Smart Meter
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On Friday we received an email,completely unexpectedly,stating that an engineer from EON would arrive Monday am to attend to our Smart Meter installation.See earlier post re this mess.
We hope that this is to sort out the ones which they fitted back in October...would not surprise us if it was "crossed wires" though and a team will turn up to install Smart Meters which are already in situ ?
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I find the Fylingdales issue a bit odd. Smart meters use the mobile phone network to communicate your readings. Fylingdales is in a very remote area but hundreds of vehicles drive right past it every single day, many with mobile phone(s) inside. It is more likely to be the lack of signal in the area that prevents smart meters being installed than the proximity to Fylingdales, and in any event, properties near RAF Fylingdales are very very few indeed. As I say, a bit odd.
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According to the info I found, smart meters use a wireless radio system to communicate rather than the mobi network or Internet. Radio signals are prone to interference which could explain the issue with Fylingdales.
"Smart meters use an entirely separate, bespoke wireless system. ... Your smart meter and in-home display communicate via a secure national network which is solely for smart meters. This works in the same way as other wireless systems like car remote keys or TVs, using radio waves."
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The article I read gave the frequency of the smart meters send information to the companies it did not infer it was the same as the mobile phone networks,?
Also did not say how many properties/villages were involved in the area
But it does say other RAF stations are,being looked at
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We have a smart meter, which means Octopus can read the meter 'online' - without them having to send anyone to read it, and without me having to read it. In theory, I can access our 'up-to-date' usage on my phone or on the laptop... it's meant to make you aware of usage so you can use less gas or electric. In practice, I only look on rare occasions. However, the facility is there, and it saves them having to send someone out and saves me having to do it.
We've also decided to have a water meter fitted. I suspect this is something we should have done years ago, but look forward to saving some cash. Unfortunately Severn Trent are not installing smart meters. I find this a bit unusual in this day and age.... don't know why- perhaps it isn't economical for them?
David
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I do exactly what your OH does, I’m with Octopus and they are always asking if they can fit Smart meter which I ignore
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The Smart Meter has now been fitted HH. That post of mine is almost three years old now, and we got a free upgrade on our old metering system, so we did opt for the Smart Meter. Thankfully, we have had no issues with it, and despite being careful energy users, it has made us focus our usage of gas and electric more, although we are in the happy situation of being comfortable.
I saw an article a while ago about how much the Smart Meter connections vary between North and South of mainland UK. It did seem to give a reasonable explanation of why some SMS don’t work well, and of course it’s the North that has the worst connection options. We get “free” electricity via Octopus every now and then, so having the SM has allowed this. That’s Washer, DW and electric fan oven all going like the clappers for an hour or so🤣
We are right on the North-South divide line, thankfully for us well connected.
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I live in Yorkshire,and in a past life I was an Electrical Inspector for an energy Company . I don’t think I will be having a SM , Unless like you TTDA Octopus gives me free juice.
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we are right down in South Yorkshire, so have no connectivity issues thankfully, but I suspect a lot of those North of us do. You will know a good deal more about the issues than me HH I am sure. Luckily, it is working out ok for us, accurate billing, and we now get that bit of a freebie every now and then.
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I am a bit puzzled by this reluctance to have Smart Meters installed. They are excellent for monitoring you power (and gas) usage. I can't speak for other suppliers but Octopus seem to be at the top of their game as far as suppliers are concerned. You do get a bit of free electricity now and then, keep an eye out for windy weather when more electricity is produce than can be consumed. It's possible my next car would be either a PHEV or full electric so I expect that a SM is require to take advantage of the low overnight charging rates?
David
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I’m reluctant to have a SM because they don’t work well around here and numerous neighbours have had problems. I don’t need the hassle tbh.
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As usual I'm a bit confused by all of this. We had a Smart Meter installed at our last house as we needed a new meter. It worked fine, but what does not work, and I believe is the issue, is the linking with the portable display unit you can have around the house. This is the problem area as they seem to speak a different language to each other.
In our new build we obviously have a Smart Meter, but have not been given the small portable display unit. This does not worry me as I can figure out that a power hungry appliance being used means my bill will be larger.
If getting a Smart Meter means reduced price electricity at certain times then surely that has to be a good thing.
Colin
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"If getting a Smart Meter means reduced price electricity at certain times then surely that has to be a good thing."
As long as the meter is accurate and trouble free.
