Look into the real reasons that the companies want you to get a smart meter. Frankly anyone who signs up for one is a fool!
Can you enlighten us then? smile
I think calling people a fool is a bit strong, but what PPs say is true that it's for the companies' benefit - or, more to the point, the government's.
The giving you real-time actual cost is sold as the main benefit, and (if accurate and readings are actually used by the supplier), this might be a good thing, but, as has been said, you know how much you're paying each month and most people have an idea of which appliances use more or less electricity. If you have any doubt, you can buy a meter for about a tenner and test each appliance that has a plug individually just once. Even they have their limitations, though, as they tell you that, at current usage, your kettle would cost £4,000 a year - just in case you happen to keep it on the boil 24/7....
We're aware that switching off lights, washing machines, fridges etc will save us money; but we find these items essential to our lives, so what use is that? You know that your kids cost you a lot of money, but you don't start making plans to put them on eBay, do you? As the old saying goes, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it.
The real reason for smart meters is to link into the so-called Internet of Things that's planned along with 5G. There have already been news articles about vulnerable people being remotely monitored to see if their pattern of electricity usage changes (not put the telly on, not boiled the kettle, not opened the fridge etc). This is the plan for everybody - not to be concerned about the welfare of fit, healthy people, but to know exactly how all electricity is used and to persuade/bribe/force people to step into line. There have been a number of reports that people's electricity supplies can be switched off remotely if they have a smart meter. They could cut the power to your whole house or, in the not too distant future, just to individual appliances, if your usage is considered excessive. Maybe, to balance the overall grid demand, they'll switch off everybody's fridges and freezers for half an hour overnight to avoid power cuts, which I accept is not necessarily a bad thing.
They'll know exactly what make and model of every appliance you have and every second that you use it. Maybe your NHS records will have identified you as being overweight, however you watch your LG 4TH398WNP27 telly for many hours each day when you could be out exercising; so it's only for your own good that that gets zapped remotely after you've had your daily quota. Eventually, they'll be able to know at all times exactly what you have in your fridge, so better make sure that there's nothing unhealthy for the kids in there. If there is, maybe you need to attend 'education' in order to continue receiving child benefit.
Of course, this will all be hackable and criminals will also be able to find out when you're usually not at home. They'll be able to tell exactly what expensive nickable appliances you have by the frequency of their power draw and you house will become like a criminal's Argos catalogue.
It will also eventually provide evidence in suspected crime/legal/dispute cases (maybe also in divorce and child welfare situations) and be used by government departments to check up on you. You claim a single person's council tax discount or benefits based on being a single parent, but your usage level suggests that of two adults. You claim you don't have a job and claim unemployment benefits, but your usage times suggest you leave the house and return regularly in a pattern that suggests you do indeed have a job.
There will be 'incentives' for using electricity during off-peak times, as the prices will be much more per unit at peak times. A bit like with petrol and diesel, I don't believe they'll ever actually ban them - just make them so phenomenally expensive that people will voluntarily (or be financially forced to) give up their old cars.
Added to this that each meter costs £400, we're told (or that might be per household for two meters, not sure). That money will come from somewhere and I have a pretty good idea who will ultimately end up paying it. of course, millions of perfectly fine, working meters will be needlessly scrapped, with all of the associated environmental harm that will bring.
The benefit is that you don't have to spend 3 minutes each month to read the meters and submit it to your supplier online. The cost of that will be your privacy and, likely, ultimately, your agency to make decisions yourself for your own household.
That said, plenty of people are happy to have Alexas recording and feeding back everything that is ever said in their houses, so maybe they don't care. Have I got something to hide? Yes. Nothing illegal or immoral, but I just value my own privacy and don't want to change my name to Truman.