Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Regretting getting a smart meter already...

134 replies

CinnamonSwirl82 · 10/12/2022 20:36

Has gas and electric really gone up this much? ☹️ Just moved house and got a smart meter installed, lost my fixed tariff as I couldn't bring it with me and nowhere offers fixed anymore.

We've been out most of the day, no heating on and all plugs are switched off bar the fridge freezer, oven, sky box and router. Currently it's sat at £10.30. Bloke had to install new meters as our old ones were prehistoric.

£300+ a month for barely using any gas or electric? Is this right and has it really gone up this much?! I only used to pay £100 a month and I'd not be minimising any of my useage. I'm hoping it's faulty meters because I'm never gonna be able to afford to put heating on and I'm on a pretty good salary!

I hate this smart meter already.

OP posts:
Clarefromwork · 10/12/2022 21:36

We are with Octopus too and I did like our smart metre display to track spending in real time but then all of a sudden it was showing a really high usage which wasn’t showing on our app dashboard. I contacted Octopus and they said the display is not always accurate (see screenshot) so we weren’t actually paying more. It’s a bit annoying and pointless of the display isn’t correct though.

Hopefully this is the same for you, message them on twitter they usually respond quite quickly!

Regretting getting a smart meter already...
helpfulperson · 10/12/2022 21:41

When I got my smart meter installed they warned it took a few days to settle down and read correctly. I can't remember why but it did.

underthemike · 10/12/2022 21:50

I'm lucky in that I can afford my higher bills (can't afford to socialise or go on holiday etc now though) but I can't deal with looking at a smart meter (anxiety) or being cold/sitting in the dark all the time - so I'm just rolling with it and not spending in other areas of my life.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Bard6817 · 10/12/2022 21:53

Try some experiments with the live display of the leccy.

Switch everything off….

One by one, switch everything back on, and see what’s using the most leccy by watching it mount up.

Our baseline is about 220watts, which is fridge, gas boiler and router and a few things on standby. We got to that by closely monitoring for a few days and changed a few habits.

We learnt that a third of our daily leccy is the fridge freezer, big american style, about 10 years old, no desire to change it, (location and size are issues) but i think it’s inefficient.

Habits we changed when we learnt what was causing us lots more. Standby isn’t the great drain we are told. Our big leccy oven, tumble dryer, washing machine and dishwasher are the big costs despite being new and super efficient, so we now use them less frequently. Dishwasher 2 or 3 times a week rather than daily. Washing optimised, air dry some heavier items and finish in dryer. Cut down a bit of TV watching, and added a few candles to the living room, and we now have a few more family games, giggles and chats nights. Gas is a mare, but we all wear more layers now, and like i say, we have candles in living room and surprising the heat they add. We use the little oven for nuggets rather than big oven.

In the summer, i spent about £100 on TAPO energy monitoring plugs, and we can control everything with smart actions and know what’s using what on a longer term basis. Makes life easy when you want to turn things off quickly.

just knowing where it went, meant we reduced our usage to less than 3kwh per day so no more than about £3 a day. And tbh, didn’t really change many habits for the worse. Comparing our outgoings with this time last year, we are spending about the same.

My point is - use what it’s telling you…. Test things…. Understand where it all goes. It takes about 15 seconds for a change to show on the meter…. It’s really not difficult when you finally get a grip on what uses the leccy and how.

Scottishskifun · 10/12/2022 21:54

CinnamonSwirl82 · 10/12/2022 21:32

It's stressful 😔 I don't know how we're ever going to afford it. We have a biofuel fireplace so might have to live in the living room & just heat that room with the fire... Hopefully that should cost less to run.

Need to find what's guzzling our gas though!

Get 2 convention fans for the fire if it's a burner and open the doors. We can heat our entire house by using ours.

Check your kitchen for a random switch, also if there is a airing cupboard, utility room etc that's generally where a emersion heater switch would be.

Perfectlystill · 10/12/2022 22:00

Shesasuperfreak · 10/12/2022 21:16

I hate it when people come on to the thread to correct others 😒. The 3 of you need to get a life.

Agree. Ridiculous pedantry over the most boring topic

Buildingthefuture · 10/12/2022 22:07

I’ve just looked and mine is £6.57. But we’ve been home all day, we have an electric radiator in the hall set at 20 degrees, plus a fridge freezer, chest freezer, wine fridge, we’ve used the coffee machine 5 times and the dishwasher twice….
We've also got PVs but in this weather they are doing sweet FA! In the summer we never go above £2…..

TheOrigRights · 10/12/2022 22:10

I put mine in a box yesterday, it's causing me stress.
I am not in financial difficulty, I just need to set aside a big lump that would normally be spent on other things, and accept it is what it is. We are not frivolous at all, and seeing the darn thing be more than double it was last year is horrible.

Yabado · 10/12/2022 22:15

My smart meter display is around 8 -9 a day on roughly 20kwh a day
but we have a hot tub that uses 12 kwh a day as it’s on 24/7

its accurate as it’s pay as you go so no nasty surprises with the bill 32.9 pence per kWh and 56p SC

gas is around £20 week atm and that’s with it set at 18 degrees also on pre pay

cakeorwine · 10/12/2022 22:21

Shesasuperfreak · 10/12/2022 21:16

I hate it when people come on to the thread to correct others 😒. The 3 of you need to get a life.

If I was being really pedantic, I didn't come onto this thread to correct anyone. I was already on this thread offering useful advice.

