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'm not able to have one yet because we're on Economy 7 tariff...

I left SSE over it - they kept on harrasing me about installing one!

I'll probably try to avoid Eon in future over the same issue as they're brutal.

They write to me telling me they are coming on X date to install the smart meter that I must have. Ring at least twice a month to ask me for an appointment, ignore all requests that I don't want one until they can install a second generation one, turn up on the doorstep to try and talk me into one.

I'm locked into a contract until early next year and then I'm switching. Also hopefully the extension of the roll out deadline until 2024 might mean that they relax the pressure a little in the short/medium term.

I wasn't bothered either way in the beginning, then I read that the meters would be useless when you switched supplier and I didn't want to waste resources installing a device that would then become useless and now it's a point of principle and the harder they push the more it makes me not want one, just because.

I also CBA cleaning out the shit tip pantry where the current meters are or with their appointment system that means you have to commit to a date weeks in the future and wait in all day for a 7 am til 7 pm appointment, because my life just does not work like that.

I refuse to have one as well. Luckily my energy company are fine with that - I'd leave if they harassed me about it.

You don't need a meter to tell you to turn off lights and other electrical items. You need to grow up in a working class household where leaving any light on resulted in a bellow of "who's left the lights on - it's like Blackpool Illuminations in here!".

In which case I am dumb too, I know that im using electricity when I use a kettle - we don't have an electric shower- or electric heating, we use the cooker a lot- the washing machine a lot, tv, phone chargers, microwae a lot- I know that lightbulbs and lights use electric -

and as many people on here have pointed out... the signal in our house is shite! I strongly doubt that the bloody things would manage to gather signal and readings anyway- case in point- fo the last 2 days we have had no internet or phone as theres a fault somewhere and the phone company aren't coming to even find it till tomorrow- god knows if/when they will actually fix it!!!

we also have to pay to have our water pumped up on a private line because we live in the middle of nowhere, - regular power cuts/ telephone cuts in bad weather and rare to have normal phone reception- let alone mobile data sufficient signal!!!

I've asked for one as the display on our gas meter is very hard to see.

3 appts including 2 cancellations over 18 months and still no meter.

I'm so dumb i've given up.

Sounds like we have the same dad Anne .

Did he tell you to put wood int'oil or ask you if you'd been born in a field too?

Ironically, due to my dad's job as a coal miner, we got a tonne of coal per month either free or very cheap, which is far more than is needed to heat an average three bedroom semi detached, so we could have the heating on as much as we wanted, as high as we wanted and there was still loads left over to last for years after he stopped mining.

So no heating bills to worry about, but woe betide anyone who didn't turn off the hall light when they came downstairs.

I was brought up on “it’s like Blackpool illuminations in here” too, so have always turned off lights and switched off sockets...

My energy provider rang a few times asking when I wanted my smart metre to be fitted. I said thanks but no thanks. The person on the end of the phone just laughed and said I don’t blame you.

I must be really dumb, but I can’t see how making millions of lumps of plastic and paying thousands of people to go out and fit them is helping save resources.

I'm so dumb that I can remember to turn things off without a machine telling me that I need to. I personally think running one would be extra for us as we are careful enough with our usage and as a result our bills are pretty low.

Are you calling me dumb too OP?

I don’t need a meter to tell me I’m using electricity.

I have extremely poor mobile signal where i live, so a “smart” meter wouldn’t work as it wouldn’t be sending the correct information.

So you calling me dumb is piss-takings.

By dumb one assumes you mean they don't agree with you!

Seriously if you need a gadget to realise that showering, hair drying etc. for a shorter time will cut down one's electricity use you need to ask yourself who the dumb one is!

I'm not dumb ....... but we don't have 4G locally so ain't never gonna happen!

You need to grow up in a working class household where leaving any light on resulted in a bellow of "who's left the lights on - it's like Blackpool Illuminations in here!".

Followed closely by Were you born in a bloody barn?, when doors were left open!

You need to grow up in a working class household where leaving any light on resulted in a bellow of "who's left the lights on - it's like Blackpool Illuminations in here!".

Followed closely by Were you born in a bloody barn?, when doors were left open!

I'm not paying to heat the streets!

I am so dumb to not have bought into the "green, environment assisting technology" by replacing a perfectly good gas meter with over a decade of usable life, and an electric meter - with a good 7 years left.

And not having new meters made and imported from India, transported to my home and fitted to replace them. I also don't have a cheap plastic portable unit to shove in a drawer, and a microwave transmitter adding to the general electronic fog in my house.

I make do with what I have, not replace with new, I can switch off stuff I'm not using...

but that's just me... I'm dumb.

I like to ready meter each month to help me keep tabs on usage.The temptation with a smart meter is to shove the little box in a drawer,I too am a dumb adult who turns things off when not in use,and never check.
I also switch suppliers yearly.

Yeah, let's save money by plugging in another device that uses electricity.

I too must be dumb as I dont have one! Some one must have muted the OP or she has been struck dumb!

I'm refusing too. They haven't sorted the software issues with the old ones and the new ones still have issues if you try to switch supplier because half of them use one type of technology and the other use a different type. An elderly relative ended up with her supply cut off because the smart meter fitter tested the supply and found a small leak not that she'd noticed. He capped off the supply and buggered off! Cost her a fortune to upgrade her boiler to find the leak etc. which she hadn't expected to be a possible consequence. There's tremendous pressure on the companies to get them in and check when you switch supplier that they haven't made that super cheap deal dependent on you getting one. There's still plenty of good deals which don't depend on that. Until the technology is sorted out I'm not getting one.

Followed closely by Were you born in a bloody barn?, when doors were left open!

Ours was there's a plane coming in! (sure sign someone left the landing light on)

EON harassed us after it was pointed out in the small print that we'd signed up to a smart meter. We wrote to them expressly stating that had no permission to come on to our property to install a meter. They backed off and we changed supplier last month. There are a few that don't insist but tweet them before you change and ask.

We are being outright harassed about getting one!

So many texts, emails, interruptions when I log in to submit a meter reading, post, it was beyond a fucking joke, so much so that I've switched energy supplier after raising an official compliant.

There's no way that 4 text message, 2-3 emails, etc within a 48hr period (using contact details I basically give out only for really important stuff, like bill payment or emergency Tel for family members), having opted out of marketing messaging explicitly, was reasonable.

I'm looking at you Scottish Power.

Completely out of order.

I Will never go back to them on principle. I didn't have an opinion on smart meters before (although we're already frugal with energy and they won't make us change energy use if we had one).... Well, I do now.

They're installing one in my house over my dead body, and if we get anyone from the power co or government forcing it on us, they can go fuck themselves because I won't let them in.

I too am dumb. I always give meter readings (have never, will never pay an estimated bill). Dumb. I also do not want my electricity supply controllable remotely by anyone with a laptop with the right software. Really really dumb. Sorry.

I honestly think that it's not beyond the energy companies to be using social media etc to post threads like this to gauge reaction/raise awareness.

Op, if you'd been as harassed as I was about shitty smart meters, to the point I basically had to tell them to STOP via a formal complaint (escalation to the ombudsman if necessary) you wouldn't post such nonsense.

I've had one for about 3 years. I just look at it in the evening and it tells how much I have used and how much it has cost. It sends it off to the supplier once a day, so I never need to have it read.

They are going to bring zero benefit to consumers.
It is being rolled out so that the power supply can be switched off easily by the powers that be.

Also so they can charge YOU more for YOUR peak usage.

Seriously who uses more electric than they need to ? only young people who will not give a dam about the meter..... Work as a family to monitor your own usage. Don't let the Govt fool you into doing this.

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