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

[SerendipityJane]

To no ones surprise

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

The government has told suppliers to fit up-to-date meters, which are smart meters, and there aren’t many dumb meters left. It would be like someone 15 years ago demanding a meter with the little dials, instead of a digital meter. They’d be told no, because the former became obsolete many years prior. No one will be disadvantaged by having a smart meter, even if it doesn’t initially work in smart mode.

The government are as bent as they come. Ed Miliband?!

Fit a simple traditional digital meter of which there are scores of types, or a silly smart meter with pointless telltale plastic tat for the customer to save the planet. Its all bollocks.

I always think it's nice, on threads like this, to give a summary about the news article for people who don't want to click on the link and read the whole thing.

We would not have one even if it came with a free house.

Labour has been in government for 2 minutes. The Tories came to power in 2010 and the smart meter rollout commenced the following year.

Saving the planet is only part of it. These days, the UK gets most of its electricity from gas-fired power stations. You may have noticed this has gone exceedingly badly for us over the past 3 years. Smart meters will help us break that cycle via time of use tariffs.

Smart meters will help us break that cycle via time of use tariffs.

And that's supposed to be appealing how exactly?

Because the more people who can shift some of their energy usage away from the peak hours, the less gas we’ll have to burn to meet peak demand. Have you found energy prices over the last three years appealing?

Yes

It sounds like the dark ages. What do you expect people to do outside of peak times?

Running a tumble dryer in the morning or afternoon, instead of the early evening, sounds like the dark ages? Come off it. Even those who can’t avoid the peak times will pay less as the overall demand curve is flattened. What would you suggest, continue as we are?

My parents are in the south (Devon) and their smart meter never works. We are also south and apparently we’re on a waiting list but don’t meet the criteria… which I don’t understand -family of 5. Maybe our usage would be so high it would break it.

Yeah use stuff when it suits you. People want freedom. Look at TV, who tunes into things when they are scheduled. They watch them on apps when they want.

Setting timers on dryers and washers etc is a recipe for disaster if you arent home and things go wrong.

I’m not suggesting that people run laundry appliances when they’re away from home. Look, high gas prices are here to stay. Renewable energy sources are improving all the time, but they require flexibility. Our choices are freedom, or cheaper energy. Pick one.

I live in in North West Scotland, with OVO, have ‘exotic’ tariff due to storage heaters. The Radio Teleswitch Service instructs the meters to switch between peak and off-peak and the signal is being shut down and ended on 30 June 2025. I have resisted changing meters but now don’t really have choice. Booked the engineer for three weeks ago, didn’t turn up, discovered the job was aborted, no contact from anyone to inform me of this. Was promised new appointment. Phoned OVO again today... no appointments... ‘will be in touch’.
I am dreading this.. when it gets too cloudy here we lose every mobile signal... so when they leave me on ‘peak’ charges permanently and I can’t phone to tell them cos the landlines are being withdrawn....

My MIL had a non smart meter which caught fire. Not sure being a smart meter makes that more likely.

We have a smart meter which enables us to have Intelligent Octopus Go tariff which is for EVs and Tracker tariff for gas. Both of which have saved us a fortune.

Is this the same system used for storage heaters?

They're all run by one transmitter, in Droitwich. They haven't been able to source a 1930s glass valve for decades. Once it finally blows, it'll be chaos ...

My prices haven't really changed that much over the past few years. My DD went down on the last one.

I don't need a smart meter telling me I should use energy between 10pm and 8am or it's going to charge me more.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye

Yes, for specialised tariffs like THTC and ComfortPlus.

We've had ours for a few years and it has worked perfectly.

Most people’s unit rates tripled at the height of the energy crisis, although they’re gradually coming down a bit. Gas is still high; I was paying just under 2p per kWh for gas just before the crisis began, now most households are paying around 6p. For electricity, most are paying around double what they paid three years ago.

As I mentioned above, smart meters are necessary if we’re to wean ourselves off our chronic dependency on gas for electricity generation.

Well unfortunately the world is set up around electricity. If the government wants to wean us off it, they need to figure alternatives rather than forcing us stay up all night to do our laundry or else. Not introduce stuff like electric cars even.

I will not be controlled by a smart meter voluntarily. Nothing you or anyone else is saying about them is making them look appealing. In fact they look more and more like a con.

Gamer chick
So true that to wean us off electricity they need to make cars that don't need it! How would that work ?

They don’t want to force us to stay up all night to do laundry. They simply want to encourage us to use energy throughout the day, rather than all rush to use it in the early evening. Energy storage, via batteries etc will make this easier. Think of it like a town’s bus fleet. Are the buses packed during rush hour, then run around half empty for the rest of the day? Yes. Is this an efficient use of vehicles? Certainly not. If it was possible, would it be cheaper, and more efficient, to spread out the passenger journeys evenly across the whole day? You bet! You obviously can’t do that with buses, but you can with smart meters.

What appliances do you use that run off batteries?

So you're at work all day. Come home and do your normal doings in those short hours before bed. You're saying that we should just pop home at regular intervals during the day to spread out our usage?

Sounds like something out employers would be on board with.