I know how to save energy  ...its not rocket science .... we all need to live our lives , we need to cook electric , we need to shower electric  but when  finished  we switch 'em off . :C  

On the subject of changing suppliers ...what are the general opinions on here ?        Last time when I was about to change  , the others all increased their prices anyway .

I'm with the worst scenario suppliers I think ,  nPower  & British Gas .

I know theres a saving straight off by :-

a)   Gas & electric from same supplier.

b)   Monthly DD payments  ( I believe)   (  I pay quarterly now)   

Try first utility 

Thanks Murdo ...   actually my cousin had some dire service from them  as I remember ...could well have been a "one off "   I don't know all the details other tan he was not a happy bunny .    Could well have been his own fault TBH . 

Are they one of the cheapest ?  

Unless the energy providers are forced to show their prices in a consistent fashion we can only guess ......

just imagine passing petrol stations all showing different prices for different amounts ....

I know its damn confusing .   I often feel cheated TBH   .   I hate being bullshined  like   " Shop at ASDA and save money "    So I go to ASDA  and it costs me £70    :C

BT increased our internet speed  "for nothing " not long ago ,  email trumpeting it .   A month later they put their prices up . 

I'm suspicious of all marketing ploys  like  sweets down at low level  where the kids can see them  as you wait at the checkout .  

A lot of products do a size slightly smaller but hardly noticeable  unless you still have the last one you bought to compare .     I understand  say,  a small  size ..a large and a Giant  to suit all   ,  but  I see products  we bought last month were 500 mL  say    and this time I 've picked what I thought was the same  to find it's 400mL 

And stuff like this is a total rip off!!!!!    

There is no legal requirement to have a smart meter.

They want us to have them so they can collect data on consumption.

Energy suppliers will offer you a better tarif if you get a smart meter as an incentive to get you to have one.

I will not be getting one.

I thought that the  SM advertising campaign had been discredited by a government quango, but it seems to have intensified on local radio with even dafter claims such as how many extra cakes you can bake!  

They remind me of the Brexit adverts, complete nonsense, and impossible to substantiate or relate in any way to reality but repeated  until people start to believe them.

Evans Electric said:

I know its damn confusing .   I often feel cheated TBH   .   I hate being bullshined  like   " Shop at ASDA and save money "    So I go to ASDA  and it costs me £70    :C

BT increased our internet speed  "for nothing " not long ago ,  email trumpeting it .   A month later they put their prices up . 

I'm suspicious of all marketing ploys  like  sweets down at low level  where the kids can see them  as you wait at the checkout .  

A lot of products do a size slightly smaller but hardly noticeable  unless you still have the last one you bought to compare .     I understand  say,  a small  size ..a large and a Giant  to suit all   ,  but  I see products  we bought last month were 500 mL  say    and this time I 've picked what I thought was the same  to find it's 400mL 

And stuff like this is a total rip off!!!!!    

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Assuming the 150 tin is the newer one?.....it's had a lot more use than the 200 looking at the spout

also the 200 is a "multi use product" as it says so on the tin. The 150 isn't 

just saying.  :innocent

DO NOT GET ONE

The arguments to have one are weak, the whole concept is biased toward the energy companies and their profiteering.

It will not save you energy or money it will cost us for generations.

Smart meters will allow energy firms to introduce "surge pricing" to charge households more for gas and electric at peak times, a former senior Ofgem manager has warned. 

So-called "time of use" tariffs would see households pay more for watching television, charging gadgets and running the washing machine during popular times such as in the mornings and evenings. 

The controversial deals would see energy prices peak on special events like Christmas Day and Easter when millions of households are all using ovens to cooking lunch at the same time.

Under the Government’s £11bn smart meter roll out every home in the UK will be offered a smart meter by 2020, in an effort to help people save money and use less energy. 

Unlike ordinary meters, smart meters transmit information about when households use most energy to suppliers. At present customers will smart meters are charged a flat fee per unit of energy used.

