guineafowl21
Established Member
Those pound-shop Einstein ones are very grating.The adverts can be misleading, too much mention of the energy savings by having one which is only possible by you reducing the loads.
Usage monitoring can be done with a simple clamp and display. Cheap and easy. Meter readings by email are no hardship at all.
Installing a smart meter will give power companies (and any hackers or glitches) remote control of your supply. Since your dumb meter is always ‘on’, logically the only control that can be exerted would be downwards from there, ie ‘off‘.
They could also, at the click or slip of a mouse, start charging for apparent power.
In short, I can only see upsides for the power companies (and enemy states/disgruntled teenagers) and none for the consumer.