To ask if your better off with a smart meter

[shuz1980]

SSE keep pushing me to have a smart meter installed. Im happy paying my set amount of dd each month and not worrying, as even though im using more during winter months, it balances out for the summer months i use less. Is this still the case with smart meters? Or because they are taking more readings and see when your using more want more money that month? Confused as to whats better.

It just allows you to see what is using the energy and when. I have a DD which is amended yearly. You might save money by altering your actions when you see how much a kettle uses or how much the central heating costs over night perhaps. Other than putting less in the kettle it made no difference for me.

We had one put in shortly after we moved and it doesn't tell us what uses how much, just the daily total. It's a bit useless really as our monthly bills were completely underestimated at first and we're paying extra back now so we see absolutely no difference in how it was without one.

The e nergy company has targets to install them. I got annoyed by a smart meter company texting me very pushy to get on installed so I told them to stop hassling me and complained. I don't think they always are that smart if you switch suppliers either.

Ours shows us what we have used daily, which can be good if you are working off a budget, but I have a monthly DD set up based on my yearly usage. I found it good when it came to my energy company changing my tariff and I missed the change. I could clearly see the cost go up over a day or so and got it sorted quickly.

We have said no to a smart meter so many times. Even asked to be taken off their smart meter marketing list.
I’ve nothing against them in theory but our ‘signal’ for everything is bad at the best of times. I don’t want anything that could potentially interfere with what we do have...

Ours was put in and has never worked from about one week in. So we removed it.
We have informed the company that it has never worked...not interested.
It makes me very suspicious, as far as they are concerned, our property has one..it’s another number to add to their numbers.

It has never benefited us, because it’s faulty and now in a drawer somewhere.

Nope , they will have to break in to my house to fit one of these .
They benefit the energy company and that is it.
Yes you can see how much you’re using but it also means they can see how and when you use the bulk of your electricity and gas and charge you accordingly depending on the time of day (surge pricing)
Also means if you find a better deal with a different energy provider then you’ll have to get yet another smart meter installed as they’re rarely interchangeable so many people don’t bother which is good for the energy companies too !

@Pickypolly

Ours was put in and has never worked from about one week in. So we removed it. We have informed the company that it has never worked...not interested. It makes me very suspicious, as far as they are concerned, our property has one..it’s another number to add to their numbers.

It has never benefited us, because it’s faulty and now in a drawer somewhere.

Apparently up to 8% of smart meters never work at all .

It's been nothing but a pita since Bulb "installed" it.

They couldn't connect it to the gas so it only does the electric. Despite 3 different people primising they would send someone out to relook at the gas connection, no one ever comes. The little monitor display works less tha 50% of the time. It doesn't see to send any automated readings through so I still have to do them anually. It doesn't give me any insight into usage because the grpahs/data Bulb said would be there, isn't.

As far as I can see - the whole thing was a tick box exerise with zero benefit to anyone. Just a waste of plastic and time.

I haven’t looked into it too much but my DH has.
He seems to believe they can tie you to the supplier that provides it, so not much good if you’re the kind of household that switches often to keep bills low.

My opinion is that I’m not sure what then point of them is? I don’t boil a kettle I less I need the hot water, I dont put the heating on unless it’s cold etc etc

I really don’t see how putting millions of functioning plastic meters in the bin and replacing them with smart shit is actually saving the environment. It’s common sense to save electricity anyway. Greedy electrics are the oven, kettle etc but sorry I need to eat!

I had one put in quite early, about 10 years ago, it's big benefit to me is not having to send in readings, by getting on my hands and knees and crawling under the stairs to read it, or have someone coming in to read the meter, or have estimated bills. It is all done on line automatically, I also have a separate plug in small screen so I can check my usage. I don't understand why any one would object to having something which saved them time and effort and is accurate.

I bought one years ago before the electricity companies were offering them as DH used to moan about the electricity bills but it only worked for about 6 months and then was wildly inaccurate. You’d put the oven on and it wouldn’t register it, etc.