OxanaVorontsova · 10/12/2022 22:31

Missing the point but really?? Just found?!
We found a built in fridge and freezer in the kitchen island earlier so we've switched them off too just in case they're energy guzzlers

absolutelyknackeredcow · 10/12/2022 22:36

nellyelloe · 10/12/2022 21:30

I'm beyond depressed about this. Our bill is extortionate but we are still freezing most of the time. It's absolutely miserable

This - we live in an old Victorian house which we did insulate as best we can but our energy bills are normally £15/ day . This is an a few hours of heating a day. It's absolutely freezing. We have turned everything off at the point and wear thermals and use heated blankets

CinnamonSwirl82 · 10/12/2022 22:38

Some really useful information here!! Thank you everyone 🥰

@OxanaVorontsova it sounds ridiculous, I know 🙈 it's a house of many wonders. We thought they were just face panels on the island! Were hunting for the socket for the wine fridge as we don't use it and ... Yeah! 😂

OP posts:
Yabado · 10/12/2022 22:59

What tarriff are you on
is it economy 7 which is always a higher rate in the day time and should be less at night

if the house was on E7 when you moved in
it may be that the meters hasn’t swopped to the SVR of around 32 pence per kwh

i had this in Sept with EDF
I had a smart meter installed &
swopped to the SVR of 32.9 from the 2 rate E7
but my smart meter couldn’t accept the SVR so I was stuck on a single E7 rate of 45.9 when the unit rates went up on Oct 1

even though I had gas for about 5 years I was still on a E7 tarriff as I didn’t think to switch to a SIngle SVR rate

it took me 3 weeks of ringing EDf to get them to understand what was happening and it wasn’t until I made a formal complaint that they eventually 2 months later sorted it out

They did refund me the difference and gave me £50 credit as well

Yabado · 10/12/2022 23:03

I’ve done my sums and I’m paying slightly more than you at around 320 a month for electric and gas
but my heating is on pretty much all the time as it’s set at 18 and I use a hot tub that’s set at 40 degrees
so something is definitely wrong

it’s a large 2 bed 2 bath house 2-3 adults someone always at home
we don’t switch things off or put in standby mode either :
we rarely use the oven and tumble dryer as we have a airfryer and we can dry out clothes inside without causing damp / condensation

pigonalipstick · 10/12/2022 23:11

TERRRYsnotmine · 10/12/2022 21:16

When was the last time you was only paying £25 a week for gas?

Without bring careful? That doesn't sound right OP!

A year ago I was only paying £60 a month for all Gad and electric!

Blowthemandown · 10/12/2022 23:15

@CinnamonSwirl82 we moved to somewhere where we have LPG in cylinders. It is used for water, gas hob and heating. We have worked out the water and hob use barely any but wow does the heating just eat the stuff.

chickencuddles · 10/12/2022 23:17

This is my smart meter at the end of today. I can't believe it. I'm not even warm, we got the house up to 14 degrees. It's a fairly big Victorian house, but last winter we were paying about £400 a month and were toasty warm. We've let it get so cold now that it just doesn't seem to warm back up, but I can't afford £40 a day, it's madness! We only warmed the house up today as we had guests for dinner. Sympathies to everyone who is an obsessive smart meter tracker.

Regretting getting a smart meter already...
IneedanewTV · 10/12/2022 23:21

chickencuddles · 10/12/2022 23:17

This is my smart meter at the end of today. I can't believe it. I'm not even warm, we got the house up to 14 degrees. It's a fairly big Victorian house, but last winter we were paying about £400 a month and were toasty warm. We've let it get so cold now that it just doesn't seem to warm back up, but I can't afford £40 a day, it's madness! We only warmed the house up today as we had guests for dinner. Sympathies to everyone who is an obsessive smart meter tracker.

Blimey. Mine is £10.50. I’ve not been toasty but heating was on this evening. I couldn’t afford your bill.

TheOrigRights · 10/12/2022 23:32

pigonalipstick · 10/12/2022 23:11

A year ago I was only paying £60 a month for all Gad and electric!

I was paying £73 until end of June when my fixed tariff ended, then it went up to £120 for a couple of months and it's now £163 for gas and elec and it doesn't look like that will be enough.

PyongyangKipperbang · 10/12/2022 23:41

I had to go on prepayment smart meter as was in a lot of fuel debt. When the guys came to put it in it was late summer and I was watching it with nothing charging and just fridge on....I said "Are you sure this is a smart meter and not a fucking stopwatch?!" I didnt mean to swear, it just came out and the guy looked genuinely down and said "Everyone says that, I am paying my own bills by doing overtime doing this".

It was a sobering moment. But yes, smartmeter obsession is a thing, to keep that little green light on and avoid the red light of death is probably more important to me now than anything else.

whynotwhatknot · 11/12/2022 00:00

im so glad i havent got on of these smart meters i hear stories abut them going wrong not accuate all the time

sol how the helldo u know of yore paying the right amount

WhatsitWiggle · 11/12/2022 01:19

whynotwhatknot · 11/12/2022 00:00

im so glad i havent got on of these smart meters i hear stories abut them going wrong not accuate all the time

sol how the helldo u know of yore paying the right amount

The smart meters are fine, it's the In Home Devices that can have issues. But the energy companies don't tell you that!

That's why it's helpful to compare the IHD with the supplier's app, as the app receives the data from the actual smart meter, but it's a day behind where the IHD is more real-time.

MissGroves · 11/12/2022 01:27

Mine is reading above £10 today. Absolute joke. My thermostat is set at 17.5 - the house is regularly around 16.5 as I'm worried about the bills. Last year my house sat between 19 and 20.

cakeorwine · 11/12/2022 07:59

The price of gas was 4p per kWh this time last year. Assuming you weren't on a deal.

Now it's 10p per kWh.

So 2.5 times more.

That's the reality.

These cold winter days are going to be horribly expensive for people. I suppose the thing to do is to look at the bigger picture and look at your usage last year and predict what your bills will be.

The expensive winter bills are counterbalanced by cheaper summer bills with lower gas usage