Smart meter con ?

[woodieallen]

Got this from our electricity supplier...

Your electricity meter is out of date and requires urgent replacement. We are required to do so under governmental regulation of the Electricity Act 1989.

The lifespan of your meter is set by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). This is to ensure your energy is always recorded accurately so you only pay for what you use.

They've been hassling me to fit a smart meter for ages and I don't want to. So is this their latest wheeze at trying to get me to instal one ?

 

[Pedronicus]

I believe that you can accept a new 'smart' meter but can insist that it operates in 'dumb' mode i.e. it does not communicate with the electricity supplier. This would mean that you would have to submit regular meter readings rather than rely on automatically submitted ones. Might be worth speaking to them about this function.

 

[Sideways]

Meters do have an official life. They must be guaranteed accurate within a standard tolerance, for a period of 10 years or whatever. Past that date, then you as user have a sort of automatic right to question the readings, so the meter companies should track their dates and replace them when certified life expires. My own power company did this badly and were 2 years late in telling me that the meter needed to be replaced.

 

[woodieallen]

Meters do have an official life. They must be guaranteed accurate within a standard tolerance, for a period of 10 years or whatever. ....

In our case, 'whatever' is probably well over 40 years!

 

[Spectric]

As far as the customer then they are really not smart at all because despite all the hype they do not save you a penny unless you take action and turn off lights and turn down the heating so for energy aware people they are pointless.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

^^^^ I reported it to the ASA - they replied that they had had so many complaints they weren't responding individually. The ads. do now say customer actions required or something like that.

My meter was 42 years old when changed.

 

[TRITON]

Tell them to F off and stop harassing you or you will make a complaint for harassment.

 

[ChaiLatte]

I have been receiving the same letters for two years now.

My take on it is that if you had any serious legal obligation to have the meter changed, they would state a specific clause of the applicable legislation. If you continued to rebuff them they would send increasingly threatening letters (a la TV licensing).

You could, of course, peruse that legislation yourself (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/29/contents) to see what it actually said. You can read Octopus' take on the situation here:

https://octopus.energy/blog/meter-certification-date/

Note how wishy-washy it is: the meter might perhaps run too fast or too slow (so on average it will run correctly) if the wind is right and the moon in is the correct phase and Jupiter is receeding.

When I got fed up with the letters, I called them and said that I would accept a meter replacement on a like-for-like basis (a non-smart meter) and wanted confirmation in writing of the conversation and outcome before I would book an appointment.

That did not come but the letters stopped for six months, making me wonder why, if my meter was so antiquated it was a potential death trap (copyright Lynne Faulds-Wood), they did not come knocking on my door during that time.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The irony when mine was changed was that the chap turned up to put in a smart meter, saw I had an e7 meter and said I couldn't have a smart meter with e7 anyway. This was 6 - 7 years ago. I understand it's changed now, but as the main purpose of a smart meter that I can see is to introduce variable charging I found it really odd that it wouldn't support e7.

 

[niall Y]

I had a similar letter many years ago - before the advent of the smart meter, It was for my old workshop, which was in a complex of recently converted ones. All the meters had been installed at the same time and weren't that old. Strangely mine was the only one they decided to change. I can only assume I wasn't using the amount of energy , they thought I should - therefore my meter must be at fault.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Why would you resist changing the meter?

There are not hugely attractive additions to household design. They are usually out of direct sight in a cupboard - and older ones a triumph of the black plastic utilitarian design school.

The old one if out of tolerance may be reading incorrectly - are they likely to default to over rather than under reading?? Better to be confident paying for what is used.

No smart meter means you need to provide meter readings - a minor chore but a chore nonetheless.

Does a lack of smart meter limit the different charging regimes that may be available to you to reduce cost - variable rates, cheap night rates etc etc. If so - daft.

A decent understanding of household demand would allow informed purchase of other systems rather than relying upon guesswork - solar panels, battery back-up systems etc.

That the utility company knows energy use in half hour (or smaller) time slots - by all means argue an invasion of privacy etc - but this is hardly a rational justification.

 

[ChaiLatte]

Why would you resist changing the meter?

Because of the bare-faced lies the electricity company employ in trying to get me to do so.

If they said "change to a smart meter because it is cheaper for us", I might not like it but it would at least be truthful.

If they said, "change to a smart meter and we will discount your tariff by 10% for 36 months", I would ring them the next morning.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I agree with @Terry - Somerset. Unless I’ve missed something it makes no material difference having a smart meter and gives you options if you choose to avail yourself of them.

 

[worker]

Why would you resist changing the meter?

It has no benefit to me as a consumer, in fact, it may be perilous for me instead.

Do you remember being told upfront they could flip you to prepayment mode at the click of a button? I didn't and neither did thousands of others. Well you may remember the media storm around people being switched to prepayment without due process. Of course the functionality is still there, there's just less drama around it nowadays.

There is also the good chance of them rolling out variable/peak time rate pricing, which I have zero need for.

Having a smart meter doesn't save you energy. Being mindful of your energy use does. You could argue that having a smart meter makes you more mindful but I don't need a digital screen to remind me to do that.

Perhaps the billions spent on a botched rollout could have been used for educating people about how to minimize their energy use instead.

 

[Ozi]

I know nothing about the workings or wearing out of electricity meters, gas meters however give you more gas as they wear out, but not by much. I was shown this when a student on placement at British Gas - that must be a few years ago by now but........ I don't even want to think about how many it would spoil my retirement.

 

[Lons]

Why would you resist changing the meter?

Perhaps the media reports over quite a long time now which indicate that 3 to 4 million have faults and are not working properly. I have 2 close neighbours with smart meter problems and the agro and lack of a solution they've encountered is more enough to put me off.
That's enough for me to have refused and will keep on refusing until I have absolutely no option including changing provider.

My meter is quite old but not a "black plastic utilitarian design", in fact it's digital with roughly an Iphone screen size, it's in a garage at eye level in an outdoor electricity cupboard and I read it with ease every month, already pay for whet I use and a smart meter won't save me anything at all.

 

[paulrbarnard]

It has no benefit to me as a consumer, in fact, it may be perilous for me instead.

Do you remember being told upfront they could flip you to prepayment mode at the click of a button? I didn't and neither did thousands of others. Well you may remember the media storm around people being switched to prepayment without due process. Of course the functionality is still there, there's just less drama around it nowadays.

There is also the good chance of them rolling out variable/peak time rate pricing, which I have zero need for.

Having a smart meter doesn't save you energy. Being mindful of your energy use does. You could argue that having a smart meter makes you more mindful but I don't need a digital screen to remind me to do that.

Perhaps the billions spent on a botched rollout could have been used for educating people about how to minimize their energy use instead.

But they can also flip you back just as easily.

 

[woodieallen]

That the utility company knows energy use in half hour (or smaller) time slots - by all means argue an invasion of privacy etc - but this is hardly a rational justification.

I know my consumption to the second if I so wished. And across four different RCDs

 

[woodieallen]

But they can also flip you back just as easily.

Why give them the opportunity to do that in the first place? And then have to waste my time sorting it out.

 

[Doug71]

When my tenant moved out a few weeks ago I found the old meter had been replaced with a new one. I am told it needed changing because the old one was a Radio Teleswitch meter and the radio frequency they use to switch between peak and off peak rates is being turned off next year.

My mother has just had a new smart meter fitted, her supplier told her the previous smart meter they fitted never worked properly. She is on economy 7 and they kept sending people out to read the meter but they only ever managed to take one reading, a quick Google and I found out how to toggle through the menu to find both readings which totalled the single reading that was the default display