To think lots of people are dumb over smart meters

[InkedGreen]

Fab little devices, we have ours on the kitchen table and is a great reminder to use less or to turn off stuff when we're not in the room. Showers make it go crazy and we've really cut down the shower lengths if not washing our hair

I've written a quick complaint letter to eon on the back of this thread, telling them to STOP harassing me via email, Letter and even fucking text messages in their aggressive demanding tone.
I guess I can escalate it to the ombudsman if they don't just fucking stop it with the insistence that I need to make a smart meter appointment, but we'll see.

In the last couple of years we have had three new meters:
Old one with a turny dial worked fine.
New one installed but the smart facility died when we changed suppliers and (don't know why) the digital display on the actual meter also died.
Next new meter installed as the meter was broken.

2/3 months later we are told we need new meter installed. We told them "no you are mistsken you have just installed a new meter" They told us "no that was not the model that is being rolled out on a programme and is compatible when you change supplier - although you might lose some functionality".

So 3 new meters within a couple of years when the original wasn't broken to start with. The waste of this going on on a national level in terms of the meters and man hours is unbelievable- still I guess it's keeping someone in a job.

Ova tried to make me get one. I asked if I could still continue to use Economy 7 with it, they didn't know.

I asked how it would communicate with them. They replied via the mobile phone network. Great, there's no signal here. They said they would plug it into my wifi at which point I told them that the speed is rubbish anyway without losing bandwidth to a pointless spy device. I asked if they would contribute to my broadband bills as they would in effect be using it for free and the conversation stopped. They haven't asked again.

To the OP, if I'm "dumb", fine. I respectfully suggest that someone who needs an unnecessary device plugged in that tells them that the electric shower or kettle is using a lot of electricity, might need to educate themselves in how these things work. To those who are interested, Paul Lewis (BBC Moneybox presenter) has very strong views on them and the way they are pushed.

We've had a few new meters too Sunni

The first because someone who did a 'safety check' broke the meter and left it, unknown to us, unsafe state for months and this was only discovered when we tried to return the tool they'd left behind.

Even worse, this was a gas meter and DP smoked at the time, and he used to stand on the doorstep right next to the pantry where the meter was installed .

When they came to pick up the tool, they saw the unsafe meter and immediately turned off our gas supply in the middle of winter. I had to sit for hours in a freezing cold house wait for someone else to come and fit a new meter.

The second time, they wanted to move the gas meter because we had an extension built and it went over the pipes, which isn't allowed. it took at least 3 attempts for them to do it, for various spurious reasons such as 'we brought the wrong meter' or 'we can't work near scaffolding' which was probably code for 'it's raining and we want to go home early'.

That was about 3 years ago and just yesterday, I went to read the gas meter, as I do every once in a while to keep my own records, because I don't trust the utility companies to bill me fairly, and there is a note in there telling me the meter is unsafe again . As it is now outside, they can look at it whenever they like, and they have obviously come out when we've not been in, done something to the meter, left the note there, and I've only just seen it. If they'd put it through the letterbox, I'd have done something sooner, but this is one of the reasons why I don't want them round pissing about with my meters.

can literally see the numbers move live as you put the washer on, you can’t help but become more aware of household usage
But that's no help when I still need to put my washer on. Or when it's raining (like today) my dryer. I still need clean dry clothes.
I have a larger washer and a big dryer that can dry a whole load. That's as cheap as I can make it. It's all well and good being aware, most people are aware that things use electricity and which items are the big users. Still need to use them though.
I have lived through fuel poverty and it's not a pleasant thing. Now I can afford to actually pay the bills I dont see why I should suffer through a cold winter or a really hot summer without some heating and cooling facilities.
A smart meter wont stop me putting the dryer on.

DP and I don't want one. We are very frugal with our gas and electricity usage and is unlikely a meter would save as much. We were put off because we were told you would need to change meter if you change any supplier and also because you need to have a Wi-Fi signal too. It takes me a couple of minutes to take meter readings. No trouble at all really.

However, when I was looking at new energy contracts through uswitch last year many of the cheaper contracts required you to have a smart meter installed

@Dangerfloof. This is what I cannot understand about the pro meter people.

When you need to use things you need to use them.

Surely we're all aware things like central heating and dryers, anything else that heats something, are the things that are going to put our electricity bills up. We don't need a smart meter to tell us that.

My DD has three young children, her washing machine seems to be on all the time and she never runs it less than completely full. On a rainy day, like today, she has to use her dryer, otherwise she'd have wet clothes hanging around all over the house.

Personally, when it's cold, my heating goes on, along with warm jumpers. A smart meter isn't going to convince me to sit in my house and freeze or turn my heating down so I'm not quite warm enough.

Old people die because they can't afford heating. I'm sure they're more than aware of their consumption of electricity without the need for a stupid little meter telling them.

There was an advert couple years ago on TV about smart meters I think. It showed the dad turning everything off slowly, until even the light was turned off. I remember seeing that advert and thinking well that's no life, no TV, no heating, no dry clothes and then just sitting in the dark. Bit extreme. Kinda pointless too. No one will or can do that.

The meters are fine, the issue is with the remote display.

It should really be linking to an open source app, the potential of that would be amazing.

TBH any app would be better than the display used now.

We have a smart meter without the display, its OK and we know how to keep our bills down without a display.

What the display is good for is showing abnormal behaviour, which might be hard to spot unless you actually look at it or see it later in the day.

An open source app could monitor more long term behaviour and maybe even sen you reminders like “Have you left a hot tap running somewhere?” If it senses a hot water draw longer than it usually takes to run a bath.

I am doubly dumb-assed. Firstly there is no way I would have a smart meter and am happy with my dumb-assery in this regard.

Less happy that we too have windows in the sense that most have 'war glass' in them - this was super-thin float glass used to replace bombed out panes during ww2 - we are probably wasting stupid amounts of heat through them. Sadly a smart meter won't help with that.

I've raised a formal complaint about the bully tactics by eon after this thread, so far they've not even acknowledged it. They're trigger happy with letters, emails and texts bombing me about smart meters most other weeks tho

I have one but it made me really anxious - seeing those numbers. Then I realised it was wrong (very high) and our energy use is well below average anyway. So I decided to save more power by putting the smart meter in the drawer and relaxing!

I've always thought smart meters are just precursors to a tiered energy system. Those that pay higher will be able to make a cuppa at peak, and those that can't afford it get to boil their kettle at 3am.

I've also heard they don't work very well, another reason not to get one.

It was the reason we didn't get a water meter. We are not in a water shortage area, but have huge leaks. The water co directors meanwhile make huge amounts of money, which is kept in tax havens. My dh found all this out when looking up whether the water co was lying or not about it being compulsory to have one (its not compulsory, esp in our area). It took a lot of calls and emails.

I would say sorry to derail with that op, but as you called the vast majority of us dumb for not having one, I'm not sorry.

You're not in a Thames Water area are you longtompot? That sounds just like them!

I have to say British Gas were quite good when we complained, although I also followed it up on social media as well. We got an apology and I got a Wilbur the Penguin - I'm easily bought!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat no, not Thames as they are a water stressed area and so it is compulsory to have one fitted. We are in the Wessex Water area.