Smart Meter
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that's why I said neither for everyone
SB appeared to post it was the only reason for having a smart reason, in my view it isn't.JVB, I find it hard to understand why you are so interested in your neighbours power usage. so much so you've now posted twice about it. They pay so let them get on with it.
Or start a new thread on whose neighbours use the most electricity?
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Yes I think it would be.
Each to their own Steve, but I've got better things to do with my time than worry or even look at what the freezer is using.
We too have outside security cameras and lighting, and also a number of programmable celling and wall lights around the house which are on while we're away but I think they are worth every penny and infinitely cheaper than a break in.
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We also have lights in that come on automatically, on timers or controlled by Alexa. We had the old Sangamo timers when we first started caravanning as each realised the house was in darkness when we went away. I just say “Alexa goodnight” and all the lights go off, or are timed to go off at midnight. All our lights are LED so low consumption.
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Timers are a bit old skool now, there was a thread on here somewhere about smart controls for central heating and hot water (Hive). They also allow programmable and remote control of alarms, lighting and camera systems etc. Personally I use ‘Wiser’ (Drayton), but they’re all much of a muchness. You can also extend that capability to the van via Truma iNet.
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Yes and that's a good point, most household lights are low wattage, even my outside lights are under 15W, and trying to base how much a neighbour's electricity bill is just by how many lights are on is not going to give anything meaningful.
Once at work, a few years ago now, I worked out that if I had all my lights on at the same time it would cost less than 14p an hour.
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In a nutshell……
No, you don’t really need one, but helpful if you can’t be bothered to read your own meters, they aren’t very accessible, or need help analysing how much your daily living costs.
It would replace your existing meter, so same location unless this isn’t suitable or you ask for it to be relocated. The little display unit can be plugged in anywhere there’s a socket.
How easy to fit depends on location of existing meter, is there any lead or asbestos in the area and how much rammle and clutter you have in the immediate vicinity.
It will give you accurate monthly readings, providing everything works ok. It may take a while for your bills to stabilise if you are moving from quarterly monitoring. But ultimately it’s simple. You still pay for what you use. Only changing behaviour, understanding light use and heavy use appliances, using and buying more energy efficient appliances can influence the monthly bills.
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For somebody who isn’t at all interested in their electricity use, that does seem an odd thing to be doing. 🤔
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Not odd at all. I did say at work SB, it was in a maths class and it was about working out Kw hours and bills. To make it more relevant (always a good idea) I had a worksheet prepared where they listed the number of lights in their house (and where they were), their wattage if known, or used an 'average' figure and then worked out from there their total wattage, made it into Kw, and then the total cost for one hour based on the cost at the time. We also then used the VAT rate as well. I did it for myself as an example.
We then went on to details of kitchen appliances, something like a washing machine, tumble dryers... and do the same thing. I recall some kid did the same with his dad's welding equipment.
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Yes I seem to agree with that Cyber.
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right, sorry where have I quoted this about some other house as you have done - twice?
Start a new thread as I suggested.
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Does the Gas Meter need a separated Smart Meter. If so do you have two indicators monitoring gas and electric mounted inside your house.
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Yes indeed.
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Yes one new smart meter for each gas and electricity supply but it's combined into one display unit. From what I can recall of the demonstration there are various 'screens' one for gas, one for electricity, one combined, daily, weekly, monthly usage, target setting, average, costs...
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Brilliant bit of teaching Corners. Life skills, worth their weight in gold👏👏👏
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SB, what you have is a home energy monitoring system not a smart meter. what you have connects to the energy source(cable). I’ve seen them online for sale-
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Excellent post MrC👍🏻. Everyone who will live in the 21st century needs the tools to enable themselves fully. Teaching is the way forward, fake news is a killer of our times I’m afraid. Education is king👏🏻👏🏻
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Why do you keep telling me what I already know? Read my post, it describes a half-way house option. I know what it connects to because I connected it!
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Ok, I’m done you are heading to getting this thread shutdown, there’s no need for arguments it’s disrespectful to the OP.