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From my experience the internal display has to be relatively near the meter. In our case we have it in the dining room near the window where the smart meter is just in the outside cabinet in that wall. I only think that because a couple of times we have lost the connection, for no obvious reason, but when I have moved the display more in the general direction of the meter it generally connects. Should add this is a pretty rare occurrence. With Octopus they also have an App which basically gives you the same information but with a 24 hour delay, but you do need the SM. I am sure some are just happy (well maybe not happy😉) to wait for their monthly bill to arrive?
David
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From my experience the Smart Meters are accurate. If a meter is inaccurate it has to be replaced. They send raw data to the supplier and your portable display. The weakness is in the link between the Smart Meter and the display in that they do not communicate with each other correctly, and your immediate interpretation of the readings does not tie up with reality. I soon realised this with the unit I had and put it in a cupboard, then eventually the bin. This is not the case with the data arriving at your energy supplier. They can read this correctly and calculate your useage and bill accordingly.
Colin
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I’m afraid I don’t have your faith in them accurately transmitting data to the supplier, EM. The opposite has occurred many times. The systems depend on signals and they are not foolproof. Likewise, the so called atomic clocks guaranteed to always be accurate do not work in our house.
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We inherited smart meters when we moved house.
Bills online, I accidentally overlooked that the gas meter kept being estimated. Only being alerted when they asked to make an appointment to read the meter after about 10 months 🫣. When I went to the external box to read the meter it had a blank screen..... It took a long while to sort as they just thought I couldn't do it! Then they had no engineers........
So far they've been out and fitted 3 new smart meters and allegedly all work fine. It doesn't! I take readings weekly noting them and send the latest reading in on the last day of the month online. I'm not arguing my case again,I'll have evidence.....
The electric one, in a cupboard indoors works fine.
We're with Utility Warehouse, it wasn't possible to change supplier when we moved. You are billed monthly for the amount owed, paid by variable DD which doesn't cause us an issue.
When we paid a set monthly DD I preferred to have a cushion before the colder months.
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It sounds like I must be one of the lucky few. I'm with EDF and live in Devon, with lousy landline wi-fi but decent 4G wi-fi that must be sending our data through to EDF. We have a largish 3 bed bungalow.
My setup is readings sent every 1/2 hour and it all seems to run well. We only have electricity, no gas or oil, and EDF are good at sending information out and adjusting our direct debit. With £230+ credit leading into winter I had a welcome e-mail informing me of a drop in my DD from £116 to £93. I'm very happy with that.
Colin
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We’ve had smart meters (just electric, don’t have gas) for years. The first, was one of those dumb ones, that don’t work if you move to a different supplier (we didn’t) and it worked fine for years. It was replaced as part of an upgrade a few years ago with one where you can change supplier and that also works fine. Both meters communicated with the little display with no problems. This one can also be viewed, with a bit of a delay, on an Eon App. How they vary the direct debit could be a bit better, they seem to get a bit confused that we are away for two 6 week periods a year. However, overall I like it. Our meter is internal and we always used to end up with estimates if I forgot to send a reading, the smart does it all for me.
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I am pretty sure that at some point in the future Smart Meters will become standard for meters and there will be no choice to the consumer. No doubt Ofgem are monitoring the situation and once the numbers with SM's outweigh non SM's by a certain degree it will start to make sense to remove the choice. This could well happen by the suppliers only offering good deals to customers with SM's. Incidentally I recently had a Water Smart Meter installed I don't think I had any choice in that?
David
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That is also my understanding on the Water Meter David. They have a drive-by reading facility which obviously saves time and expense, but I'm guessing it obviously misses the chance to pick up on leaking meters. In our case this type of meter is really useful as ours is located 150m away from the house in a different road.
Colin
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Well it seems I opened a can of worms, when I restarted an older thread, But its all interesting so carry on .
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I read somewhere that the old non-smart meters are no longer being manufactured so soon there will only be smart meters available. When a meter needs replaced due to its age, the replacement will therefore be a smart meter, you will have no choice in the matter.
Whether it actually will work as Smart is another matter!
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We have never gone for a smart meter as we just do not see us making use of it. We try to turn off everything we are not using. Our heating is overnight storage heating as we have n gas, this means we set the heaters before we go to bed on the basis of the weather forecast so readings during the day do not make any difference. The record of failure of these things has left us reluctant to go for one and checking the meter once a month is hardly a chore.
Our daughters have them but take very little notice of them now they have been there for some years and to be frank probably took very little notice from the start.
If you want absolute control try the Octopus Agile, but be very careful if you do. To make it work you have to be very careful between 4 and 6 pm when the costs rocket.
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