Smart meters - they're a bit crap aren't they ?

[SerendipityJane]

To no ones surprise

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq52382zd1no

We had one installed a few years ago. Was an absolute nightmare. Power kept tripping, we were up n down every 30 minutes at least. It tripped when we were out all day, ruining a freezer full of food. They did reimburse us. Engineers came out repeatedly. One declared, 'It's sorted now!'
He hadn't even been let out before it went off again. We went back to our old meter.
Dh mentioned it the other day, said they've been asking him to try again. No way ! It is a hill I'm prepared to die on.
Sorry, that was longer than anticipated 🤣

Oh, North West here.

We’ve had them in two houses in different parts of Scotland, they’ve never worked. We’ve always had to take manual readings.

We stood firm and never had one put in. I’m very pleased!

Do you have an old consumer unit (fuse box)?
There are issues with some of them where they can interfere with the smart meter and then it trips the electrics.

We had the same issue when they tried to put a smart meter in but luckily after it tripping 3 times on the visit they put the old one back in. We've now upgraded the consumer unit but haven't attempted a new smart meter yet.

Ours has worked great and has allowed us to be on a smart tariff for over a year now. We've saved well over £700 in that time over someone with a standard tariff.

Connectivity is an issue though, particularly in certain areas and in certain kinds of property, so frustrating if you want to access smart tariffs but are unable. The infrastructure needs to be improved as a matter of urgency.

A smart meter that doesn't send readings can be read exactly the same as a traditional meter and you can manually send those readings the same, so not having a smart meter isn't really that much of a 'win' as even if you did have one and it didn't send, you're not any worse off than you were before. But if you want the smart time of use tariffs, then it would be very frustrating to be unable due to connectivity.

I'm so glad I've not had one put in yet.
British Gas are practically harassing me with letters, texts and emails.
They say its to save money by making me aware of how much I spend on electricity. I know how much I spend, I'm on a payg meter thanks to my shitty landlord and its £50 a month thank you very much.

Isn't there a panorama on them tonight?

The real money-saving potential with smart meters isn't really knowing how much you're using, although that can lead to small tweaks and save a little bit. It's allowing access to smart tariffs, that offer the potential for quite huge savings in some cases over tariffs offered to those without.

For example, for the last year, I've paid around 10p per unit less than someone on a normal tariff for electricity and a couple of P less per unit on gas, just because I'm on a smart tariff for each of them (Octopus Agile/Tracker). Those tariffs and many others are only available on smart meters because there's no other way to administer them.

So have we!

I think they're excellent, they've saved me and some of my family members a fortune on a smart tariff. We're in Scotland, too. I can understand why they chose long wave radio for the north (radio teleswitch meters, very common in Scotland, have successfully used such a system for 40 years), plus mobile coverage was probably less extensive when the decision was made. But they really should allow both systems for redundancy.

I've refused to have one after hearing a phone in about them on radio 2 years ago now and people saying ' don't have one'!
I loath the fact I have to have a water meter as those who don't are often gloating how much water they use. Once we moved into our house it wasn't ever an option to have it taken away though. They read that once every six weeks or something I think ( or maybe twice a year ?)
I don't like having to do a Pilates move to read my two meters under the stairs cupboard, but at least it's not a smart meter which seems like it might be unreliable.

Yes, Scotland has some really complex heating set-ups and stuff in older properties too relying on various time-of-use signals and switches, for which the only replacement really is a smart meter now that the radio signals are due to be turned off. And even then it's a big job to get some of these systems transitioned over, because they are wired in to specific meters.

Yes. Neither of ours connect to our IHD unit due to thick walls/ being in the cellar so are sod all use to monitor usage on an immediate basis.

They also both occasionally don't send any readings for a few days at a time, we do get billed correctly overall when one does get through, but I used to manage to send a reading in monthly with my old dumb meter which did the same thing!

Ironically, a lot of people with these setups are refusing to allow a smart meter to be fitted, and assume the RTS switch-off is a ruse. In fact, the transmission equipment is on its last legs and the switch-off has already been postponed by several years. They'll change their tune if their heating system stops working properly, which it may well do.

Scotland here and i LOVE my meters. Tbf though, not totally problem free.

First fitted 5 years ago by EDF. Worked perfectly for 3 years then stopped. Their engineers could not fix them and refused to change them.

I switched to octopus 2 years ago. They fitted new meters. Never looked back.

Love them. And have saved a fortune!

Yep! I used to volunteer for an energy advice organisation and had to deal with a lot of people who had ignored the communications about it as they thought it was some sort of trick! They are still really far behind replacing the meters needed, so I wouldn't be surprised if it got postponed in March again. It's a bit of a disaster!

Mine is brilliant. We are all electric and on Octopus Agile tariff. We have a few solar panels and batteries which allows us to shift usage from the grid to very cheap off peak times.
When it's windy the price often goes negative which means they pay us to use electric.
All possible only because of a smart meter.

I don't think it'll be postponed again. The signal piggybacks on Radio 4 long wave transmissions, and the BBC has now stopped broadcasting Radio 4 on long wave. It doesn't make financial sense to operate the system exclusively for the remaining RTS meters.

Never had any issues with mine. I'm in the midlands though. I'd far rather have one than have to take manual meter reads.

Mine is fab. Utilita. Can't beat them imo.

Is the alternative is a mobile phone signal?
If that's the case ours will stop working which would be a disaster.
Lots of rural areas have poor mobile signal.

Are you in the north or the south of the UK, as per the BBC article?

Near Hull. Not clear whether that counts as North or midlands but I know our meter works on the old system as we have no mobile signal.

That's in the south half, which uses the mobile signal. In areas with poor mobile reception, they can use aerials and mesh systems to improve coverage. The system in the north half of the country is more problematic.