Smart Meters - Current Thoughts?

Zoophonic

Zoophonic

Well-known member
Ok so its a subject probably discussed before but cant find one.

Ive held out getting one installed for years as was put off by the issues of reliability.

EON have said my current meter is out if date and needs to be replaced. I presume by a SMART meter although they don't say it. Whats the thinking. Bite the bullet or hold off?
 
never had an issue wiht mine. British gas contacted me to say it needed replacing (after 4 years) and came out and did it in less than 10 mins
 
Transferred from N Power to EON ages ago the smart meter has worked perfectly during the whole period including changeover period, didn’t like it at first as I suspect most people but I now use it to regulate my usage as needed.
 
Zoophonic said:
Ok so its a subject probably discussed before but cant find one.

Ive held out getting one installed for years as was put off by the issues of reliability.

EON have said my current meter is out if date and needs to be replaced. I presume by a SMART meter although they don't say it. Whats the thinking. Bite the bullet or hold off?
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I don't think they are the issue people make them out to be. It hasn't improved anything other than we don't need to have a visit or ring up with readings.

@ThatFragranceGuy is the man to advise you on this.

I know my brother-in-law reads his all the time and the last time we visited the house was cold because he was watching what he had spent. He's minted as well and doesn't need to scrimp.
 
Have not been contacted in over 2 years about a change but previously held out.

2 changes though, I now email all my readings when requested , Eon Next want one every month, and BG just want one about every 3 months , but both remind me by email about it . So no bother. Some meter reader comes round every 2 years just to audit it.

Just couple of weeks ago was looking into the forced meter replace thing as I know some of them are suggesting its out of date but without giving details. Found a forum chat about it on moneysavingexpert and the entire list of UK meters was there ( its long and there are many companies and models involved ) showed I'm good for another 5 years ( think mine was 35 yrs predicted )

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.co...rgy-supplier-wanting-to-replace-expired-meter
 
Mine are working fine. I don’t get peoples reluctance. Any that have stopped sending signals work as an ordinary non smart meter anyway don’t they?
 
They pester us all the time, don’t want one, don’t need one. It’s for their convenience not mine, so incentives me then I’ll think about it.
 
I held out until about 18 months ago with EON but couldn’t resist when they came up with a £200 saving offer which I took Still with EON and I am glad I took the £200. No problems. The little box sits in the kitchen and tells me anything I require but forget it’s there mostly.
 
Some people don’t like the idea someone can turn you energy off remotely if you don’t pay your bill.
Some do break but if they want you to use it they not going to leave you without gas or electric for long .
 
We are one of the 4.31m with dumb Smartmeters. Installed by SO Energy Dec23 and still not reading back to supplier so I have eventually got round to complaining to the Energy Ombudsman today as SO have been useless.

Frustrating as been prevented from shifting to better tariff - makes good business sense I guess!
 
Still find it totally wIld that people will voluntarily pay hundreds or even thousands more per year for electricity and gas because of some tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theories.

that link above is utter nonsense because any smart meter not operating as a smart meter works exactly the same as a non-smart meter, you just give readings same as you otherwise would. When it does work, having access to half hourly data is very useful.

As for remotely switching it off, they'd need a pretty good reason for doing so. Without one, they'd just get a warrant to kick your door in. If they needed to power everything down remotely, e.g a national emergency, they would just switch it off at distribution level rather than waiting for smart meters to accept the BSR commands.

we saved about £900 in 2023 and about £400 in 2024 prior to getting an EV, at which point our average energy use most months was ~14p a unit.

even now when tracker isn't particular brilliant like it used to be, its still considerably cheaper than the current price cap, let alone the April 1st price cap.
 
TheOccasionalSpectator said:
We are one of the 4.31m with dumb Smartmeters. Installed by SO Energy Dec23 and still not reading back to supplier so I have eventually got round to complaining to the Energy Ombudsman today as SO have been useless.

Frustrating as been prevented from shifting to better tariff - makes good business sense I guess!
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Just switch to any other competent provider and they will sort it out for you.
 
Middlesbrough123 said:
Some people don’t like the idea someone can turn you energy off remotely if you don’t pay your bill.
Some do break but if they want you to use it they not going to leave you without gas or electric for long .
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when they "break" they break the same way that trad meters break, the metering tech isn't really any different to a trad meter, it just has a comms hub attached to it that links to the supplier via an intermediary (called the DCC) to provide the data in both directions. A meter that loses connection still meters, and either gets connection restored or continues storing the information to be manually read.
 
Mine's been in a draw after the first day, my bills are ok the meter outside sends the signals to your supplier and the 'smart meter'
 
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