According to Jerry Fulton, former head of gas and electric meter meterology at Ofgem, the energy regulator, the introduction of smart meters will soon give suppliers the power to increase bills at busy times, just like paying off-peak and peak time travel. 

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I believe that the hidden agenda behind smart meters is that they will allow half-hourly charging.

"Instead of having two charge rates (day and night) the price of energy will change every half hour, so when solar and wind generation are low and usage is high the price of electricity will rise steeply.

From: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/tag/smart-meters/

if you want to change suppliers there's some good comparison websites - we change every year. 

First Utility service is ****e in my experience. They are suppossedly cheaper, but I don't like the Pyramid type scheme they run for memebers, ie introduce so many friends and get a free holiday to Paris. IT may be genuinely good, but just smacks of Amway for those who remember that bunch!

binky said:

First Utility service is ****e in my experience. 

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On what basis ?

I changed to them, have dumb meters and log in once a month to provide readings ............. 

I can't fault them

Blue Duck said:

"Instead of having two charge rates (day and night) the price of energy will change every half hour, so when solar and wind generation are low and usage is high the price of electricity will rise steeply.

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  Thanks for that Ducky .

I kept wondering :

a)  Why the government obsessioin with  SMs  .?  

b)   Why does it transmit every half hour ? 

An email to my (so called)  MP  is called for I think .   

Murdoch said:

On what basis ?

I changed to them, have dumb meters and log in once a month to provide readings ............. 

I can't fault them

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try leaving again! was a few years ago, they may have improved?

binky said:

try leaving again! was a few years ago, they may have improved?

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No sevices company wants anyone to leave so they add hurdles...

I put my mother on First Utility....log on once a month. Never been an issue

we are presently with Economy Energy   total    

randomly changing the DD as they have guesstimated and decided to double our payments. We phoned up,and are £750 inncredit W. t. A. F. .? They were fine for the first 6 months

Also..look whose isolator they're  fitting around here....quality product?

I thought the point of an isolator, is only the INPUT side is sealed?  Well that's how they do it round here.

Why would I want to swap my dumb meter, with it's built in isolator, for a "smart" one where they forgot to include that?

For the first time I encountered a smart meter on a job this week.  I played around with the menu's on the thing. One thing it could NOT tell me is the pence per unit it was charging. Not very smart is it?

The customer who had this was telling me how wonderful this smart meter was. He had been paying £60 per month, now he was only paying £30. Wonderful.  More likely he wasn't sending meter readings, his £60 was based on estimates, now they find he has a huge credit balance and the £30 is to draw down that balance. But he is convinced it has halved his bill.

Evans Electric said:

  Thanks for that Ducky .

I kept wondering :

a)  Why the government obsessioin with  SMs  .?  

b)   Why does it transmit every half hour ? 

An email to my (so called)  MP  is called for I think .   

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Welcome Sir!  :Salute

EU legislation I think initially but probably a lot of cloak and dagger stuff with brown envelopes has made the British public into cows to be milked.

kerching said:

Also..look whose isolator they're  fitting around here....quality product?

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Standard eon jobbie ()I had one fitted and tried to upgrade my tails & rounded off the the allen / hex screws with very little force.

Security feature perhaps? :lol:

just supose i was at school with the dude who is now in charge of getting these bad boys out. I might have grilled him a few times and what he lets on is..... its about getting data on the network and its consumption, can it handle more car chargers. Its about getting data that will benifit changes that go on in 20-30 years time.

so he said.......

  wouldnt surprise me if its used to charge us more to make someone else a lot more....

I still dont want one.

It has already been admitted that the end game is half hourly metering for all domestic customers so we can be charged a LOT more should we wish to do something outrageous like cook our dinner at dinner time.

I just wish they would be HONEST and explain that is what we must do to prevent the grid collapsing, rather than this pretend "it will save you money" nonsense.

Smart Meters. Next "miss selling" scandal?