Is it really illegal to refuse to have a smart meter?

[ALongHardWinter]

This is what a friend of a friend told me yesterday. Is it true? My electric company have been sending me letters every few months for the last couple of years urging me to have one installed. So far I've dug my heels in,mainly due to all the horror stories I've heard about them - not working initially,or working initially then suddenly not working. I know at least 6 people who've had them installed that have had problems. Now I get told this!

@ALongHardWinter of course it isnt!! i dont have one and I do not plan to have one!

I don't want to invite technology into my house that gives energy companies complete control over my energy from their end. Without ever coming to my house. I don't give a toss if there are rules or processes or laws and all that cobblers that can prevent them doing it. If energy companies obeyed all that stuff they wouldn't get issued with fines.

Once it's in place it would be pretty simple then to activate some 'emergency shite' further down the line and there would be bugger all we could do about it.

They lied about them being 2 way at first which says to me the lies will keep on coming. There is nothing about them I can see that benefits us as customers.

My Smart Meter sends half hourly readings - so there is data that shows exactly when I am using power. A Smart Meter is way better than Economy 7 at working out when you are using power.

Economy 7 gives you cheaper power at off peak demand.

There are companies that will give you cheaper power at certain times of the day now compared to other times - and they can work this out from when you use your Smart meter. So I guess that's the Economy 7 equivalent.

Companies can offer cheaper tariffs to people on Smart Meters. In the days when we used to have a range of deals, there were a number that offered such an incentive.

Can you get a cheaper energy deal with a smart meter? - Which? News

Would you get a Smart Meter IF you could get cheaper energy savings with a cheaper tariff in the future or is it a hard No?

I've been ignoring the letters and communications. Mainly because I'm a prepay customer and it means I get to take advantage of the loophole of the price increase only being updated on top up. So the money I currently have on the metre will be at the old rate, not the rate it increased to today. Also to see money being used every time someone uses the kettle would make me anxious. I'd rather just carry on as I am.

To me it's the same as giving cheaper products to loyalty card holders in supermarkets. Same food, different price depending on how much you obey their data harvesting. There should be no such thing as a 'cheaper tariff' it's the same energy.

"There should be no such thing as a 'cheaper tariff' it's the same energy."

Well - there's far more to it than that. There are plenty of different tariffs around and for lots of reasons.

Ours are only 10 years old and I had an email that they may need replacing. It was maybe six months ago and I ignored it. Surely they are lying to me? I can only guess it is because our gas usage is low, but everything seems in order, we don't use much heating.

Not sure about the network but you can definitely have a smart meter with an economy 7.

Same, and I can easily tell based on the previous reading if it is right or wrong. Unless I mistook a last digit 7 for a 1 or something, in which case it would resolve itself the next month.

Ten years is surely not old, they would be forever replacing them, old would be at least twenty years, probably more

The thing that puts me off getting a smart gas meter is because they connect to the electric one to give readings, lots to go wrong there especially as ours are a few metres apart and also gas ones run on batteries that run out and then the gas engineer has to sort that out. Fortunately because we have an electric smart meter, they never bother us about getting a gas one.

Wow I didn't expect to get so many responses! Thank you everyone who replied,it's been an interesting read.

Mine are at least 50 years old or could be older

If you need a new meter then it'll have to be a smart meter as there are very few dumb meters available and they are reserved for people who are very rural with poor signal. But you can ask to have the smart function turned off, which is what I did. I ignore all their emails asking me to turn it on.

Why aren't there dumb meters around? What about the meters of people who switched by choice?

Your argument makes no sense if they were going to disconnect you
you want them to break your door down rather than do it remotely
you can dig your heels in all you want but it the criteria is to disconnect you it’s happening ether the easy way or the hard way

Aye it wont If you're missing my point. Which you obviously are

Smart meters use the 2G network, provided by O2

It is possible to have TOU tarifs on smart meters

Smart meter can absolutely tell you what you are using and when.

Then as part of a cheap tariff, I had to have one - and personally, having had one for 2 years now, I think it's been great.

But do you think the tariffs will stay cheaper - or is it just a temporary sweetener?

One of the ways the government tried to persuade people to get electric cars initially was the zero VED payable on them - but as they become more the norm and, before too long, pretty much the only option there is, they're already talking about charging tax per mile travelled, to make sure that they get the money in one way or another.

Can you not have a smart meter without enabling its 'smart' functions?

Just like you can probably only buy smart TVs now, but if you don't want to connect it to the internet and use apps, you can still just use it like an old telly?

yes exactly - that's what I meant - just tell them you don't want it to act smart

I’ve got one and it’s great, had no problems at all. They replaced my electricity meter with a more modern one and for the gas they left the old one but added a new bit on.

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper charging VED per mile travelled in a world where all cars are low/zero emissions makes sense to me - the biggest road users are causing the biggest degradation to the roads so they should pay more for upkeep.

Different meters are certified for different lengths of time.

Oddly my gas meter is older than my electricity meter, but I keep being chased to have an electricity smart meter.

I suspect is because my electricity usage really varies.

I’m missing it because u seem unable to tell me what it is
all I can gather is if there’s a SM they can cut u off remotely
old meter they get a court order and come in and do it
they only thing I can presume is you want to make it as awkward as possible but ultimately the end result is the same

what is the point I’m missing
please spell it out very clearly

Fucking hell man.

In fact I'm not the only person who's tried to spell shit out on this thread in different ways and people still don't get it.

do people really live in there here and now and can't possibly see where stuff can go wrong in the future for them?

I don't want to invite technology into my house that gives energy suppliers quick and easy control over my energy supply. For a variety of different reasons. I can't say it more clearly than that.

If you can't get that simple explanation then I can't help you.