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After the OP the and following 3 posts all clearly referred to smart meters you posted "I fitted my own…". You didn’t state you fitted a monitor but created the impression you’d fitted a smart meter - something we know is not legal. Unfortunately, you omitted to explain to the OP that yours was a "half way house" measure rather than a smart meter and possibly confused the OP and others.
I hope the ambiguity has since been clarified.👍🏻
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dont see a problem with a smart meter, well not totally true, the nice little monitor they give you to sit on your worksurface gets confused by the Solar panels so i put it in the draw, but using SSE i can go on line and they tell me how much power I have used per day, per 30 mins during any day and also a monthly total, so although i cannot see how much power we are using in real time, go on line and all will be revealed.
The web data always 24 hrs behind but dont care about that, the handy bit is being able to see the monthly total for both gas and lecce to see if our monthly direct debit payments are keeping in step.
fitting was very easy, meter in broom cupboard just inside kitchen door, so out with spinning wheels in with digital meters, couple of hours to fit and set up, they send a reading every 30 minutes to SSE, been using them for 10 years, no problems thus far, never had the need to change supplier so not sure what would happen if we did.
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Each supply has its own mains meter. However the energy used is displayed on one unit, inside the house if you want it, showing both gas and electric. The display can be toggled to show either gas or electric but we leave ours to show a combined display, see picture below.
David
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If you want to just keep an eye on energy consumption you can buy a small portable monitor which will give readings of power used. (We've tried one in the past but it's just basic common sense, turn things off etc.!) You can also buy Hive plugs and adaptors if you want to control energy via an app. There are all sorts of things out there to help with power and cost reduction.
Most of the energy provider web sites give information on reducing power consumption and subsequent costs. With big hikes in energy prices on the way it's going to be an ongoing topic of conversation (54% rise in April?)
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The early SMETS 1 and i believe the SMETS 2 were not known for their reliability particularly, as mentioned above, in areas of poor signals.
Also should the householder wish to change supplier then there were problems if not refusal by the new supplier meaning that the householder could be stuck on a dearer tariff.
As for the domestic monitor - who wants to spend time looking at that just to see how much a heating kettle of water costs you, cooking a roast dinner etc.?
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Domestic monitors can be more sophisticated than that. For example, if you have a solar system and care about energy consumption some might find the following useful:
Access your energy usage from anywhere using your smartphone;
See how much energy you are generating, using and exporting in real time;
See the amount of energy your solar power system is generating;
Compare solar production to energy consumption;
Use historical data to track energy consumption and energy exported;
Get a view of electricity used in a set time period.
However, if you want a less sophisticated system with potentially unreliable comms because supplying a meter reading is a lot of trouble, there’s something out there for everyone.
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The main reason for me opening this tread is, my energy supplier keeps Eon ( the company I was automatically transferred to when my company went bust) contacting me to have a Smart Meter fitted . But what they haven’t told me how they work , what work is required to fit them , how long it takes , how much disruption and whether there is an internal display . In fact they’ve told me nothing.So thanks everyone who have contributed to this thread.
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As for the domestic monitor - who wants to spend time looking at that just to see how much a heating kettle of water costs you, cooking a roast dinner etc.?
I find it quite interesting so see what is happening. I recently experimented with the heating both in timings and temperatures. Just dropping the temperature by half a degree can make some saving on the amount of gas used, for example. Days of cheap energy are behind us and as those bills get bigger and bigger I suspect it will bring the various appliance use into sharper focus. Earlier some mentioned LED lights which offer a massive saving over their incandescent alternative. It has been suggested that Slow Cookers will make a return as they off low usage of electricity. The little monitors are just an available tool.
David
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I think how much disruption the fitting of smart meters might cause will depend on where the meters are fitted. Most modern houses have them on the outside of the house and the only thing that you will notice is a short interruption in supply. As recounted by Bakers2 a while back installing them inside the house causes more disruption as you have to provide free working space. The meters themselves have a digital display, sometime you have to press a button to see the current meter reading. I am surprised you have not received any information. When ours were changed we received a leaflet and links to online explainers from Western Power.
David
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