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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask why the hell energy companies keep desperately trying to push SMART METERS?

244 replies

Peekaboo3 · 02/03/2018 20:51

Just that.

Why?

Hell will freeze over before I have them.

My energy provider has sent me a letter saying ...

'We are now ready to install your smart meters. Just one phone call, and we will install the meters at your convenience yada yada.'

With the way they've worded it, it sounds almost like you have no choice.

We do have a choice of course. And my choice is no.

It is NOT compulsory. So they can piss off bugging me.

But WHY do they keep pushing these bloody things?

WHY?

OP posts:
mummyhaschangedhername · 04/03/2018 18:31

It's a government push, they have a goal to have everyone on one by 2020.

couchparsnip · 04/03/2018 18:54

DH won't get one. He works in electronic security for the government and doesn't believe the potential hacking problem has been addressed. Theoretically a terrorist organisation could hack in and turn off the power from half the country at the press if a button.
Plus, they could monitor specific households, when they go out, go to bed etc.
When that's addressed (if ever) we might get one.

LightastheBreeze · 04/03/2018 18:58

I imagine most of the smart meters are dumb now as anyone invested in saving money will be changing suppliers anyway to get a good deal

Beetlejizz · 04/03/2018 19:14

In Australia, it’s so that they can selectively choose who to cut off in the event of a power shortage.

Can you tell us more about this chalkitdown? People keep talking about companies choosing who and what to cut off in the event of power shortages, how would/does this work?

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 19:18

Google "demand side response" or "demand side response australia" Beetlejizz

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 19:20

I'm not an expert but I understood it to be voluntary.

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 19:21

arena.gov.au/blog/demand-response-2/

melj1213 · 04/03/2018 20:03

Theoretically a terrorist organisation could hack in and turn off the power from half the country at the press if a button.

And if they have managed to hack into a power company's systems they will be able to fuck with the powers whether you have a smart meter or not. And I don't let my energy decisions be determined by theoretical terrorists either.

they could monitor specific households, when they go out, go to bed etc

What absolute bullshit conspiracy theorizing!

They can monitor people in far easier ways than tapping into the smart meter sitting in a kitchen sideboard!

The meter doesn't tell you anything except what is currently running in any given house ... not who is in the house or their daily routine. I often have the slow cooker and washing machine on timers to go on while I'm out at work so my meter would show I was home (as energy consumption would rise) when I was nowhere near the house.

LightastheBreeze · 04/03/2018 20:13

The Smart meter now dumb wasn’t ever smart enough to know my daily movements and bedtime, It didn’t know what I was using it just showed high or low usage it didn’t say tumble dryer on now or anything like that. it was never that smart

NotACleverName · 04/03/2018 20:20

Did a smart meter run over your dog, Peekaboo3? You seem unnecessarily angry about them.

Theoretically a terrorist organisation could hack in and turn off the power from half the country at the press if a button.

I can just see it now, down at ISIS HQâ„¢: "right, we're switching off the power in the South East, that'll teach 'em."

LightastheBreeze · 04/03/2018 20:28

Maybe someone could hack in and make my meter smart again, Eon can’t and it’s their meter, once it’s dumb it’s dumb apparently

kalapattar · 04/03/2018 20:33

Plus, they could monitor specific households, when they go out, go to bed etc

I bet you haven't got Alexa either, have you Grin

Alexa must know our house habits really well. It knows when we are out in the day and when we are going on holiday.

kalapattar · 04/03/2018 20:37

I can just see it now, down at ISIS HQâ„¢: "right, we're switching off the power in the South East, that'll teach 'em

I'd be more worried about our limited gas security and Russia or North Korea hacking our nuclear power stations. Turning off the power in a few streets seems less of a challenge Grin

TheHauntedFishtank · 04/03/2018 20:40

You laugh now kalapattar but it won’t be so funny when you’ve buggered off on holiday and Alexa and the smart meter have had their mates round, trashed your house and drunk all your naice gin....

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 20:56

My wifi enabled thermostat is far more of a risk (and more interesting to hackers) than a smart meter....

I'm taking my chances with it though.
I'm sure il regret it when Putin boils me alive as I sleep.

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 21:02

It truly is a brave new world;
Alexa, self service "bagging area" pedants, sat navs, prudish spell checkers and now nosy smart meters... Who'd have predicted that the robot apocalypse would be so damn passive agressive?
Grin

Time4adrink · 04/03/2018 21:03

I agreed to have a smart meter installed, waited in all day and the fuckers never turned up. So they can whistle for it now. I plan on being the last household in the uk without one.

melj1213 · 04/03/2018 21:04

it won’t be so funny when you’ve buggered off on holiday and Alexa and the smart meter have had their mates round, trashed your house and drunk all your naice gin

Don't worry, they will have teamed up with your computer, hacked your online banking and ordered an Ocado delivery to replace the gin and an Amazon delivery to replace everything else before you get back ... they're just not very good with opening boxes or power tools.

Tianc · 04/03/2018 21:06

Demand side response is a thing, but it is not really to do with domestic consumers

That's completely untrue. Managing demand by domestic consumers through peak pricing is one of the main purposes of domestic smart meters. It was very well covered in the government's own documents.

I haven't time just now to pick out the relevant refs from my previous thread, but feel free to check for yourself (a lot of the DECC documents have been moved, but I gave full refs and you should be able to find them via google).

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1327330-Anyone-having-a-gas-leccy-meter-replaced-with-a-Smart-Meter-Something-you-need-to-know

MiaowTheCat · 04/03/2018 21:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kalapattar · 04/03/2018 21:26

Managing demand by domestic consumers through peak pricing is one of the main purposes of domestic smart meters. It was very well covered in the government's own documents

What we need then is a way of storing energy during off peak times in the house and then using that stored energy in the house.

Then the idea of peak pricing will fall apart if people can store energy in the house.

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 23:04

kallapattar I've read some interesting ideas about that- some of them pretty out there! e.g. If electric cars become more commonplace, they could double up as a home battery - you plug your car in at night but it's not charging all that time- during peak demand power is taken from the car then it recharges during the night when demand is low. Car to grid i think it's called but I can't link on here.

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 23:20

Tianc I have been through your previous links and have found nothing by DECC to suggest that they are going to forcibly turn off domestic user's power to balance the grid. The kind of scenario in which this would be necessary is one in which there are serious shortages, and as a pp (specialsubject I think) pointed out rationing is better than rolling blackouts!

I'm not completely uncritical of smart meters - there are genuine issues with them and the way the system has been rolled out but over the top panic mongering is daft. No one is being forced to have them. There are very real challenges wrt energy security (price and supply) and smarter grids may be part of the solution.

NotACleverName · 04/03/2018 23:31

it won’t be so funny when you’ve buggered off on holiday and Alexa and the smart meter have had their mates round, trashed your house and drunk all your naice gin

We don’t have a smart meter yet, but I do have an Alexa. Wonder what she’s getting up to when I’m at work.. 🤔

Squishysquirmy · 04/03/2018 23:36

And on your other thread one of your objections is that energy would effectively be rationed by price, and that this is unethical. Correct me if I misunderstood. Energy is ALREADY rationed by price - if it was free most of us would use more ( I would not be wearing a dressing gown over my pyjamas right now if I had no sensitivity to the price of electricity). I suppose this isn't the right place for a discussion about the relative merits of (regulated) markets vs other methods of efficiently dividing scarce resources though.

Reducing the potential efficiency of a market by not taking advantage of an opportunity to increase the information available in that market will not prevent higher prices - the opposite will happen. Trying to prevent energy costs from rising (king cnut style) by fighting against smart grids is counter productive.

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