British Gas.

[Georgiesmum]

Some good news for a change! Customers with British Gas that are dual fuel customers with them and have smart meters fitted are likely to get offered free electricity every Saturday from some time next year.

Yay! Im glad ive already had mine fitted.

[cupid04]

is that a pig flying past.

[Georgiesmum]

No it isnt Cupid. Its for real.

[tonyav]

Take no notice Georgiesmum, she's only jealous c'us she hasn't got British Gas !

[baza]

must be the £20 extra a month that they want me to pay, and how much does a smart meter cost.

[EDDIE51]

Yes but they are going to charge more for electricity the rest of the week to make up for it.

[Georgiesmum]

A smart meter costs absolutely nothing Baza, its free.

[petal54]

good if BG does something back to us,as their profits are up again!

[DaisyNonna]

Oh goody! I can turn the heating on and wash and dry my blanket on a Saturday. Wrap myself in it to keep warm the rest of the week.

[douglas9401]

Smart meters, according to the efficient operative who installed ours, are being rolled out country wide as fast as their staff can do the job.
If I'm getting free trickery for a whole day I'll be in the shower a LOT. I might even buy a tumble dryer to heat the house too. :)

[ParsleyDumpling]

Hi, I always read the questions/comments in Chatterbank but very rarely contribute. We had a smart meter fitted Feb 2012 for dual fuel with British Gas, since then our electricity usage has gone through the roof so much so that British Gas sent us a letter informing us that our usage was 10 (yes 10) times that of an average household. Considering I am at work all day and our son is in school that leaves my husband to manage the cannabis we farm we must be cultivating!
We have a super efficient Worcester boiler only 4 years old and cook with gas. Needles to say after much arguing with British Gas the smart meter was taken out last week and a normal one installed in it's place.

Jan

[Peter Pedant]

hmmm smart meter - I will have to think about that
thanks GM

clearly a case for pluggin abreeting in and turning it on, on Sats....

[factor-fiction]

Are you saying the smart meter was faulty, ParsleyDumpling?

[Georgiesmum]

Ive always found mine very good.

[ParsleyDumpling]

Hi Factor, when it was installed the engineer didn't even understand it! The meter sends your readings wirelessly to BG. You get a display monitor which you can have anywhere in the house which gives you the actual usage of gas and leccy in real time how much it is costing you and a history of the usage over the previous 28 days/12months. It also has a traffic light system of red, amber, green so you know how high or low your usage is. Our monitor didn't like the kettle, microwave, hoover or iron.
Since the meter was installed the cost of electricity was always more than the gas which never used to be the case, but British Gas were insistent that there was no problem and wouldn't change the meter (or even check it). It came to head earlier this year when we got a bill for the winter quarter of nearly £900 (we don't pay by DD). I paid the bill and thought at least we had 3 months grace before the next quarter, silly me. We then got a bill headed "Your Spring Bill" is here, yippee which ran from April to May of this year and was a further £157.00, we were struggling to pay this so soon after the previous one that I ignored it until the red letter.
My husband rang BG to ask what was going on to be told that a new bill was on it's way for £300.00 which was our "Summer Bill" and included the unpaid £157.00 this covered May through to June. At this point he got a bit annoyed!! and told them to remove the smart meter, surprisingly they agreed. It was taken out a week later (can't fault their engineers) and was suggested to us that maybe the meter was over running.
I paid the £300.00 last week after another red letter and have been told my next bill will be 1/10/13. I will be very interested to see how much it is.

Jan

[ParsleyDumpling]

Hi Georgiesmum, you would think there would be no difference in your bills and obviously they should always be actual rather than estimates. But when this meter was installed it was one of the earlier versions and as I wrote the engineer had never seen one before, and actually said they had no idea how it worked! It worked on WiFi and it has been suggested that maybe other WiFi devices interfered with it somehow. Our boiler uses WiFi so we can turn the heating on or off from anywhere in the house, without having to alter the timer (which we never use).
It's a shame really because it did make you more aware of how much energy you use, but ours would suddenly go amber for no reason. Perhaps we were paying in advance for the free Saturdays that hopefully you and other BG customers will benefit from. I say that totally tongue in cheek with a little wink ('cos I don't know how to do those smiley face thingies).
Enjoy the sunshine depending where you are, (I am north Wirral 5 mins from New Brighton), and have a great weekend.

Jan

[EDDIE51]

This is an exercise to try to reduce demand for electricity Monday to Friday which is when the big industrial plants and factories need it . Unless weekday demand is reduced, within a few years it is very likely electricity rationing by compulsory power cuts will need to be introduced.
What British Gas are actually doing is to charge more for the electricity during the week but give 'free' power on a Saturday this is to reduce demand in the week and get domestic users to do all the washing drying etc on a Saturday.
Anyone tempted to take up this offer will need to consider very carefully if they can shift sufficient of their electricity usage to Saturday to offset the higher charge they will have to pay during the rest of the week. If you can do all your washing , tumble drying and bulk cooking on a Saturday it may be worth it , but be very careful as you could end up paying more in total.