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Smart Meter
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Each month when I send my meter reading to EDF, I am asked if I would like a smart meter, what is the point please. thanks
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The point is to give control to the company who can then control what you get, at what time, and if you get it at all. Plus it passes data which could be intercepted or whatever by the malicious. And being more complicated must go wrong easier. And at the moment another point is that the seems no one standard, and switching suppliers may mean a new meter. There is nothing the new types can do that you can't achieve by other means. The benefits tend to be for the supplier not for you, but you will be bedazzled by the ease in which a five minute wonder at easier reading of how much you are using is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. Don't think you won't pay for the unnecessary changes. You may not be presented with an immediate bill, but the company aren't in it to drop their bottom line over the longer term.
The advantages are supposed to be:
1. An end to estimated bills
(I have not had an estimated bill for more than 20 years).
2. Gives you control over your consumption.
Er....how? So I see it costs me 4p (or whatever) to boil a kettle. am I going to boil a kettle less frequently? I see it costs me 25p to do a wash in my washing machine. Am I to use it less? Absolute cobblers.
I know exactly how much leccy and gas (in Kwh) I use each month and how much it costs me. That's all I need to know.
1. An end to estimated bills
(I have not had an estimated bill for more than 20 years).
2. Gives you control over your consumption.
Er....how? So I see it costs me 4p (or whatever) to boil a kettle. am I going to boil a kettle less frequently? I see it costs me 25p to do a wash in my washing machine. Am I to use it less? Absolute cobblers.
I know exactly how much leccy and gas (in Kwh) I use each month and how much it costs me. That's all I need to know.
Eventually they will insist. We had a letter last month to explain that, as part of the national move to smart meters we are to be switched over now, and were given an installation date. No option. Except to rearrange to a more convenient date, but theres no putting it off entirely, it will come eventually and by 2020 everyone will have one.
"Eventually they will insist. We had a letter last month to explain that, as part of the national move to smart meters we are to be switched over now, and were given an installation date. No option."
"By 2020 the intention is that all meters will be smart meters, so in the long run we have little choice."
There is (as yet) no compulsion. This from the government website on the matter:
"All homes and small business sites will be offered smart meters by their energy company between now and the end of 2020."
Actually the rest of the document makes for light bedtime reading if you want a good laugh:
https:/
From the "Which" website:
"Now the official roll-out has started, energy companies have been asked to take 'all reasonable steps' to install smart meters in every home, however you still have the right to refuse a smart meter.”
So you do have a choice. If your energy supplier is daft enough to make a unilateral appointment to fit one simply refuse entry. They have no right of entry to do this without a warrant and a Magistrates' Court will not issue one because there is no legislation to support it. The only time they will secure a warrant to change a meter is if they can show the existing one is dangerous because, say, it is damaged or excessively old. Even then, when you have a Smart meter fitted under those circumstances you can insist that the data transmission functions are disabled.
"By 2020 the intention is that all meters will be smart meters, so in the long run we have little choice."
There is (as yet) no compulsion. This from the government website on the matter:
"All homes and small business sites will be offered smart meters by their energy company between now and the end of 2020."
Actually the rest of the document makes for light bedtime reading if you want a good laugh:
https:/
From the "Which" website:
"Now the official roll-out has started, energy companies have been asked to take 'all reasonable steps' to install smart meters in every home, however you still have the right to refuse a smart meter.”
So you do have a choice. If your energy supplier is daft enough to make a unilateral appointment to fit one simply refuse entry. They have no right of entry to do this without a warrant and a Magistrates' Court will not issue one because there is no legislation to support it. The only time they will secure a warrant to change a meter is if they can show the existing one is dangerous because, say, it is damaged or excessively old. Even then, when you have a Smart meter fitted under those circumstances you can insist that the data transmission functions are disabled.
Smart meters make things a lot easier for them and a little easier for you. BUT, they are very easily hacked. Would you take the risk of someone knowing your house is empty one week (because you are suddenly not using electricity) and the address to burgle, or to sell such information on the dark net?
I agree with what you say NJ , but very soon (if not already) the only meters available as replacements for damaged or unserviceable meters will be smart meters. So though it will take longer than 2020 every meter will be a smart meter eventually.
Actually I seem to remember hearing that if you need a new meter now but refuse a smart meter , you just get a smart meter anyway but with the 'smart' function disabled .
Actually I seem to remember hearing that if you need a new meter now but refuse a smart meter , you just get a smart meter anyway but with the 'smart' function disabled .
I was asked over a year ago if I wanted a smart meter, but when I told them that my present meter was on the floor in the garage I was told that a smart meter would not work unless the meter was raised from the floor.I asked if this would be paid for by them.I have not had any more offers of a smart meter.
Spot on malagabob....when enough smart meters are in use the energy companies will dramatically increase unit charges and then offer an 'incentive' to use energy outside peak times with 'attractive' lower rates,thus reducing maximum demand spikes and stress on the inadequate grid system.Result..a plaster on a gaping wound.
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