If you suspected next door was tapping into your supply, then maybe get one fitted, otherwise they’re a waste of effort.

We've got one for electric only (oil fired booker) and it does help you to see where you're spending and it's a challenge to get it down by turning unnecessary things off. But we've also got one in our rental where the gas is supposedly on there too and it's never shown the gas, multiple calls to Bulb to try to get it sorted! So the software is not very good.

Mine is in a box in the bedroom , I didn't want the thing in the first place . I would just stress me out watching it go up

Pickypolly ours was the same. Been there six years and has never worked. Not even when they put a booster in. We aren’t with the same energy company either now.

I have them, I don't use the counter top readout thingy (I know what uses power!) but it's great to have accurate readings without having to move furniture to get to the meters.

I'm still on a set monthly direct debit, but I'm confident now that I'm paying the right amount, with no estimated bills to bugger things up. If I feel that I'm going to be using more power than usual, I can alter the monthly payment using the app (eon) so I don't get stung in the future.

If you want to know how much your using to make changes then that’s probably the only reasons. I know my sister had one installed years ago as in a trial area but it made her DH absolutely obsessive about use.

It’s easy enough to read up on what appliances and devices use the most and make changes if you want to. I don’t have a tumble dryer but I’m lucky enough to have plenty of space to dry laundry, just stuff like that.

A smart meter has worked very well for us, but it does rely a lot on what kind of house you have, how the meters already are, internet connection throughout the house and so many other factors.

Our meters are in a really awkward place in the cellar to be able to get a reading or do anything, but are pretty much just underneath the living room where the router is so we get a good connection most of the time. We've had a few hiccups with the device, but found using our supplier's site has reset it fine. It's enabled us to test out a few things - particularly with the heating last winter - that's helped us cut our bills while keeping things running smooth and comfortably in a house that, due to people working different shifts, pretty much has people up 24/7.

We've been able to lower our energy bills by half of what they were before, and still be in surplus to the point we've repeatedly had emails to lower our Direct Debits as we're in too much credit (which we did -- after making sure we had a good 6 months in there, just in case things go horribly, it's great to know that's covered).

Have you seen the recent news reports about the new request under consideration from energy companies? This is to allow energy companies to temporarily switch off the power supply to those with compatible smart meters, for up to 2 hours, in an 'emergency'? It will be a voluntary scheme, however my concern is that once this sort of thing is established, it becomes easier to extend it, either to more people or for more time.

I don't want one and won't be getting one no matter how much they bombard me!

I take my meter readings monthly and sadly keep them all so I know exactly how much we are using month to month. I also keep an eye on my direct debit so I'm never too far out.

As and when appliances need replacing I always look to the most energy efficient, it seems silly replacing for the sake of it.

I did have a dispute a couple of years ago with the readings, I sent them a list of them going back to 2000, that shut them up

I don't see the point in them tbh. I'm aware which appliances use more electricity than others and know that if I switch things off I will save electricity. Why do I need a meter to tell me those things? I turn my kettle on because I want tea (or just very hot water), not because I fancy hearing the sound of my kettle. I put the oven on because I need to cook something, not for an ineffective extra light in the kitchen.

We watch the prices for utilities quite closely - or at least DH does, his department not mine - and shop around for the best deal. The meter cupboards are by the front door, we can take a photo of the reading easily and show it to the meter reader (save them stepping in the front door to read it if they prefer). There's nothing onerous about not having a smart meter, so we'll quite happily do without thanks.

We have Nest installed to to keep the house at a steady 21.5° and that's saved us a lot of money for heating. I think that changes like that make more difference in cost cutting exercises than a meter that tells you the tumble dryer is using a lot of power. I know it does, but it's worth that to both save time draping loads of wet clothes on radiators, and have nice soft garments instead of cardboard ones and a damper house interior! That's important to me so it's worth the cost (which is frankly still negligible imo).

He seems to believe they can tie you to the supplier that provides it No they don't. But they can revert to being non-smart if you change supplier.